BETSA VASYL

The laureate of the Regional Prize named after Y. Bokshai and A. Erdeli (2012). Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1985. In 1968, he graduated from the painting department of Uzhhorod College of Decorative and Applied Arts, and in 1978 – textile faculty of Leningrad Higher Art and Industry College named after V. Mukhina (nowadays Saint-Petersburg Art and Industry Academy). In 1978 – 1992, as well as after 1996, he worked as an artist-monumentalist at Transcarpathian Art and Design Complex under the Art Fund of the USSR. In 1992-1996 he was the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Organization under National Union of Artists of Ukraine. From 1973, he was an active participant of regional, republican, All-Union and international exhibitions (Austria, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Germany). The artist held fifteen personal exhibitions in Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria.

The last years of his life he spent mostly in Slovakia, where he worked with galleries and artists, organizing plein-airs. In 2011, he was elected as a member of the oldest and most famous creative association in Slovakia – "Umelecka beseda Slovenska". Unfortunately, because of his sudden death, the artist was unable to hold another solo exhibition, which he prepared for so long. Thus, in 2016, the artist's family, as well as colleagues and fans, organized a memorial exhibition with the symbolic title "Homecoming" at "ILKO Gallery", Uzhhorod.

The artist worked in monumental and easel painting. For his lifetime, he experimented in different styles: starting from realism to modernism and abstraction. Among the genre preferences of the artist the dominating are narrative compositions, monumental still lifes, and landscapes. The compositions are filled with almost multi-coloured geometrical planes, and semi-abstract forms. The colours are rich, well matched within clear tones.

Oleksandr Nikitchuk