The largest personal exhibition of the outstanding Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk entitled “Tell Me the Truth” has opened in the Austrian capital.
According to an Ukrinform correspondent, the exhibition on two floors of the Hall of Sciences in the center of Vienna includes about 400 of the artist’s most famous works.
More than half a thousand people – representatives of the Ukrainian community, as well as Austrian and foreign supporters of the artist – took part in the vernissage on Friday evening. The opening ceremony was also attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Vienna, the federal government and the Vienna City Hall, as well as cultural and public figures from Ukraine and Austria.
“The Maestro’s works are unique tools of diplomacy. For me personally, it is indisputable that Ivan Marchuk’s paintings are the truth about Ukraine, the authenticity of the Ukrainian soul and nature. They present Ukraine truthfully, as our country is,” said Ambassador of Ukraine to Austria Vasyl Khymynets in his welcoming speech.
His colleague from the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director of the Department for Cultural Diplomacy Regina Rusz also emphasized the important role of art as a tool of diplomacy and assured of continued support from Austria. “In such a difficult time, I believe that the role of art and culture has a special position. And I want to assure you that I will do everything in my position to support Ukrainian artists and scientists,” she said.
Yuriy Vitrenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, noted that at a time when our country continues to fight for its freedom and dignity, Marchuk’s art is of particular importance – “it is art as resistance, culture as memory, beauty as an act of survival.” “We have gathered not only to admire art, but to touch the soul of Ukraine – its resilience, pain, beauty and depth,” he said.
The center of gravity of Marchuk’s large-scale exhibition, the fourth in Vienna, is Ukraine, with more than a hundred landscapes and another three hundred works from all 15 of the artist’s cycles. The exposition also has an immersive format: some of the paintings “come to life” on the walls, replacing each other to musical accompaniment.
“This exhibition presents 15 different ‘Marchuks’. They are all different in content, technique, style. But in all the paintings you can see one hand. And there will be a little bit of fun, fun and wisdom. So the dialog between you and the paintings will be difficult. I created all this for you,” said Ivan Marchuk during the opening of the exhibition.
The exhibition will run at the Aula der Wissenschaften until May 12. The entrance is free.
As reported by Ukrinform, People’s Artist of Ukraine, laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, holder of the Order of Freedom and the Presidential Award “National Legend of Ukraine” Ivan Marchuk, who is a member of the Golden Guild of the International Academy of Contemporary Art in Rome, according to the British edition of The Telegraph, is among the 100 living geniuses of our time, compiled by a rating survey in the UK (Graators Synectics, 2007).
For more than 70 years of creative activity, the artist has created about 5 thousand paintings, held almost 200 monographic exhibitions both in Ukraine and abroad. In recent years alone, his works have been exhibited in Lithuania and Latvia, Belgium and Luxembourg, Hungary and Turkey, Germany and Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Thailand and Tunisia, Jordan and the United States, Spain and Austria – in total, in more than 20 countries.