Creative credo of the artist:
“Art is a need, and painting is freedom”
Traveling around the world… Portugal, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel… appear before us on the canvases of Andrii Kutana in their rich history, incredible beauty of nature, national color. These works were created by the artist during long-distance travels for a long time, in peacetime (the works date from 2005 to 2021), travels for inspiration, for impressions of other countries and authentic life of other peoples, rather than forced travels in search of safety.
The main direction of the works presented in the exhibition is landscapes and cityscapes, in which Andriy Kutana demonstrates his ability to convey the essence of the depicted with the help of bright colors, energetic volumetric strokes and a sense of light and shadow. These are not portraits of megacities, with their stone jungles filled with bustle and constant movement. These are small towns with their everyday and at the same time poetic, chamber-like – and panoramic, still – and at the same time touchingly alive landscape.
The works are executed by the artist mainly in an impressionistic manner, and sometimes in his fascination with rhythm and color, images are born that seem to gravitate towards abstraction. It seems that the subject itself dictates one or another approach to its depiction: you can endlessly admire the architecture, because each town with its cathedrals, fortresses, unusual houses is unique and reminds of its majestic history (“St. Paul’s Church in Egypt” 2007, “Sphinxes of Luxor” 2008, “Old Nessebar” 2008, “Fortress Walls. Dubrovnik” 2020, “The Wailing Wall” 2014), but if you step back a few steps, you will be fascinated by the dense greenery (“Pines in the Andalusian Mountains” 2021) or the ocean coast at the very edge of the world (“Morning in Cascais” 2019). The author manages to capture a moment from the continuous kaleidoscope of another life, a life far from home, and at the same time show its rapid, unceasing movement or a sluggish siesta (Bethlehem. Noon” 2010, “Morning in Catalonia” 2017, “Colored Underwear” 2019, “In the Port of Old Dubrovnik” 2020, “Siesta” 2017, “Green Cactus in the Yard of the Orange House” 2019).
The artist thinks with color, builds a form with it. He puts all the power of emotional excitement into energetic, bold strokes applied with a palette knife, giving the works expression and sometimes dynamics.
Andriy Kutana’s spontaneous and sophisticated watercolors delight with their freshness, transparency and purity of color. His blue is the color of the sky, orange radiates sunlight, and blue creates a sense of airy space. Before our eyes – the Atlantic Ocean meets the land, and in the battle of the elements its rocky and deserted shores are born, the place of power – Cabo da Roca (“Atlantic Wind” 2021, “Storm at Cape Roca” 2021); the world’s deepest salt lake (“Dead Sea” 2010), the outlines of temples and houses that peek through the greenery of the city-labyrinth of Jerusalem (“Jerusalem. Past and Present” 2021).
From work to work, we travel with the artist who builds his own world of emotions and feelings. “… Every day I create new things with only one goal that has not been changed or defiled by the war – to give joy, kindness and hope to the people around me,” says Andriy Kutana.
Maryna Zaslavska, researcher at KhRAM
For reference:
Andrii Kutana (born in 1962 in Mariupol, later moved to Sloviansk, since 2022 – lives in Khmelnytskyi).
Graduated from Zhdanovsky Metallurgical Institute (production technologist); State Pedagogical University, Faculty of Physical Education (Sloviansk).
He is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (2013), the creative association of artists and folk artists of Ukraine “Inspiration”, the League of Greek Culture “Galatea”.
Works in easel painting, watercolors and graphics.
Prize-winner of the international competition of the VATIKAM Association in the nomination “Painting” (Paris, 2015).
Participant in numerous city, regional, national and international exhibitions since 2004, including: “Slavic Vernissage” (annual citywide art exhibition, Slavic Museum of Local Lore); “Spirituality” (Donetsk Regional Art Museum, 2009); “Picturesque Ukraine” (Ukrainian House, Kyiv, 2010); I International Triennial “Traveling Philosophy of Skovoroda” (2019), VII All-Ukrainian Triennial of Painting (Kyiv, 2019), “East. The Level of Freedom” (joint exhibition project of the Donetsk Regional Art Museum (Kramatorsk) and the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum, 2022); “Mariupol Unconquered” (international exhibition project, 2023).
Participant of the interregional plein air of artists of Donetsk and Khmelnytskyi regions on the basis of the Maliivtsi Regional Historical and Cultural Museum (Maliivtsi village, 2022).
At the invitation, he worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw (Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki), actively promoted the popularization of Ukrainian art in Poland (November, 2022).
His works are kept in museum and private collections in Ukraine and abroad.
