Information about the work
Tiberiy Silvashi’s artwork Midday Light [Poludenne svitlo] (from the series There, Beyond the Window, oil on canvas, 1986) was transferred to the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum collection by the Directorate of Art Exhibitions of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine in 1989. The series There, Beyond the Window consists of five canvases, one of which is held at the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum, two in the collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, a fourth in a private collection in the USA, and the fifth was acquired by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR.
Color and light are fundamental concepts in the artist’s oeuvre, as he actively engages with modernist discourse in the realm of abstract art. The artwork belongs to a brief creative period during which relatively few works were executed. This was the so-called period of “chronorealism”—a transition from figurative plein-air painting to a programmatic abstract phase, marked by the artist’s gradual, conscious rejection of representing the objective world.
“As is clear from the program’s title, time played an important role in it—both its experience and its form of fixation. Crucial for me at that time was realizing the synthesis on a single surface of ‘subjective’ time and ‘metaphysical’ time. It was during these years that hyperrealism was emerging in our region. Friendship with hyperrealists allowed me to find the ‘form of subjective time.’ For me, this ‘subjective time’ fit entirely within a moment of reality captured by a camera. This marked a period during which I utilized photographs. At the next stage, ‘metaphysical time’ was added to this capture of a moment of reality. In my view, it corresponded entirely to a plane of pure color or the pure white surface of a primed canvas. Elements of abstraction and automatic writing were woven between representations of recognizable reality and planes of pure color. This was an element of what I then called ‘programmatic eclecticism.’ The introduction of this third element allowed for the unification of incompatible elements of artistic language,” writes Tiberiy Silvashi in an essay for the museum publication 35 Masterpieces of Painting from the KhRAM Collection.
Planes of color from a red palette—ranging from tinted pinks to deep burgundy shades—engage in an existential dialogue with an unpainted white triangle of primed canvas. As if logically suited to the narrative motif, it appears formed on the floor by rays of blinding midday sun penetrating from beyond the window. In truth, however, these painterly planes exist in their own, purely pictorial dimension of reality.
In effect, the setting of a sweltering noon—declared in the title and fully elaborated by the figurative depiction—attempts to appropriate the abstract portion of the work as well. Yet one cannot claim that narrative has triumphed over the burgeoning Neoplasticism in this piece; here, painting certainly does not act as a “handmaiden to the word.” Indeed, it is precisely the abstract red masses along with the white triangle that remain the primary meaning-making and painterly component of the canvas from the perspective of the author’s search for a new artistic language at that time.
The figure of a red-haired woman by an open window, gazing into a semi-abstract landscape rendered in a cool green color radically opposed to red, helps embody “programmatic eclecticism” on the canvas. The floral green-and-red pattern of her skirt formally unifies the minimalist palette. The intricate placement of the figure in space prevents one from convincingly asserting that she is actually inside the room: the stool seems to glow red within the dense crimson haze, while the upper part of her figure coloristically almost merges with the landscape outside the window. Strictly speaking, we do not even see the window itself—only the shadow of the frame cast on the curtain hints at its existence.
Canvas, oil. 115 × 120
