Information about the work
The canvas The Walk [Prohulyanka] (oil on canvas, 1982) is an early work by the artist, acquired by the Sumy Regional Art Museum in 1986. The image is structured around a division into two primary zones. The larger portion of the canvas is occupied by a pale sky featuring a vivid, bluish-greenish-orange symbolic patch that evokes a cloud. Almost abstract, its dynamic forms converge at the center, creating a funnel effect or a rift in space.
The lower section is more representational: set against the green backdrop of a rural landscape resembling a field or open countryside are the silhouettes of people. These figures appear blurred and generalized: rather than specific individuals, they represent an archetype of humanity as a whole. The female face on the right is the sole, more individualized element; the gesture of her hand brought to her head conveys a sense of bewilderment and disorientation.
The center of the composition marks a symbolic threshold between sky and earth, appearing as a line of tension or rupture. The celestial space registers as surreal and otherworldly, whereas the lower section with the human figures remains grounded in reality. The drama is heightened by the contrasting combination of green and white tones: the upper area is brighter yet contains a dark core, while the lower area is darker, punctuated by bleached human figures. However, light does not equate to safety, and darkness is not merely a backdrop, but an inhabited environment. The dark patch in the upper section may symbolize danger, catastrophe, or an internal psychological state rooted in fear. The canvas’s perspective is distorted—the upper realm seems to press down upon the lower, instilling a sense of impending threat.
The work functions as a complex, multilayered visual composition incorporating elements of photocollage or graphic manipulation. It leans toward Surrealism through its depiction of otherworldly spatial phenomena, toward Expressionism in its emotional tension and formal deformation, and toward social documentary photography transformed into an artistic image. The artist employs a metaphor for collective fear or crisis (be it social or existential), evoking anxiety, uncertainty, and a foreboding of the unexpected. The figures below appear subjected to a force beyond their control, a dynamic reflected in a composition where the “above” represents the subconscious and the “below” signifies reality.