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Exhibition of painting “Singer of the Time”

On December 18, 2018, in Kirovograd Regional Art Museum it was opened an exhibition of paintings “Singer of the Time” of the artist-countryman, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Stepan Ilarionovych Pysmennyi (1923-2010) devoted to the 95th anniversary.

Museum staff members are nonetheless restless and interesting personalities. They always need to investigate, find, mouse out, and... enlarge the stock collection of the museum with the most various exhibits. The most inquisitive and experienced museum worker, seeker of art collections is the chief custodian of the funds of our museum Nozhenko Valentyna Hryhorivna! Thanks to her hard work, creative search, professionalism, long-term correspondence, sociability, and good luck, there appear whole collections of paintings of this or that artist.

In these winter days, we commemorate a great painter of his time, our artist-countryman Stepan Pysmennyi. So, how did we get 50 exhibits of the artist? At first, Valentyna Hryhorivna corresponded with Stepan Ilarionovych, then there were phone calls, meetings, conversation and… such an invaluable gift to the museum. On December 1, 2010, the first one-person exhibition of the artist-countryman was already opened in his homeland, and on December 26, at the age of 87, the artist went to other worlds… As a heritage, we have his life-affirming, full of love for life works of different art movements.

Stepan Pysmennyi is an unusual man and a wonderful artist. Throughout life, he was engaged in art, illustrated more than 30 books, created about two thousand paintings. And his first one-person exhibition was organized when he turned 80 years old! Before this, as he confessed, he had simply been afraid and could not decide. However, the artist had many joint exhibitions (about eighty) during his life…

Reference:

Pysmennyi Stepan Ilarionovych was born on November 15, 1923, in Hryhorivka village (Kompaniivka district, Kirovohrad region). His childhood fell on hunger and hard years, then people survived as they could. But since childhood the little boy was obsessed with “beautiful” and he read magazines with reproductions of Repin, Kustodiev, Kuindzhi, Levitan, which got into their house, to tatters. The young Stepan became an artist thanks to his luck – at the age of 16, he accidentally saw the announcement of recruitment of students to the Dnipropetrovsk Art School, submitted documents, passed examinations, and was immediately enrolled, though he did not have any special training. But when he was in the third year of study (in 1941), the war began. The young man went through the frontlines of the whole of Ukraine: from the Mius river, which is in the Donetsk region, to the Bug. He fought as a machine gunner, was wounded several times. After a long treatment in April 1945, he was commissioned and forced to wear an acoustic aid. He was awarded many medals and orders. After the war, he continued his studies. Stepan Ilarionovych graduated with honors from both college and Kharkiv State Art Institute in the specialty – the illustrator. Stepan Ilarionovych graduated with honors (with a specialization in graphics). At the Art Institute, he studied under well-known masters of graphic arts J. Daits, V. Myronenko.

After graduating from the Institute, he worked as an art editor of the Kharkiv publishing house “Prapor.” He cooperated much with Kyiv and Moscow publishing houses and made a lot of illustrations for them. Works of Stepan Ilarionovych were published in republican and all-Union newspapers and magazines. At the age of 35, he became a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR.

S. I. Pysmennyi is an artist of bright and life-affirming talent. His interest in the phenomena of reality during all the years of his creative activity is inexhaustible. His graphic and picturesque works, numerous in both techniques and genres, are proving this. Prominent painter mastered many methods of painting: pencil and pen, fusain and coloring. The graduation work of the young illustrator, represented by illustrations to the novel “Steel and Slag,” written by M. Popov, (А тут точно саме М. Попов? На запити як українською, так і англійською мовою автором книги видає Попова Володимира Федоровича), was highly praised, and got rather friendly criticism. During his 60-year creative activity, the artist worked primarily as a master of easel graphics and illustrator. The graphic works of Stepan Ilarionovych were appearing in sets due to business trips around Ukraine and sails on the Black Sea: buildings of the “Kryvorizhstal,” North Crimean Canal, Zmiiv Hydroelectric Power Station, etc. The artist also took an active part in art exhibitions, painted numerous landscapes, depicting the unique beauty of nature and the history of Ukraine. Canvases of Stepan Pysmennyi carry the harmonious world that prevails, first of all, in the soul of the artist himself.

The main theme of the master's work is the everyday motifs, picturesque corners of Ukraine, the beauty of people who work on the fertile land. He depicted the surrounding reality so emotionally that his love for life is passed to the viewer.

In spite of his venerable age, the maestro participated in many international exhibitions and plain-air paintings. Graphic works and artistic paintings of Stepan Pysmennyi adorn collections of museums of Ukraine, Russian Federation, as well as private collections in Israel, France, Germany, Japan, the USA. In the collections of the Kirovograd Regional Art Museum, there were three works of the artist until 2010. They are from the set “New Buildings of Ukraine”: “On the construction site of the Kremenchuk Hydroelectric Power Plant” (1960), “On the construction site of the Kremenchuk Hydroelectric Power Plant Flood-Gate” (1960) and “New District” (1962).

Nowadays the collection of our museum has 50 more wonderful works, presented by the maestro to his small homeland.

“As the years go by, I have a finer appreciation of nature,” the artist noted. “I want to work every day, as I haven’t yet said everything as an artist. And every day I am surprised by the world – there’s no art without surprise.”

Lesia Nestroina, research officer

of the department of the scientific and educational work

of Kirovograd Regional Art Museum