A large-scale retrospective exhibition of paintings by Liubomyr Medvid entitled “STEP. CROSS. O-CLAMATION” has opened at the Lviv Palace of Arts to mark the 85th birthday of the renowned Ukrainian artist. The display features more than 70 works created by the painter over almost sixty years.
The exhibition brings together works from different stages of Medvid’s career: from the early cycles “Peripheries” and “Evacuations” to the extensive series “The Prodigal Son”. The display is conceived as an artistic journey through the decades, with the human being at its centre: their spiritual quest, doubts, faith, moral choices and responsibility towards the world.
“Apart from the PROBLEM called the Human Being, nothing in art interests me”
This stance of Liubomyr Medvid runs through the entire exhibition: each painting becomes a reflection on contemporary civilisation and the place of the individual within it. The artist himself has stressed that his work is addressed first and foremost to the human being and only then to art, since, in his view, creativity that does not appeal to human consciousness loses its meaning.
The retrospective at the Lviv Palace of Arts can be visited free of charge until 30 July.
The painting exhibition launches a series of celebratory events marking the artist’s 85th birthday. On 7 July, the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery is due to open an exhibition of graphic and sacred art entitled “By Stroke and Spirit”. On 10 July, the Lviv National Opera will screen the documentary film “Liubomyr Medvid. Dialogue with Time”, followed by a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” by the theatre’s symphony orchestra. The anniversary series will conclude on 16 July with the presentation of the artist’s new book “33 Mini-Poems” at ZAG Gallery.
Liubomyr Medvid was born on 10 July 1941 in the Lviv region. He is a People’s Artist of Ukraine, an academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, a professor at the Lviv National Academy of Arts, and a laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine. His work spans painting, graphics and sacred art, and his pieces are held in museum collections in Ukraine and abroad.
Among the artist’s most renowned cycles are “Evacuation”, “Emigrants”, “Parables” (“The Prodigal Son”), “Ecce Homo” and “Terra incognita”. In addition to easel painting, Liubomyr Medvid is the author of murals in a number of churches in Ukraine and Canada.