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Grygoriy Shyshko |
(1923-1994) |
View the latest Shyshko collection |
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Born April 15, 1923, Kostromka, Dnipropetrovsk region
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| On graduation from Odessa Art College in 1953 Grygoriy Shyshko joined the Kryvyi Rih Union of Artists with whom he first exhibited locally and regionally in 1954 when he also started work at the Kryvyi Rih branch of Dnipropetrovsk Art Fund where he eventually became head of its Creative Section. Also teaching at the Kryvyi Rih Pedagogical Institute, Shyshko was arguably its most important artist. The painter went on to become a member of the USSR Union of Artists in 1964. |  |
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He was an officially approved and recognised artist of the Soviet Union and rose to the top of his profession with his painterly rendering of the “beauty of work in the service of the State.” There is a frontier element to his work: nature is still colourful and exuberant yet grandly still; its unfettered power dominates his paintings with a power Western art can no longer evoke. |
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According to Social Realist painting specialist Dr Pat Simpson of Hertfordshire University, Shyshko's “work lives on to delight the viewer with its singing colour, evocative themes, intriguing viewpoints and invitation to explore a world of memory and imagination. Despite, or perhaps even because of his survival of personal hardships and politically difficult times, his art seems to draw our attention to the beauty to be found in the conventional unbeautiful - the spoilt heap, the factory furnace, the landscape of exploitative industry - as well as within the parameters of the picturesque.” |
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“Shyshko has made a major and very moving study of the poetry to be found at the heart of ugliness. In exploring this theme, he was creating a meaty modernism of his own. Comparisons are invidious, but [his work shows] obvious similarities to Cezanne and, in his more conventionally lyrical pictures, to the Impressionists…” Ann Kodicek, (Art Critic specialising in East European Art), Space, Colour, Expression and Romanticism of Iron Ore Landscapes, 2004. |
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Read a moving personal account of Grygoriy Shyshko by his daughter Buy quality photographs of Grygoriy Shyshko's paintings by Ukrainian photographer Volodymyr Komarnytskyy |
Many of the artist's works are in museums and private collections at home and abroad. Shyshko's paintings have been exhibited in the UK since 1993 with seven solo shows including an important one at The Mall Galleries, London, 2001. More recent was a successful retrospective titled Grygoriy Shyshko Painting the Ukrainian landscape from 1953 to 1994 at The Chambers Gallery, London, 13th April-5th May, 2006. The most recent Shyshko's exhibition was at The Chambers Gallery in March 2007 but another opportunity to see this modern Impressionist's work will present itself again at The Chambers Gallery from 29th November 2007 – 5th January 2008. | ||||||
