There are works by Ivan Horodetskogo one feature that, not saying a word, remember all who wrote about him and spoke, with the simplicity and ordinariness of the scenes, despite the seeming ease of execution and soft colour scheme, they never lost on the big shows. Among the huge number of paintings of his small landscapes inevitably stops opinion its a very rare quality – accuracy of intonation and a kind of effect of silence, of calm and concentration.
This feature of the creative character of the artist was laid, of course, in childhood. Ivan Horodecki was born in 1888 in a wonderful location - in the Volyn region, in the village of Eurydice about Pochayiv and its famous Pochaev Lavra, which was an ancient religious and cultural centre for a long time continued their activities even during the years of Soviet power. With Laura associated Horodetskogo first steps in mastering the craft of the painter. The artist's father was a mechanic and worked in Pochaev workshops, and first mentor in the painting was the uncle of the Pochaev icon painter. The basis of this education was, apparently, iconography.
After graduating from the parochial school at the age of twelve the boy began to study and work in Pochaev icon-painting workshop of the Holy Dormition Cathedral of the Pochaev Lavra. Soon, in the early 1900's, Horodecki, how to remember the artist's friends, took part in the decoration of churches in Volyn. as an apprentice under the guidance of prominent in those years, the master of Church paintings of Gregory Grushevskogo to which he came on the recommendation of A. Lazarchuk, his former teacher at the Pochaev icon-painting workshops.
In 1906, the year Horodecki went to Kiev, and continued to work in the Studio Grushevskogo. According to the artist, for three rubles a month, he had to wash the brush, grind the paint and to be “gofer”. In short, the artist started to study way before him, for centuries, trained painters.
A year kruszewski went to paint the Cathedral in a White Church, and since the Cathedral was large, it was necessary to create a whole gang of artists, which included and Horodecki. Eight years lasted his first lessons. At this time, the artist had to master the ancient craft method of the mural, and to acquire considerable experience in monumental painting. However, the experience and craftsmanship has not diminished his desire to study further. I think it's the desire never left the artist, and he never felt finally formed a complete “master”.
Maybe that's why his landscapes with a very limited number of motifs is absent the monotony and monotony; the artist does not replicates the one found plastic technique, with the landscape often. In each work, he decides it's small, but a new task, subjecting the solution to your professional skills. For him, the freshness of feelings is more important than practicing formal methods. This, of course, can be regarded as a disadvantage, but this is the feature of his artistic personality, perhaps his artistic credo.
In the fall of 1908, the artist enrolled at the Kiev art school, where he spent seven years. Among his teachers were G. Dyadchenko, A. prahov, O. Murashko (the first school teachers of painting from I. F. Horodetskoho), and for three years prior to the release of Fedor Krichevsky, affection which will persist for years to come. And now to the experience of the Pochaev icon-painting workshops, added more and the experience of academic painting. Maybe it was then, thanks to him, Horodecki fully detects the strongest side of his talent – colours. This phenomenon is difficult to identify even for specialists; colours is a property of the eye to see colors in their harmonic relations. This harmony is impossible to measure or deduce from these relations the formula, we can only say whether the artist is a colorist or not. In any case, the desire to work in this direction, defined the artist's decision to go to St. Petersburg, the Academy of fine Arts, the Bastion of the academic school.
However, there he could learn was not meant to be. Enrolling in 1916 in the Academy, he was already through a month of classes have been mobilized. And after three months of military service because of illness and ended Horodecki returned to Kiev, where he began working as an art teacher in the school. Then the country began the events that are required by the people is not talent and creativity; the first world war, revolution, civil war, intervention, famine, devastation. Whatever political beliefs the person is not adhered to, one way or another the happiest gift was his ability to survive. How often served as an artist this gift, this ability, and subsequently throughout his life.
From the pre-war period (second world war) remained a matter of quantity of works, so that we cannot even imagine the creativity of the artist entirely and we have to be content with guesses. For a genuine artist his art is hard work and requires a lot of courage for him to accept the loss that this work created, and continue to work on!
In 1920, the year Horodecki leaves occupied by the poles, cold and hungry Kyiv to the village. Thought I would be there for a few months, but was able to return only in 1924 year. And soon after his return, the artist entered the Kyiv art Institute.
This period was the Kiev Institute of art is probably the most interesting. It was only later, in the late 20's, then any creative ideas, concepts and directions (from realistic to abstract) will be given to the uniformity of socialist realism, and repress dissidents. But in 20 years of artistic life at the Institute is truly raged.
Just at that time, the Institute underwent reorganization. Ukrainian Academy of Arts was opened in 1917, and in 1922 preobrazovan at the Institute of plastic arts. In 1924 there was another reorganization, in which there are five faculties: architectural, pictorial, graphic, sculptural and artistic teaching. The range of views on what should be the art was huge: from the traditional academic painting to abstractionism. The most prominent figures of the then Institute was Fedir Krichevsky and Michael Boychuk.
It is important to remember that when Horodecki became a student, he is already 36 years old and Mature enough to change his affection, already established views, methods, and it is not in the nature of the artist. He continues to work with former teacher – F. Krichevsky. But remember the desire and ability of the artist to learn gives him the ability to see and perceive much of what is preached in the art of his colleagues, and that seemed to him completely alien. For example, “boychukisty” wrote in Soviet literature was not, of course, “...a blind imitation of Byzantine and ancient Ukrainian art is...”, especially because it is unclear how it can ever be blind. A “boychukisty” and in a head did not come to mutilate and “... to distort the images of Soviet people.” However, if you take away from these statements of negative evaluation due to time, the artistic orientation of this direction are relatively clear.
“Boychukisty” solved the problem of monumental painting, and this appealed to experience Byzantine and randomeness monumental murals. Horodecki on the initial of their education, painter, and knew firsthand what it's like to move a brush on the wall, obeying the demands of centuries-old iconography and style of the Church's paintings, and this direction the Institute could not be done for him to others.
The artist in this work has tried to distract from the skills of plein air painting, which for so long studied, to give your canvas the brightness and decorative. And he skillfully coped with the task. The artist has collected this picture of the big spots juicy, but somewhat muted colors. Thanks to them, the red scarf girl, placed in the center of the canvas, just open shines, pure color. Affected here and the experience of wall paintings; there are no unnecessary details, all the shapes and lines in a picture is quite concise.
Maybe internally he sought to find a synthesis of academic techniques and sophisticated, laconic forms of the ancient art. But here our questions will forever remain unanswered – as has been said, almost all of that time was lost. However, preserved diploma, demonstrating the artist's desire to this synthesis. This painting "member of the Komsomol in rural areas."
In addition to paintings in the program of the diploma consisted of a theoretical and abstract “Ukrainian ornament”. This work, like many another, lost, but, without a doubt, the practical and the theoretical part of the diploma was linked. The artist studied the techniques of folk art, mastered the method of working with open color, as is done in folk art, in order to strengthen the sound of colors, emotionally upbeat and festive.
Judging from surviving works, memoirs, photographs and reproductions, this mood becomes dominant in subsequent employment upon graduation. It is – for the most part landscapes. They are characterized by a very energetic, expressive and picturesque texture, shifted and raised the plans, in a word, they have clear evidence of Hobbies some modern phenomena in art, beyond the traditional national painting Levitan lyrical landscape. An example of this is a rare surviving work from this time: “Khreshchatyk in winter”, “Etude”.
The pre-war period was very fruitful for Horodetskoho. At the end of 20 years he entered the AHCHOY (Association of artists of red Ukraine ). Hardly any major exhibition in Ukraine took place without his participation. In 1928 a major success fell to the lot of his painting “the Washerwoman”
The picture was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the international jury awarded her one of the rewards.
But whatever, neither was the active creative activity of the artist, his life it was not the limit. Horodecki began teaching, first at the Kiev art College and civil engineering Institute, and then in 1935 in the Kyiv art Institute, where he worked until the beginning of the war.
As remembered by his disciples and friends, he was a most talented teacher. Otherwise it could not be, because the artist himself loved and knew how to learn. Remember his ability to explain the task to the students to explain the meaning of thoughtful, constructive drawing – a model for him was a method Chistyakova, but more importantly, Horodecki was able to create in the training workshop a special, elevated above the bustle of daily creative atmosphere
All this came to an end with the outbreak of war and the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, the Institute was evacuated to Samarkand, but the artist for the son's illness was not able to go there. He had to go home to Pochaiv.In those years it was, of course, not before painting. After the war, not immediately able to return to work. Besides, in Kiev, the Institute's administration refused to restore Horodetskogo in teaching.
Every painter knows how difficult it is after a long break again to take up the brush and to work systematically as you cannot perform the basic techniques of the fine crafts that were once clear and simple and, it seemed, my hands were doing it themselves. And then you have to study again, to return loyalty to the eye and the hand.
All of this can be felt in the early postwar works. Slowly but surely literally comes to life picturesque flesh of small sketches. They even theme is very in tune with what was going through the artist; the establishment of peace. They are very clearly sounds simple joy, but so long absent to return to his difficult but beloved craft. In these studies many of the living, human warmth.The artist is grateful for any caught in his field of vision, the most simple subjects;: the farm shed on the side of the truck with painted on it the room, the mound of earth, covered with snow, or stacks of hay.
After all, these items give him a fertile opportunity to knead and mix on the palette, the paint, applied to the elastic canvas, where they recreated the painting surface will give subtle shades of feelings that defy verbal expression (for Example, “farm yard”, “Last snow”)
I believe that everyone experiences similar feelings and sometimes very acutely, though transiently. But Horodecki very well could capture such a fleeting canvas. But the key fact was a color artist giftedness and ability to concentrate. Right feeling the subtle variations in colour and tone relations, he was just not able to dissemble in color, and therefore intonation.
Every artist knows how difficult it is to guess these color and tonal relationships in a winter landscape, when the difference between shades of white – white wall of the house, white snow and the white winter sky subtle. But for Horodetskogo this difficulty did not seem to exist. Winter landscapes have become the best part of his legacy. (“Lake in Pochaiv”, “Gallery of the Pochayiv Lavra”, “Winter”).
In the early 50-ies with a group of marine painters Horodecki sent to the Crimea. The trip was extremely fruitful. I think she finally returned to the artist the creative power and the same skill. The amazing thing is that Horodecki, life writing mostly Pochaev landscapes, with their quiet, melodious rhythms, smooth, distant horizon, managed to feel and to accurately convey a completely different rhythm and scale of the Crimean nature. Huge blocks of rocks, endless sea in his landscapes make the traces of human stay fragile, temporary. (“Sloe bloom”, “Pochaiv landscape”, “View from mount Mason in Pochaev” , “Pochaiv motive” ; “Bear Mountain”, “Sea. Gurzuf”)
It's a completely different tone, not one that is present in Pochaev landscapes, where fully expressed the unity, the indivisibility of the life of nature and man in it. (“The road to Yalta” “Shore” 1957 “Winter. The outskirts of Kremenets”, 1957)
In the Crimean landscapes Horodecki strengthened and expanded its range of colors. Of course, nowhere in them he comes close to the experiment with open color, which obviously occupied him in his youth, before the war. However, his palette considerably enriched and becomes more intense. But even getting the brightness and sonority, the color of landscape remains soft and restrained. The intensity of the color it will retain and in his last, Pochaev landscapes.
In the last years of his life the artist painted almost the best of his paintings. With people living creative lives, sometimes things happen that are inexplicable from the point of view of physiology. In addition to the difficulties of the creative order, painting is a very physically demanding occupation. Namely, physical strength over the years, it would seem, should leave a person, especially Horodecki young and in good health did not differ. But in the artist's paintings at this time no trace of anything weak or frail, her features exquisite craftsmanship, confidence and composure in even a small study.
The artist lives in Pochaev and the main theme of his work becomes the beloved Laurel and its vicinity. Looking at Laura, he said: “from Here I went into the art world. For life of Laurel remained in my heart.”
However, his work is not just limited to professional concerns, no matter how big they are. More specifically, the vocation of the artist Horodecki interpreted very widely and was very excited by what was going around. Witness the high authority of the artist in the city and in Laurel. Horodecki, of course, could not in those atheistic times to do as before, in your youth icons, while in the monastery were restoration works and she was in need of competent professionals. For it could lose membership in the Union of artists, the opportunity to participate in exhibitions, in those days, it meant to deprive themselves of the opportunity to engage in creative activities. But at night in the house of the artist came the painters of the monastery to ask for advice, to discuss certain problems that arise in such complex work as painting or restoration in the temple.
One day someone had the idea to paint with an oil paint of a vase, decorating the gallery in front of the Cathedral. Vases were made of Sandstone and it's a ridiculous renovations worthwile natural, living beauty of the stone. And then Horodecki, referring to the leadership of the monastery, demanded to clear vases. The claim of the artist was immediately executed.
One of the last and most memorable landscapes – Laurel winter (1957). Transparent, winter day nearing evening. Bright spot Lavra on the background of the bright sky – a favorite motif Horodetskoho. Paint on the canvas fresh as new-fallen snow. The master is very wise costing details; obscure window cells, as well a hint of the transferred trees – nothing to violate the integrity and spilled everywhere harmony in color, shapes and lines. Here fully expressed inherent in the artist a sense of the organic combination of the human being, nature and what man created in harmonic unity with it. (“Pochayiv Lavra”).
We see that the soul of the artist strived for harmony. Nature for him was not the workshop, and the temple. And since all his life he loved to learn and knew how to study, nature was his main teacher, the most important lesson of which was harmony.
List of publications about the artist:
Pavlov V. P. Ivan Horodecki: Life tvorchosti: Spohady suchasnyk. – Kiev: Mystetstvo, 1981.
Horodecki I. F.: 1888-1957: exhibition Catalogue/ Foreword. G. Ostrovsky. –Moscow: Soviet artist, 1978.
Ostrovskiy G. Tvorchosti Ivana Horodetskogo// Obrazotvorche mistetstvo. – 1973. No. 6 (176)
Ostrovsky G. the Oldest artist of Ukraine.// Creativity. – 1957. No. 3.
