KhRMA continues the project “’Cheers!” dedicated to the artists who will be celebrating their anniversaries in 2024. Despite the bloody war and all the extremely difficult challenges that have fallen to our lot, Ukraine is fighting for our Independence, for Freedom, for Identity. For the right to live freely on our land. Our museum is also fighting, popularizing the national art that identifies us as Ukrainians.
The last information about Oleksandr Vlasenko that was found in open sources concerned the opening of his solo exhibition “VLASna rich” in October 2006 at the Kharkiv City Art Gallery. The exhibition announcement, in particular, reads: “The exhibition includes both works of the late 1980s and those of 2006. These are realistic still lifes close to the Dutch traditions, surrealistic fantasies reminiscent of Gulliver’s Travels, philosophical reflections by Chardin, and sometimes pastoral images similar to Watteau’s paintings. The experiences of artists from different centuries are surprisingly combined in the work of Oleksandr Vlasenko, and as a result, something new and original is born.” A long 18 years have passed since then. What do we know about this talented Kharkiv resident who turned 70 this year?
OLEKSANDR VLASENKO (September 14, 1954, Stepovyi State Farm, Kazakhstan) is a painter. Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (since 1989). Graduated from the Kharkiv Art and Industrial Institute (1979; teachers: Natalia Vergun, Adolf Konstantinopolskyi). Participant of all-Ukrainian, all-Union, foreign art exhibitions since 1982. Personal exhibitions – in Kharkiv (1992), Limassol (Cyprus, 1996), Philadelphia (1999), Escondido (2000-02), New York (2003; all in the USA). He worked at the Kharkiv Art and Production Plant (1981-90). At the creative work. The works are kept in the Kharkiv Art Gallery. The painting presented at the mini-exhibition “Cheers!” belongs to the collection of the Kharkiv Art Gallery.
Still Life “Aluminum, Brass and a Blowtorch” (canvas, oil, 1987) demonstrates the artist’s masterful skill in reproducing objects of completely different textures and materials: from a glass bottle with liquid, a metal blowtorch in soot, aluminum wire to a paper scroll, an old worn wooden tabletop, etc. Despite the fact that the canvas depicts ordinary working materials and tools, the painting fascinates with its aesthetic perfection, compositional solution, high culture of painting and testifies to Oleksandr Vlasenko’s fascination with hyperrealism and classical Dutch still life.
Still life as a separate genre of painting was formed in the seventeenth century in the Netherlands. At that time, the Dutch painting market was fiercely competitive. Artists sought to hone their skills to perfection and often chose narrow subjects for their works. In the past, ordinary everyday things played a secondary role in the overall composition of a work on a particular theme.
Over time, subgenres of still life emerged. For example: “floral” testified to the Dutch fascination with floriculture; ‘fish’ – a tribute to fishermen and brave Dutch sailors; ‘vanity of vanities’ – the canvas depicted objects that reminded of the transience of human life: A skull, a candle, wilted flowers, spoiled fruit; “set table” – traditional foods and delicacies were reproduced on the canvases; “kitchen” – many works depicted scenes from everyday life alongside inanimate objects; “tonal” – most of the paintings were painted in muted tones with a predominance of gray or brown colors; ‘deception’ – the paintings created the illusion of three-dimensionality in the viewers, the painted objects were extremely difficult to distinguish from the real ones.
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries offered ample opportunities for innovative comprehension of still life. The subject of still life was addressed by the outstanding masters of that time – Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse. This genre is still present to some extent in many areas of art today.
The technical skill and special vision of the world inherent in the Dutch artists of the so-called “golden age” became a model for many generations of artists, including Oleksandr Vlasenko.