pt.1 Colour as labyrinth. Catalogue of the abstract art of Ivan Turetskyy. pg.1-50

I VA N T U R E T S K Y Y

C O L O U R A S L A B YRI N T H

P ortal 11 Gallery is p roud to p resent the rs t ca tal og ue o f the ab st rac t a rt o f I van Ture ts kyy. The ca talogue consist s of 69 w ork s c reated duri ng a thir ty -yea r peri od bet ween 19 89-201 9.

This versatile, p rof ound collecti on o f mas te rpiece s is a n impo rtan t par t o f th e U krainian artistic heritage and Uk rainian cul tu re in ge ne ral. Iva n Tu re ts kyy i s a n a rti st, a co-a utho r of the Uk rainian Na ti onal Coa t o f Arm s, auth or o f the moder n C oat of Arms o f the ci ty o f Lviv, co fo under o f the U krainia n He raldry Society , a wellk nown ar t collec to r, a ra re boo ks c ollec to r.

I van Ture ts kyy is a cl ose a nd val ued frie nd of P ortal 11 Gallery a nd na tu rally we a re hon ou red to rep resen t his ar t within this catalogue. The phil osophy o f Iva n’s pain ting s matches our phil os ophy and the missi on o f ou r in stitu tio n. His pai nting s g o beyond nati onal bo undarie s and a re no t dic tated by the fashi on of the times . Thei r em otional themes t int o the c urren t gl obal co ntex t.

In the liquid stream of time our life is a labyrinth. Its course resembles a kaleidoscope of shapes, tones, colours, emotions, feelings and impressions. Becoming aware of the labyrinth is an intuitive creative step that each person makes and that leads to his or her inevitable evolution. Abstract ar t is a de nitive form of expression of the process of knowing oneself and of the world in the in nite space of the liquid time.

Ivan Turetskyy

The rays of the setting sun tenderly touched the golden domes of ancient Kyiv. Banded lines of hemispherical rooves refracted and gleamed with the plethora of bright colours. As the sun rays moved, the picture changed. The solemn Baroque music had filled the air The colours danced a mysterious dance orchestrated by the sunset. As I walked to meet one of modern Ukraine’s most impor tant ar tists, the air seemed to have been filled with myster y. In fact, ever y meeting with Mr Ivan Turetskyy and his ar t is never an ordinar y encounter. It is always an incredible stor y with a new twist of fate, with a new step inside a maze, with a new taste for life.

In his paintings, Turetskyy uses a wide, contrasting range of colours and shapes to display the emotional dynamics of the movement of musical compositions in time. He uses the interplay of lights and darks, accentuated by the theatrical spotlight to portray dramatic three-dimensional labyrinths and forms within them exclusively with the help of light and colour. Therefore, the overall composition of Ivan Turetskyy’s paintings depicts imaginary dynamic action – which has a theme that takes place under the accompaniment of music and that has a certain rhythm which unfolds in time.

Colour and shape are the main elements, which, being revealed by light, play a key role in the subject matter of each Turetskyy painting: "The concept of colour, for me, is of paramount impor tance. The colours in my works are more impor tant than the objects, because people can experience a wide range of emotions through colours".

This rare gi of hearing the music and experiencing emotions through colours was also inherent in other masters of modern art, such as Wassily Kandinsky, Alexander Bogomazov and Alexandra Exter. Kandinsky wrote: "Every colour causes a certain vibration in the soul, and every vibration enriches the soul".

The vibration of colour can be experienced while paying close attention to the blending and saturation of the various tones in Turetskyy’s paintings. The overall light, pastel palette of secondary colours is accentuated with the bright primary colours, such as reds, yellows and blues. Strong emotions are built by juxtaposing the lights and the darks within the dynamic symmetry grid. Turetskyy meticulously combines oval and round shapes with triangles and quadrangles to create an overall harmony of seemingly asymmetrical imagery. His lines are mostly curvy, creating convex and concave surfaces. His technique creates a three-dimensional eect within the composition by the selective layering of white pigment on various objects as if obscuring them from the direct view. The pictorial space is never at – some objects appear closer to the viewer and some are distant.

“I love the luxury of Baroque!” – says the artist. “It is neither the wealth of it nor is it the beauty of it that appeals to me; it’s a certain state of mind”. It was only a er he said these words that I realized that all the elements of his art – colours, contrasts, shades, lines, asymmetry, musical rhythms, theatricalism and symbolism – when assembled together presented a vision of Baroque manifested in the abstract avant-garde technique. Baroque followed Renaissance Art and was emotional and mysterious. Based on the infamous chiaroscuro, its aim was to dramatize the contrast between the light and the dark. The former art director of Dior, British designer John Galliano, compared Baroque aesthetics to the music in which someone constantly and deliberately violates the rules. He said, “Sometimes the failure to follow the rules in artwork creates incredible beauty”. Just like Baroque, the avant-garde celebrated music, theatre, rhythm, colour and lavishness. However, unlike Baroque, the avant-garde employed abstract forms rather than realistic images to express emotions.

Ivan Turetskyy says: “At rst I started painting in the genre of fantastic realism. Then I thought that this genre was too simple. The painting did not require any interaction. The viewer was only expected to observe it. I, however, wanted the viewer to be able tond answers to some of their questions through my art rather than observe my life conditions. That is how I came to abstraction and that is how I came to the concept of the labyrinth”.

The labyrinth in Turetskyy’s art is not accidental. The way through the maze is always a mystery, and this mystery is intertwined with the mysticism of Baroque. Delia Steinberg Guzman writes: "The ancients said that one cannot simply pass through the labyrinth. The best way to move around it is by dancing, or by steps that describe certain shapes: shapes on the surface, shapes in space, ritual or magical gures. In essence, we need to move through our life dancing and such dance is the process of person evolution".

In his ar t, Ivan Turetskyy poses a philosophical question of selfawareness through symbols and signs, shapes and colours, light and shadow, through the music. He offers the concept of the labyrinth as a symbol of life and destiny.

We usually try to plan our lives ahead, meticulously calculating each step. O en, though, our predictions and plans require adjustments or complete change. Ivan Turetskyy suggests that it is easier to walk through the labyrinths if we follow our hearts. Reliant on past experiences of joy and pain, our heart leads us along the path of least resistance and least errors. The most important thing in the labyrinth is time. According to Turetskyy, time can neither be stopped nor can it be negotiated. It is therefore crucial to always remember that it is important to spend less time in dead ends and always to move ahead.

A er my meeting with Turetskyy had come to an end, I walked the evening streets of Kyiv. The blue canvas of the warm sky was covered with a thin web of irregular-shaped white clouds. Merging and blurring, they transformed into thegures of people, animals and some mystical creatures. The sun was heading towards the horizon. Suddenly a couple of sharp sunrays broke through the thin white web. They went through the clouds like stage lights and created the unique, colourful scenery of the sunset. This theatrical interplay of light, clouds and sky formed an asymmetrical yet incredibly harmonious labyrinth of shades, tones and undertones.

Unexpectedly, I recognised the essence of the labyrinth as the natural pattern of life, where it is so important to nd your own rhythm, your colour and your dance. I am very grateful to Ivan Turetskyy for the depth of our conversation, for his ingenious personality, and for his important Baroque-avantgarde art, which, if you listen carefully, does sound like music.

Ar t is a form of culture and its presence in our lives is uplifting. Ar t is oxygen for me – the more there is the easier it is for me to breath.

Ever ything consists of elements – sometimes big, sometimes small, and sometimes barely visible. Together they create a vision of the whole. All elements in the ar twork matter, they all have meaning, and they are a par t of the ar tist’s imagination. In combination they create the labyrinth in which we all are seeking exists. My aim is to decode some of the messages on the way and to see the light.

Our life is a maze. Each of us walks its personal, bright, and sometimes fractured path. Sometimes we walk in circles, searching for an exit or the centre of the mysterious maze. Sometimes we come back to the place where we star ted, only to star t again. Often the exit from the labyrinth is not obvious but it definitely exists.