Information about the work
The painting In the Studio [V maisterni] (oil on canvas, 1989; transferred to the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum collection by the Directorate of Art Exhibitions of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in 1990) was created during a period of monumental socio-political shift, just three years before the artist’s passing. The canvas serves as an exemplar of metapainting—”art about art”—where the central subject becomes the creative sanctuary itself. Here, Malyshevskyi reflects on the artist’s calling. The self-portrait set within the studio is not merely a record of a workplace, but a depiction of a sacred space where the artist weaves magic and creative thought reigns supreme. A large window framing an evening cityscape occupies half the canvas, serving a symbolic role as a threshold that both connects art to the outside world and insulates it.
At the center of the composition, the artist depicts himself at the easel, immersed in his creative domain in keeping with classical self-portrait traditions. However, the classical proportion between the sitter and his environment is deliberately altered: the protagonist is modestly positioned at work on the boundary between two vast worlds, the conceptual and the real. Time within the studio loses its objective physical properties, becoming reversible, frozen, or simultaneous. Antique furniture, a candlestick, and the easel further emphasize this concept of relative time. The cold tones of the winter evening landscape outside contrast sharply with the warm interior, intensifying the sense of studio refuge. The candlelit illumination lends a mystical quality to the composition, elevating the complexity of the light-and-color structure. The color scheme relies on a stark contrast of light and dark tones. Furthermore, the artist intentionally juxtaposes a realistic technique in his self-portrait with the generalized methods of Modernism in depicting the studio interior and the landscape beyond the glass.
Oil on canvas. 140 × 200