Some artists transcend the boundaries of time and place; they are equally at ease in their abilities to express human emotions or portray an interplay of objects on a piece of canvas. Miroslav is such an artist. Born in Ivano-Frankivsk, a town in the Western part of Ukraine, he, by his own acknowledgment, grew up in love and happiness, surrounded by the picturesque Carpathian Mountains. His passion for the region would later translate into landscapes reflecting on the natural beauty of the countryside.
Miroslav started drawing very early, perhaps, due to his natural predisposition to the sublime, which drove him to express his perception of the world on paper. The artist received the best academic education available in Ukraine at the time – The State Art School in Kyiv, Ukraine, and later, the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. A rigorous education under such renowned masters as Mikhail Gujda and Viktor Shatalin allowed the young artist to explore and perfect many styles, including classical drawing, realism, impressionism, and later more contemporary techniques. His graduation work at the Academy, a large canvas titled It’s a Man, received recognition as the best thesis of the year in the academic painting.
Miroslav credits his immense enthusiasm for figurative painting to Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Velazquez, Vermeer, and to the Russian classics from the “Peredvizhniki” (“The Wanderers”) group: Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov, Vasily Perov. His artworks focus on figures and still life, some principal genres of classical painting. When asked what inspires him, Miroslav confides that his children are often the main characters of his paintings. Watching them play, he is amused by their perpetual ability to create their own magical world and be entirely engrossed in it. Miroslav makes his own fairy tale by embedding his children in the story and depicting them as harlequins or medieval court musicians. His still life works, inspired by 17th-century Dutch artists, are more stylized and decorative, looking curiously contemporary and antique at the same time and ideally suited for the modern interior.
Miroslav describes his artistic mission as “the connection of man in harmony with nature and the universe.” His artworks reflect on how the historical development of mankind links the present and the future. Miroslav says, “A desire to preserve the art of the Great Masters still lives in me, albeit with a more modern approach. Keeping up with the life we live here and now, the search for myself, the search for truth in the world - all through paintings - this is my life ...”
Check the artist's profile at www.artiosgallery.com/miroslav-duzinkevych.
