Information about the work
The canvas Fog [Tuman] (oil on canvas, 1993; donated by the artist to the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum collection in 2020) is no exception. Set within a balanced square format, the painting depicts a transient, autumn landscape that almost dissolves into the damp, foggy air. It captures the view from the doorway of her studio: a fragment of a front garden and the facade of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. The concise palette, built upon extreme tonal nuance, displays a wide range of tonal variation. The light and color systems are complex, refined, and fluid. The variety of brushwork techniques is striking: short pointillist dots and long sinuous strokes, glazes and impasto, subtle and audacious, delicate and bold, vibrant and achromatic, kinetic and static.
The painting holds historical as well as artistic value. The early 1990s presented severe economic trials for the newly independent Ukraine, particularly for its educational system, which suffered from heating and power shortages. Distinguished faculty members at the Art Academy went unpaid for months, and when salaries were disbursed, hyperinflation diminished their value. Furthermore, Soviet-era curricula had lost their relevance, while new frameworks developed slowly amid the absence of an established cultural paradigm. The future of the historic art institution appeared obscured, as if shrouded in “fog.” Yet, the faint light burning in isolated windows on Ataian’s canvas suggests that hope remained.
Oil on canvas. 60 х 60
