Information about the work
The painting Sign [Znak] from the series Landscapes of Ayu-Dag [Krayevydy Ayu-Dahu] (cardboard, oil, 1989, transferred to the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum collection by the Directorate of Art Exhibitions of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in 2000) was created the year Churlu moved to his historical Homeland. It was Hurzuf, the site of the workshop during his initial journey to Crimea, that inspired this focus: the mountain depicted by the artist sits on the southern coast of Crimea between Hurzuf and Partenit. One can surmise that it was during that first visit that he encountered Mount Ayu-Dag, whose silhouette resembles a gigantic bear leaning down toward the sea—in Crimean Tatar, its name translates directly as “Bear Mountain.”
Regarding its plastic language, the depiction is highly stylized, featuring a concise, profoundly rhythmic, and balanced composition. With minimal painterly means, the artist masterfully captures that specific time of day when the Crimean sun sets, creating a vivid lighting contrast between the radiant sky behind the peaks and the twilight-cloaked landscape in the foreground. Symbolically, a road sign is rendered from its reverse side, visually rhyming with the contour of the mountain. This sign carries a broader, metaphoric weight: his initial encounter with Crimea would prove truly decisive and fateful for the artist.
Cardboard, oil. 66,5 × 74,5