SKAKANDII IVAN

Member of the Union of People's Masters of Transcarpathia (1980). Member of the Union of Professional Painters of Transcarpathia (1999).

He was born in Serednie village, Transcarpathia. The mother of the future artist brought up five children and his father worked firstly at school, and later he was offered a job at the Department of Economics of the University. It was he who instilled the love for art in three brothers – Ivan, Vasyl and Yulii Skakandii.

Father’s hussars on horseback remained as a vivid memory in the memory of sons. "Hussars on the horses painted by my father is always in my heart ", Ivan said. Thus, in one interview he recalled: "The first painting I saw in my life was created just in front of us: the daddy's fingers created a horse in an uncontrollable jump with a fluffy mane (my father was a hussar). That horse is always with us."

Almost 10 years (from 1948 to 1957), Ivan attended the studio of Zoltan Bakoniia, where, under the guidance of a talented teacher, he developed his artistic talent. Ivan told about this period, before his 60th anniversary, to a journalist Illia Ilnytskyi: "Years covered my forehead with wrinkles, my head became grey, and the colours, like the first love, give me comfort. This is an extremely great achievement of Zoltan Bakonia, who became the spiritual father of numerous artists". That time the well-known artist Tetiana Yablonska paid attention to the children's works of Ivan Skakandii and predicted great future for the young man.

However, Ivan Skakandii combined two opposite poles: physics and lyrics. After graduating from Uzhhorod State University in the field of physics, he worked at the schools of the region and taught not only exact sciences but also painting and drawing. Colleagues and pupils loved him because Ivan Skakandii had unrivalled pedagogical skills.

He supported love for the painting of his younger brothers Vasyl and Yulii – both became artists. As a result, in 2003 Uzhhorod saw a joint exhibition of the three brothers who ‘travelled’ around art on horseback on their father's horse.

"All that my brother Yulii and I achieved in art, we owed to a large extent to Ivan. He could more fully show himself as a creative person, and had to battle through to help us, especially when we were studying," Vasyl Skakandii noted.

The same point of view is shared by Yulii Skakandii who said that the high-quality creativity "bacillus" of their family was put by the elder brother – Ivan.

In the works of Ivan Skakandii, the nature of the native land and Transcarpathian wooden churches predominate, because the genre of landscape was his favourite one. However, one cannot ignore his figurative thematic compositions, which are rarely addressed by Transcarpathian artists. Ivan had a wonderful sense of composition, distinguishes his work from others.

Subtle lyricism and philosophical search – that's what the art critics say about his work. "Some kind of symbolism, deep meaning, sometimes decoration and stylization characterize the work of Ivan Skakandii. His favourite genre is a landscape executed in oil, tempera. Ivan is a philosopher-artist who is constantly in a creative search," an art historian Volodymyr Myshanych says.

Ivan Skakandii – a participant in international, all-union, republican, regional exhibitions since 1957. His personal exhibitions took place in 1970, 1974, 1976, 1984, 1994, 2000, 2002 in Uzhhorod and in 1998 in Vranov, Slovakia. Participant in international plein airs and exhibitions in Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland.

The works of the artist are in private collections of the USA, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Text: Kseniia Shokina

© Art & Culture Foundation Brovdi Art