HULYN PETRO

Honoured Worker of Arts of Ukraine. Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1977) and the Union of Artists of the Czech Republic (1995). He was twice the Jury member of the Student Contest in Painting "Silver Easel" (in 2016 and in spring 2017).

He was born on 24 June 1942 in Vinnytsia region. He graduated from the Lviv School of Applied Arts named after I. Trush in 1968. He worked at the Ukrainian Art Fund first in Ternopil (1968 – 1979), then in Uzhhorod (1979 – 1999).

In 1970, he married a painter Nadiia Kyrylova. In their creative tandem, they jointly performed monumental paintings, stained-glass windows and illustrations for books.

Among the monumental works of the artist in Uzhhorod, there are stained-glass windows in the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, stained-glass and painting of the Uzhhorod kindergarten No.39, painting at "Padiiun", and monumental tapestry and glass paintings in the children's library "Tale". Art historians consider his execution of paintings to be highly artistic, multi-figured, compositionally complex as to construction, and rich in colour.

In the early 1980s, based on Transcarpathian folklore motifs the artist performed a series of seven allegorical wooden sculptures on the theme "Days of the Week". These sculptures, along with other plastics, formed an ensemble of the painting and decorative design of the parks and squares of Uzhhorod.

By performing numerous illustrations to books, the artist became free to express his figurative and associative representations and thus could go away from the official Soviet realistic art. Already in the mid-1970s, the artist was developing his personal avant-garde style.

A PhD on History of Arts, professor Orest Holubets notes that Petrop Hulyn avoids realism in the interpretation of forms, and even more he avoids the canons of the classical perspective. At the same time, the very illusion of creating a special metaphysical space is a feature of his works. An unbroken background in numerous compositions plays an important role, enhances the expressiveness and semantic loading of each smallest element. The depicted events are unfolding in the active interaction and nuance or contrasting colour matching.

An art historian Nataliia Kosmolinska writes: "For Petro Hulyn a subject is just the need for a "marker" which the artist uses to define what is beyond the scope of visible and can be reproduced within the personal intellectual and emotional experience of each individual viewer."

Since 1970, Petro Hulyn, together with Nadiia Kyrylova, has illustrated more than 50 Ukrainian and foreign publications, among which there are "Village Musicians" (1970), "Who Scattered Dew?" (1975), "Whale and Elephant, We, and The Steamboat" (1977), "Is There Something Lighter In The World?" (1977), "Hide and Seek (1978), "A Hut Was There" (1979), "Living Water" (1980), "Golden-haired" (1981), "Wooden Miracle" (1981), "Fairy Orbit" (1981), "Slovak Folk Tales" (1982; 1990; all – Kyiv); "Flame" (1984), "Folk Funs of Transcarpathia" (1985); "A Magic Flower" (1986), "In The Summer Forest" (1987), "The Saved Bird" (1987), "Wedding of Birds" (1989), and others.  

Petro Hulyn is a participant in the first Ukrainian avant-garde exhibition in London (1990). The geography of conducting and number of his personal exhibitions is impressive –  more than twenty were held in Moscow (1976), Uzhhorod (1981, 1992), Mukachevo (1981), Warsaw (1982, 1985), Prague (1994, 1996), Lviv (1995, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2016), Kyiv (1993), Lutsk (2007, 2015) and other cities of Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Participant in numerous international plein airs, world and European biennales and triennales. He is a multiple winner of Ukrainian and international contests "Art of Book" and "An Artist and A Book". Winner of biennale EXLIBRUSA (Vilnius, 1985), Lviv International Autumn Salon "High Castle" (2007). Received the first prize of the Lviv International Autumn Salon "High Castle" (2008). The works of Petro Hulyn have decorated the offices of the presidents of European countries, participants of the Summit of the leaders of Central and Eastern European countries in May 1999 in Lviv.

In 2017, it was published a two-volume personal album of the artist's works entitled "Painting. PETRO HULYN", "Graphics. PETRO HULYN" by publishing house "Kolo".

It should be noted that Petro Hulyn became a creative mentor for his son Nazar (1970 – 2003) and a young artist who works under the pseudonym Henyk.

In conclusion, it should be mentioned a famous phrase by Constantine Brancuzi, which is also relevant to Petro Hulyn’s work: "Real is not an external form, but the inner essence, so there is no need to imitate the surface of things."