Information about the work
The work Evening Still Life [Vechirniy Naturmort] (oil on canvas, 1985; acquired by the Sumy Regional Art Museum in 1991) possesses a distinct emotional and expressive character, leaning toward generalized, almost symbolic imagery. In the lower section of the composition, a bouquet of flowers in a dark vase stands out against the backdrop of a window frame, giving the impression that all the objects in the still life are illuminated by moonlight.
The center is shifted to the left, where the main dramatic accent takes shape: a dark, vertically elongated form resembling a vase seems to sprout from bottom to top. It is juxtaposed with a more serene, horizontally placed architectural structure in the background. This contrast between the vertical and horizontal creates tension and internal dynamics.
Space is rendered conventionally, devoid of strict perspective construction. Planes overlap one another, building depth through color transitions dominated by muted, earthy, and cool tones: blues, grayish-blues, ochres, and browns. A white area in the upper portion of the canvas adds contrast, symbolizing a light source or a space beyond the material world. The dark mass below heightens the drama, creating an effect of gravity and immersion.
The painting is executed with loose, blurred brushstrokes that reveal the grain of the surface. The brushwork does not detail form, but rather constructs an image through associations where objects appear to exist, yet their presence is stylized and transient. The vase with flowers, breaking upward, symbolizes a state of anxiety, tension, struggle, and transformation. This is a still life that refuses to be merely a still life. The illuminated section of the canvas leaves room for hope or release.
The imagery evokes specific associations without offering ambiguity or absolute certainty. Here are not concrete objects, but symbols of things—a bouquet, a few nearly realistic blossoms, a surface caught in warm light holding the vase, square openings behind it filled with dark blue reminiscent of a window, and a light line along the right edge evoking a curtain. The work aligns with modernist or expressionist semi-figurative practices, where form is not self-sufficient, but serves to articulate an internal state.
As Olesia Avramenko notes, “his paintings are pure poetry of the meditative transformation of his own intense feelings. Yet he never burdened anyone with their force or fervor. He simply unlocked the door to his soul for the ‘perceptive’ viewer-interlocutor—a secret passage into those complex currents and whirlpools, abysses and shallows that the flow of living, healing water of that powerful river conceals and smoothes over.”