Serhiy Panych. FORMATION

We know almost nothing about the early life and art of the leading figures of the Ukrainian New Wawe. The majority of them often did not have time for explorations. Some of them, when graduating from an art academy in the early 1990s, had already participated in the exhibitions that defined the movement (Holosiy, Solomko, Mamsikov), the others created their most outstanding works soon after the completion of their studies (Savadov, Senchenko, Hnilytskyi). However, there were also such artists, whose formation period lasted a little longer. They are the ones who became the backbone of the famous Sednev group (Sukholit, Kerestey, Roitburd) formed by Tyberiy Sylvashi in spring 1988. Serhiy Panych was a member of this group, too.

“In spring 1992, Panych exhibited one of his best series – “Swan Lake” (the exhibition was organised by “Vesta” gallery at the Kyiv Museum of Russian Art). The series accumulated previous searches of the artist and united them in a harmonious union, bringing them to the ideal classical balance of content and form. A bouquet is a principal element of the composition of the series. Its colours flux in the transparent, silver and grey space of a picture, it towers over the principal symbolic elements. The keys to them are the words woven into the canvas of a bouquet – the abstracts from Russian poetry of the early XX century. They do not really interpret a picture but the atmosphere of melancholy and mysteriousness into it.

The piece “And unintended tears are falling…” (1992) is like that. The painter wrote the title of the picture on the reverse side. It is a quote from a popular romance “The chrysanthemums from the garden have long lost their blossom… ” by Mykola Haryto. However, the viewer is drawn to another, no less famous line by Maksymilian Voloshyn included in the centre of the composition.

One cannot help citing a part of this poem:

The yellowness of saffron fog was running.

Shame was trampled, love was blunted…

The pain was becoming less acute. An eyebrow was trembling lightly.

The shapes of horizon were moving. The drunken eyesight could see clearly.

One could only guess what drove Panych to unite them – those three white swans trying to avoid danger. One perceives the image in a very personal, almost autobiographical way. It is only the paint that bursts out of this masterpiece (the artist includes here even the frame entwined by a bronze band) and glistens with all shades of carmine, saffron, purple and sky blue.

Serhiy Panych did not work again on this series in his later years. Having reached his artistic climax, he concentrates on several series and continues developing them now”.

Valeriy Sakharuk