Graphics. Sculpture. Bohdan Korzh

December

2017

In the gallery "Uzhhorod" it was presented a personal exhibition of Bohdan Korzh dedicated to his 65 anniversary. Its name is simple and concise: "Graphics. Sculpture. Bohdan Korzh".

Everyone knows Bohdan as a sculptor, but he is known to a few one as a graphic artist. Graphic works are presented at this personal exhibition for the first time, and thus together with sculptures, they form a coherent picture of the artist's creativity. Bohdan Korzh admits that graphic works are presented to a wide circle of people solely thanks to his wife, famous artist Liudmyla Korzh-Radko, as it was she who has enough inspiration and patience to frame the works, and in general it is only a tenth of the total number of the author’s graphic works. The presented works were performed in 1968-1980, and sculptures – during the last five years.

Bohdan, a graphic artist.

In 1972, Bohdan Korzh graduated from the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts, Department of Art Metal. He communicates quite closely with the artists Pavlo Bedzir and Yosyp Pal. At that time, he created his first series of graphic works in various techniques (Bohdan experimented a lot), made with a ballpoint pen, ink, pen, pencil, foam lacquer, etc. In his first works, images are personified with the author, since the topics are the search for his inner self, place in society, dissatisfaction with himself, uncertainty, and the like. This "dramatic" period includes the following works: "Throne", "Prohibition", "Meeting in the Tunnel", "Illusion", "Lead Rain", "Pessimistic Self-Portrait".

In 1973, Bohdan entered the Department of Ceramics of the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts. A new place, people, a rich cultural and artistic environment of Lviv opens a new stage and sides of Bohdan. It can be seen great changes in expressiveness, dynamics, compositional construction and themes of graphical works, among which there are "Metamorphosis", "A Roman", "Metaphysical Landscape", etc. In addition to abstract and metaphysical stylistic solutions, the artist often works in the portrait genre. At that time, graphics and sculptures were at the same level in the creativity of Bohdan Korzh, but the interest in volume plastics still won.

Bohdan, a sculptor.

Since his student years, he has been fascinated by the works of the sculptors Henry Moore, Antoine Bourdel, and Oleksandr Arkhypenko, who made a contribution and stylistics to the Bohdan’s forms. In the mid-80s, Bohdan created a lot of his graphic works in terracotta. In such a way, there was a smooth, but complete transition to sculpture. The creative ideas of the master are embodied in the busts, monuments, medals, sculptures, memorial plaques, etc. The style solution of plastic shapes is as diverse as the genre variety of the artist. Modern, minimalist, realistic, metaphysical and archaic forms of sculptures can be seen at the exhibition within the next two weeks.