Although it sounds paradoxical, we are constantly traveling in time. In fact, we are catching up with it, because the information that our senses receive from the outside world is delayed by a fraction of a microsecond. For our brain, what we see and hear is not happening right now, but in a recording. However, for the convenience of life, consciousness constructs, and we perceive it as if it were right now.

Erasing all the boundaries of modern life, we will travel back in time to get acquainted with the work of, without exaggeration, an outstanding graphic artist, full member of the USSR Academy of Arts, State Prize winner, Honored Artist, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (RSFSR), born in Proskuriv (now Khmelnytskyi), Heorhii Vereiskyi (1886-1962). The combination of artworks, personal tools and furniture from the artist’s apartment in the exhibition will help to feel the unity of form and content of his creative genius.

Analyzing Heorhii Semenovych’s work from the early to the pre-war years, we can distinguish several stages and factors that were decisive at one time or another.

1895-1904 – studying in the studio of Yegor Schrader, a teacher and artist who was educated in Munich, lived in Paris in the 1860s, and knew and appreciated the art of the Barbizon school. The basis of work in the studio was life drawing: the teacher required his students to build the composition correctly and draw the shapes of objects. In addition to communicating with his mentor, the inquisitive Heorhii read art historical sources of the time: Richard Muter’s History of Art of the Nineteenth Century, Alexandre Benoit’s History of Art, and the World of Art magazine. In early 1904, H. Vereiskii participated for the first time in the spring exhibition in Kharkiv, where his works were highly appreciated by the audience and the press. In the same year, during a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Heorhii Semenovych got acquainted with the works of Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Gauguin, Serov, Vrubel, and Rembrandt.

1905-1907 After witnessing the “Bloody Sunday,” Heorhii Semenovych could not take up painting for a long time; he paid attention to the events around him, participated in student demonstrations, in the armed uprising of factory workers, and was arrested for this. Later, he managed to emigrate to Munich, and later traveled to Vienna and Italy. He worked little, but with great interest he studied the treasures of world art, visiting numerous exhibitions, in particular the gallery of French impressionists. At this time, he was especially fond of the lithographs of Toulouse-Lautrec. The systematic and thoughtful study of the works of the great masters became a kind of second school for the artist during these years, which nurtured his aesthetic taste and gave him vast knowledge of art history.

1911-1917 – Moves to St. Petersburg. After graduating from the university (law faculty), Vereisky devotes himself to art. He begins to collaborate with the Theater and Art magazine, creating portraits of actors and individual scenes from plays. Feeling the need to improve his skills, he attends classes at the New Art Workshop, where his teachers were B. Kustodiev, A. Ostroumova-Lebedieva, E. Lanser, and M. Dobuzhynskyi. All of them are members of the artistic association “World of Art”. Next, they got acquainted with the most influential critic and art critic, the theorist of the association, O. Benoit. The mentors talked about art, its meaning and essence, the concept of “beauty,” and the need for artists to develop broadly and diversely. Subsequently, H. Vereiskyi was called up for military service, during which he made sketches of military episodes and portraits of heroes. It was during the First World War, after an intense search, that Vereiskyi defined himself as a portrait artist, a master of sharp psychological characterization.

1918-1930 After demobilization, he is actively involved in public life, organizes museums, and plunges into teaching. He teaches at the Academy of Arts, the Institute of Decorative Arts, drawing and composition at the Institute of Photography and Photographic Technology.  In 1918, he became an assistant and then chief curator of the Hermitage’s prints department. Here he became friends with prominent art experts F. Nothaft, S. Yaremich, M. Dobroklonsky, and Y. Lysenkov. The treasures of the museum become even closer: there is an opportunity to constantly return to familiar works, study them, finding more and more new values. However, despite being very busy, he always found time for creativity.

Vereiiskyi was an artist of rather wide preferences. There is no technique in which he did not try his hand. These are oil, tempera, and watercolor paintings. He worked with pen, lead, Italian and lithographic pencils. In a pen drawing, he made a wash with ink, used colored pencils, mixed techniques of watercolor with graphite or ink with colored pencils. Later, he mastered various techniques of printed graphics, in which he reached high heights.

Vereisky was an artist of quite a wide range of preferences. There is no technique in which he did not try his hand. These are oil, tempera, and watercolor paintings. He worked with pen, lead, Italian and lithographic pencils. In his pen drawings, he added ink wash, used colored pencils, mixed techniques of watercolor with graphite or ink with colored pencils. Later, he mastered various techniques of printed graphics, in which he reached high heights.

The subject of Heorhii Semenovych’s art was the surrounding reality. Although he was always interested in new trends, he relied on specific observations. Working from nature was the basis of his work: it fed his imagination and honed his skills. The artist never transferred everything he saw to the page – he analyzed, selected, tried to penetrate the very essence, to capture something important. In the landscape, he tried to convey the subtlest, sometimes barely perceptible nuances of the state of nature. In his drawings, he sought laconic, verified and at the same time free drawing. In portraiture, he revealed the spiritual wealth of a person: “The main thing that attracts me in working on a portrait,” Vereiskyi said, “is the thoughts and feelings of a person, his sensations, his consciousness and psychology. In fact, isn’t it the most important thing in the art of portraiture to capture a living thought?” No matter how elaborate H. Vereiskyi’s works are, they are full of vitality. In them, you always find the artist’s lively perception of the world.