EXHIBITION OF OLEKSANDR KROTEVYCH “I’M COMING AGAINST YOU”
|
|
Oleksandr Krotevych
My credo is that history is made by a percentage of people,
That’s why I want to be one of them: to create, connect and touch people’s hearts through an artistic canvas, through the visualization of thoughts. Creative personalities do not live for themselves, but for their descendants: they form love for the Motherland through knowledge of the history of their people and their genealogy. To know and protect the traditions, rites, and customs of the Ukrainian people. To realize that the most important thing in life is a mother, woman, children, and country. And Ukraine is above all! We will be gone, but Ukraine is eternal. And what kind of memory we will leave behind, be it good, respectable, or none at all, depends on you and me. It is necessary to leave behind good deeds in history for future generations. |
“I’m coming against you” – these are the works of the series “My Ukraine” and “Alphabet of Ukrainian initial capitals”, this is a peculiar position of the artist and his own interpretation of the concept “Ukrainism”.
Oleksandr Krotevych. Artist, designer, Candidate of Art History, member of the Union of Designers of Ukraine, associate professor of the Department of Graphic Design at Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design. Participated in many Ukrainian and international art exhibitions. Works in the fields of monumental art, graphics, painting, and graphic design. His creative works are kept in private collections in Ukraine and abroad.
The author style of Oleksandr’s artistic works is a combination of graphics and painting with the idea of describing the Motherland-Ukraine in semiotics, images, symbols, and historical aspects of Ukrainian national history. These are coded and encrypted moments of the nation’s life. The works of O. Krotevych are a manifesto or a code of Ukrainian identity.
The visual “Alphabet of Ukrainian initial capitals” includes a series of graphic works of 33 letters, created in 2019 as a kind of installation and visual-associative display of Ukrainian identity in the artist’s vision and received the State Model Copyright Certificate № 90684.
According to the vision of the author, initial capitals are the beginning – words, thoughts, ideas, these are individual installed thoughts, a measure of associations through form, images of famous historical figures of Ukraine, and heroes of recent years. Codes and encrypted symbols in the artist’s work are engraved on the canvas and identified with the concept of “Ukraine”. Each viewer sees something different in the artist’s works and finds new forms, images, signs, and decoded texts repeatedly.
The considerable number of symbols, their stylization, and their attention to ornamental detailing are impressive. The artist deliberately overloads his works with information. For example, almost one kilometer of graphic lines, more than a thousand signs, symbols, and ornaments are drawn in “Great Founders”. In the artist’s works, we find many mirror texts, homographs, sentences, and words written with Futhark signs, with codes where each letter has its own embroidered symbol and general meaning.
In individual works of the author, there is no clear border between Christianity and paganism, some texts are translated using ancient Slavic runes. Just as in every ancient Ukrainian embroidery, there was sacred encrypted content about the owner of the shirt, about his family, about his abilities and social status, so in the works of Oleksandr Krotevych we read, as it were, the provisions of the code of a Ukrainian, a conscious subject of the nation, a holder of a high title – Ukrainian.
Gallery
Chaika. O. Krotevych, 2017. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 80 * 65 cm.
Chub. Soul. O. Krotevych, 2018. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 80 * 54 сm.
Futhark. Through Futhark. O. Krotevych, 2019. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 90 * 65 сm.
Idea of the Nation. O. Krotevych, 2022. Canvas. Acrylic. Art markers. 110* 160 сm.
Prayer. Through the ages. O. Krotevych, 2018. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 80 * 60 сm.
Horseshoe. For good luck. O. Krotevych, 2020. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens, ink. 80 * 60 cm.
Nativity Star. O. Krotevych, 2019. Canvas. Acrylic. Marker pens. 50 * 80сm.
Trident. O. Krotevych, 2016. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 50 x 80 cm.
Vyshyvanka. O. Krotevych, 2017. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 60 * 80 cm.
Baptism. O. Krotevych, 2018. Canvas, acrylic, marker pens. 80 * 100 сm.
Initial cap А. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. With the shield or on it. Either gain the will or not be at home. Azov, Freedom, Ukraine.
Initial cap Б. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. There is no fight without timpani, just like without weapons. To be afraid of death is not to live in the world. The well-being of a Ukrainian is the value of various benefits, good and God. Without a family and one’s kin – there is no nation, no people.
Initial cap В. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The higher purpose of giving one’s life for one’s land, for a unified Ukraine, shrouded in dreams, is the highest cause of the men in Ukraine.
Initial cap Г. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Pride is the original trait of knights of all times. The pride of the Cossacks is knightly respect, and dignity is a soul that is torn by the same pride.
Initial cap Ґ. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The strength of Ukraine is an undeniable difference of people whose understanding of the nation becomes a higher code of belonging to one’s kin.
Initial cap Д. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. A good deed is to speak the truth boldly. The good is remembered for a long time, and the bad — even longer.
Initial cap Е. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The energy of a true patriot is the readiness and desire to immediately and zealously act for the benefit of one’s Motherland.
Initial cap Є. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The unity of people around one idea and the convergence of views is the greatest achievement of Ukrainians.
Initial cap Ж. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. To live means to serve Ukraine! Life is like a thorny field - you will not pass, without tiring the legs. The thirst for the recognition of one’s identity is the deepest and highest desire of a true Ukrainian.
Initial cap З. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Stand boldly for the right cause. The weapons of the Ukrainian army are an arsenal acquired in battles and campaigns. It is strength and courage, honor and destiny. Weapons and language protect honor.
Initial cap И. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The impetus is unexpected for the enemy swiftness, incredible power and frantic onslaught in battle, an indisputable property of the Cossack character.
Initial cap І. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The idea of a nation over the centuries dominates the genes of the Ukrainian. It, like lava, bursts out of hell before the threat of destroying the existence of the Ukrainian nation.
Initial cap Ї. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. For God’s sake! Fate smiles on a Cossack when it is not joked with. For God’s sake! A Cossack’s wife is humble and obedient, and respects the man.
Initial cap Й. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Going for someone else's head, carry your own one. Probably the essence of humanity is to be a little nicer when possible. And this is always possible.
Initial cap К. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Cossacks are a constant of Ukraine. When Cossack is in the field, he is free. When the matter is true, speak boldly. Where the heart flies, the eye looks.
Initial cap Л. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Knightly valor is a Cossack victory. A knightly character accompanied sea trips of the Zaporozhians. A knightly character is about a Cossack.
Initial cap М. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Wisdom is given to selected fighters, madly in love with their Motherland. It becomes more valuable with experience. No one is born wise, that is why they learn.
Initial cap Н. 20*30 cm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The nation is the highest form of social unity. Unbreakable and unconquerable Cossack nation: freedom-loving, tenacious men in a difficult hour with weapons are guardians of Ukrainian unity.
Initial cap О. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The basis of Cossacks is the strength of Ukrainians. The basis of the strength of Ukrainians is the state. The basis of the state is Justice. The basis of justice is Independence. The basis of the spirituality of the people is the native language. And Ukrainian is growing in the language.
Initial cap П. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The truth is not a lie, and there is strength in the truth. Truth emerges from the bottom of the sea, and untruth sinks. Pectoral is part of the armor of a Scythian warrior.
Initial cap Р. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Traits of the Ukrainian people: restlessness, unease impatience to dominance аnd a genetically heightened sense of justice.
Initial cap С. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Holdthe flag in your hands and do not lose courage. The flag is an ideological attribute of the army and the state. A bullet is afraid of a brave standard-bearer.
Initial cap Т. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The trident is the main marker of Ukrainian identity. Since ancient times, the trident has been considered a magical sign of the falcon Rarog, the ancient Slavic deity of heavenly lightning, and a world symbol of the trinity.
Initial cap У. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Ukraine is a mother, know how to stand up for her. "Ukraine, Mother of Heroes... May I be reborn in You, shine with Your glory, because You are my whole life, because You are my whole happiness..." (from the prayer of Ukrainian nationalists)
Initial cap Ф. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The founders fought in the eternal triangle of the struggle to define their right to the existence of the Ukrainian state, the triangle of choice between an aggressive neighbor, rich Europe, and an impoverished own people.
Initial cap Х. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Fate and truth smile at the brave. Because he who is familiar with the truth is not afraid of thunder. Khmelnytskyi created the likeness of the Cossack state. And the modern generation is left with the struggle for the creation, independence, and unity of Ukraine.
Initial cap Ц. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The citadel of Europe is Ukraine. Since the time of Sviatoslav the Brave, it has protected Europe from the Horde conquerors. The citadel and weapons are the genetic attributes of a Cossack defender and an integral part of a modern defender of Ukraine.
Initial cap Ч. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. Wear your chub proudly and do your honest work boldly. Cossack chub is an attribute of Cossacks. Svyatoslav the Brave wore a long chub, which was considered a princely privilege and a sign of courage in those times.
Initial cap Ш. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The saber protects the Cossack and God will protect the protected. For a Cossack, the saber is a symbol Of military achievements and belonging to the knighthood.
Initial cap Щ. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. The shield is the first combat equipment of mankind, a symbol of military honor and victory. The shield located on the wall in the Cossack's home indicated a victory won again.
Initial cap Ь. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens.
Initial cap Ю. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. A young man becomes a man when he knows his lineage and duties to his parents, the history of the Ukrainian people. Then he becomes a member of the nation.
Initial cap Я. 20*30 сm. Cardboard. Acrylic. Marker pens. I am the father of my Son, a warrior and defender of Ukraine. I am a Ukrainian by birth, tribe and spirit. I am a descendant of Sviatoslav the Brave and the fallen defenders near Kruty.
