Information about the work
The collection of the Sumy Regional Art Museum holds two of the author’s works—Holy Eve and Portrait—painted in 1990 and acquired by the museum in 1991. In Portrait [Portret] (canvas, oil, 1990), a young woman is depicted en face, with a swarthy, elongated face, dark eyes, and straight, shoulder-length hair, sitting with crossed hands resting on her lap. The artist treats the background of the canvas along the vertical plane in an unusual manner. Behind the woman’s back, he divides the composition into two sections: a light, grayish tone on the right, and a dark, ocherous-grayish area on the left, punctuated by red and black rectangles with white and light outlines. These two contrasting planes function as psychological fields. Varied modulations of black combined with other earth tones form a rich, noble palette that creates a complex internal dynamic within the image. Thus, the portrait becomes not merely a likeness of an individual, but a field for interpreting her state of mind.
Formally belonging to the figurative genre, the work is executed in a manner that dismantles traditional classical portrait representation. It is not simply a depiction of a human being, but a deconstruction of her presence through color and plane. The face is present, yet impossible to “read”—it is sealed by color, as if by a layer of silence. This is not a portrayal of a person, but a portrait that refuses to be named.
“Heiko is maximally candid in his art, approaching it with utmost seriousness. He paints slowly, returning again and again to canvases that would seem completed” (Olha Petrova). The artist’s method is one of slow accretion, of returning to the canvas and undoing its finished state. This represents a principled rejection of the quick gesture characteristic of many “New Wave” artists.
The painting stands out for its painterly and plastic culture, demonstrating key traits of the artist’s signature style: a slow, almost meditative engagement with the medium, a multilayered painterly surface, and a drive toward ultimate sincerity of expression. Marko Heiko is not merely “yet another” representative of the “New Wave,” but a marker of transition—a true representative of his generation. His painting does not deal with narrative; it engages with the very sense of painting. “It seems that the shades of gray, white, and brown that the artist meticulously applies to the canvas resemble the words of a prayer” (Dmytro Horbachov).