The mutation of reality as the quintessence of reactions to today's challenges: the basis of the painting concept by Petrо Boykо

Abstract

The article is dedicated to worldview dominants expressed in the work of the modern Ukrainian artist Petro B. Boyko. The artist hails from Pryluk, he celebrated his 70th anniversary in 2024. The path of formation of the artist's worldview is followed, through which the date 24.02.2022 passed as a “red thread”. The main influences on the formation of the artist's style, their transformation and transformation into a distinctive individual manner are outlined.

            The painter's palette is characterized, the genre variety of his creative work, which actually led to its multi-vector character. An overview-analysis of the author's genre experiments was made, emphasizing stylization and the tendency to the symbolism of language as the main means of self-expression. The significance of the hedonistic nature of the worldview dominants in the conditions of military life of modern Ukrainians is emphasized.

            A description of the coloristics of Petro Boyko's painting has been done, which is, along with stylization and maximum naivety, a tendency towards primitivism, the artist's answer to all the “black spots” of today. In an attempt to define the style of the artist, art critics usually agree on the term “avant-garde”, sometimes calling him “naïve”. An attempt was made to interpret the main corpus of images created by the imagination of Petro Boyko, their impact on the viewer. The artist's attraction to local colors, flatness, convention is emphasized. The artist is positioned as an extrovert who, with his own painting, demonstrates a kind of hedonism master class, contrasting the motley palette of his imagination with the black colors of everyday life.

            The main personal exhibitions of P. Boyko's creative career in Pryluky, Chernihiv and Kyiv are mentioned. The specifics of the exposition process, the peculiarities of the presentation of his works, the ambiguity of public perception, and its polar characteristics are indicated. The categories "purity of reproduction" and “honesty of the eye” are outlined as style-forming for the artist.