Information about the work
The exhibition displays the canvas Reflections [Rozdumy] (oil on canvas, 1991), transferred to the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum collection by the Directorate of Artistic Exhibitions of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in 1993. Liudmyla Zahorna is permeated by “pain for the little person,” succeeding in “symbolic imagery and generalized archetypes,” as art historian Olha Petrova observes. In this canvas, the artist focuses on an elderly rural woman surrounded by a whirlpool of dynamic brushstrokes that create a kaleidoscope of days and events—those that have passed, or those that never came to be.
Rendered in an expressive manner, the painting balances on the edge of abstract and figurative art. The sky, bush, fence, hill, and harvested root crops are rendered in a similar style using rapid, impasto, multidirectional brushstrokes. This firework of color is a tribute to colorful autumn, but also, perhaps, to lost life opportunities. By contrast, the figure of the woman in a closed pose of deep reflection is rendered in dark, solid masses. Her tense posture evokes a poignant sense of sorrow, heightened by the surrounding burst of color. Zahorna, who works predominantly in graphic techniques, demonstrates a powerful sense of color and the nature of painting here—a rare quality among printmakers and graphic artists. Through it all, she remains a subtle lyricist, philosopher, and deeply empathetic individual.
Canvas, oil. 81 × 100
