A lifetime of war: meet the 94-year-old Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Dubovyk

Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Dubovyk, who turns 95 on 1 August, discussed his life and work with The Art Newspaper earlier this year while his art was shown at the Dom Master Klass Cultural Centre in Kyiv. Born in Kyiv in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin, Dubovyk lived through major upheavals in Ukrainian history; his poet father was executed in 1941, and Dubovyk shifted from Realism in the 1960s toward abstract, symbolic nonconformist art, including his 1963 painting “Nuclear Physicists.” After Ukraine’s independence in 1991, his work appeared on postage stamps and he completed commissions including stained glass for the New Apostolic Church in Kyiv and wall paintings for Chapelle Notre Dame des Anges near Nice, but he did not receive many major exhibitions amid later instability, including Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine. His first large-scale retrospective, “Labyrinths of Meanings,” opened in late June at Ukrainian House in Kyiv and runs until 2 August, organized by Stedley Art Foundation and curated by Kateryna Tsyhykalo; related presentations included “White Bouquet A Labyrinth of Symbolism” at the Oxford Festival of the Arts in July.

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