An album-catalogue "Vasyl Svyda. Eternal"
2018
On 26 April 2018, the Uzhhorod Classical Gymnasium hosted the presentation of the album-catalogue of the People's Artist of Ukraine Vasyl Svyda. The publication entitled "Vasyl Svyda. Eternal" was presented to the students and the pedagogues of the gymnasium by the son of the artist Yaroslav, who is also the head of the "Vasyl Svyda Charitable Foundation".
This is the second full publication of works by Vasyl Svyda – one of the founders of a sculpture in Transcarpathia. As the art critic Valentyn Martynenko points out in her opening speech to the album, fine art of Transcarpathia, in particular, like Ukrainian national art in general, cannot be imagined without the creative achievements of Vasyl Svyda – a sculptor-carver, folk artist, laureate of the National Prize of Ukraine named after T. Shevchenko. For more than half a year, he passed a difficult path from the performer to the master of bright individuality and created numerous interesting works devoted to his native people. “Unfortunately, in the catalogue, there are not all the works of my father,” the son of the artist and one of the authors of the publication Yaroslav Svyda said during the presentation. “There are works that can never be found. But this edition is basic, it covers all the foundations of the artist's creativity. The publication contains photo reproductions of almost all the famous works of Vasyl Svyda.”
The album was issued in Uzhhorod by the publishing house "The Carpathians". According to Yaroslav Svyda, during the work on the publication, the authors worked out about half a dozen literary sources, visited dozens of museums. In general, the publication contains photos with descriptions of more than 150 works of the artist, as well as the bibliography.
The publications have already been presented in Lviv and Kyiv, as well as in the Transcarpathian Regional Art Museum named after Yosyp Bokshai. Among the educational institutions of the artist’s native region, the catalogue was first introduced in the Uzhhorod Classical Gymnasium. According to Y. Svyda, the place for such an event was chosen not by chance: "I gave this institution one of my father’s works," he said. “And it is very popular here: students and pedagogues often visit that place of the institution where it is located and admires the work of art."
For the presentation of the album, a student Dominika Mantsulych prepared a report on the life and work of Vasyl Svyda entitled ‘Breathing life into inanimate’. In addition, the management of the educational institution was grateful for the donated albums and promised to open an art space of the great Transcarpathian artist at the school museum in the near future.
Text: Denys Fazekash
Photo: Nataliia Pavlyk
