Information about the work
The collection of the Sumy Regional Art Museum holds the artist’s canvas Flute of Celestial Rains [Fleita Nebesnyh Doshchiv] (canvas, oil, 1988; acquired in March 1991). Against a dark green background, set atop brown tortoises, are two stylized figures depicted in profile facing one another. On the left is a smaller, nude figure with raindrops on its back, seated on a reptile. On the right stands a barefoot figure with a covered face in greenish-blue attire, leaning over the nude figure. In its greenish, gnarled, and rough hands, it holds a brown flute. On the dark background, vertical trickles of paint imitate rain.
The work possesses a poetic title, yet the painting is not a harmony of coexistence, but merely an attempt to recreate it—an attempt that continually falls apart. Myths and religion serve as a code, a symbol through which the author constructs her apolitical yet revolutionary message. The piece displays a pronounced symbolic-expressive character and leans toward intimate, psychologically charged imagery. The vertical, elongated composition heightens the sense of enclosure and inner concentration. The figures appear isolated within a dark environment devoid of clearly defined space, generating the effect of a psychological “chamber.”
The depicted creature with the flute immediately establishes an emotional and intellectual tone. The scene is read not literally, but as a metaphor—perhaps for a state of solitude, artistic inquiry, or inner dialogue. A cold, muted palette predominates, shaping an atmosphere of silence, sorrow, and nocturnal space. Warm accents balance the composition while simultaneously heightening the drama. The light is symbolic and diffused, as if radiating from within the image rather than originating from a specific source. The brushwork is free and slightly blurred, featuring a paint-drip effect. The contours are soft, and the forms seem to “pulse,” which is characteristic of expressive painting. The vertical strokes of the background create a rhythm akin to falling rain or musical strings.
Permeated with a sense of solitude, intimacy, and internal drama, the work exhibits features of Expressionism with elements of Symbolism: the deformation of forms, the convention of space, and an emphasis on the psychological state. “For me personally, art was, is, and always will be magic—an ineffable charm capable of transforming any reality, stirring a revolution in the soul, and granting human freedom. Art for me is a life path: a path of development, both internal and external; a path of self-discovery and understanding the paths of other artists who lived before and around me; a path of comprehending myself as an individual; a path of understanding the world. Ultimately, it is a path of discovering one’s purpose, comprehending higher Truths, and coming to know God—which is essential for a person born into an atheistic society,” stresses Valeria Trubina.