Paintings by Ivan Marchuk. Looking into Infinity

Paintings of one of the most important Ukrainian artists of our time will be on display at a temporary exhibition in the main building of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk from 6 December 2024. Ivan Marchuk’s paintings represent a range of artistic styles, from primitivism to realism, hyperrealism, abstractionism, abstract expressionism, surrealism and abstract surrealism, passed through the prism of the artist’s unique worldview. His paintings reflect the deepest upheavals of the present day, addressing themes that have always been linked to human existence: peace and happiness, good and evil, life, death and love. At the upcoming exhibition at the Granaries on Ołowianka Island, visitors will be able to see nearly 40 works by Ivan Marchuk, dating from different periods of the artist’s work, from the 1970s to the last decade. The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Consulate of Ukraine in Gdańsk on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

Ivan Marchuk (born 12.05.1936, Moskalivka, Ternopil region, today Ukraine) is one of the most important contemporary Ukrainian artists. From an early age he took interest in painting. Despite the lack of professional painting materials, he managed to create art using natural pigments extracted from flowers, grasses, fruit. He studied art at the Ivan Trush Lviv School of Applied Arts. In the early 1970s, he invented an authorial technique of painting named ‘plyontanism’, from the Ukrainian word ‘plyontaty’ – to weave, to intertwine – with which he created hyperrealistic landscapes. As early as 1979, at the first exhibition of Ukrainian non-conformists in London, Pablo Picasso’s personal biographer Roland Penrose drew attention to his unique manner. The style of his works, different from the officially imposed socialist realism, exposed him to harassment from the USSR authorities and exclusion from participation in exhibitions, he was also denied membership in the Union of Artists of the USSR. In the years 1988-2001 he lived in exile (Australia, Canada, USA). His works comprise fifteen cycles, ranging from hyperrealistic landscapes and portraits to abstract ones: “New Expressions”, “Color Preludes”, “Dreams Flooding” and surrealistic: “Voice of My Soul”, “Looking into Infinity”. Each one unveils a different face of the artist – an expressionist and hyperrealist, a representative of the Ukrainian avant-garde and modernist monumentalism, an innovator and a surrealist. Ivan Marchuk’s paintings are in numerous museum and private collections all over the world. His works were presented at around 200 individual exhibitions and more than 100 collective ones. The artist is a recipient of, among others, the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, a Knighthood of the Order of Freedom, in recent years the presidential National Legend of Ukraine award. He is included in the International Academy of Contemporary Art Golden Guild in Rome and the only Ukrainian listed in The Daily Telegraph’s “Top 100 Living Geniuses” of 2007. Due to the ongoing war, Ivan Marchuk temporarily resides and creates outside his homeland.

The exhibition at the Granaries on Ołowianka Island will feature, among others, paintings from the series “Voice of My Soul”, which is essentially a parable, an expression of personal revelation and an attempt to interpret the principle of the universe. The works from the title series “Looking into Infinity”, on the other hand, are an artistic reach beyond the boundaries of the universe and an opening up to new horizons. In his works, Ivan Marchuk expresses both high aesthetic standards and respect for the fundamental principles of ecological awareness. His artistic heritage draws from folk wisdom, evoking the mythical ‘Golden Age’ of humanity. The ethical and ecological imperatives contained therein, according to critics, mark the way towards breaking the civilisational impasse. Audiences visiting the exhibition will be able to get acquainted with Ivan Marchuk’s own innovative creative method – ‘plyontanism’. This technique, which balances between humanism and technology, has radically changed views on the possibilities of creation in contemporary painting. Due to its complexity and labour-intensive nature, works made with it are virtually impossible to replicate.

Accompanying events
06.12.2024, godz. 10:00 – 11:30 Meeting with Ivan Marchuk at the exhibition “Looking into Infinity”

The exhibition of Ivan Marchuk’s paintings at the Granaries on Ołowianka Island will be on view until 30 March 2025.