Vysheslavsky G. "Nova Khvylia" ("New Wave") in the visual arts of Ukraine in the and 1980th - early 1990th (social and cultural aspect)

The thesis examines social and cultural life of Ukraine in later 1980th - early 1990th, namely the artistic movement "Nova Khvylia" ("New Wave"). Distinctive features of the informal movement "Nova Khvylia" were special vision (personalism, irrationalism, subjectivism, and anti-Soviet ideas), social behavior (forming informal communities, proneness to conflict, subculture features) and aesthetic preferences (neo-avantgardism, post-modernism). Creative work of "Nova Khvylia" artists is characterized by presentativity, expression, metaphoricalness, alogism, absurdism, mythological images usage, appealing to pre-historic cultures, national authenticity and mysticism. In the thesis the meaning of the term "Nova Khvylia" as a social and cultural phenomenon has been specified (it had been acting simultaneously as an art and social movement); the idea of the social and cultural movement "Nova Khvylia" has been introduced. Demonstrations of artists' creative activities were pieces of art, concepts and ideas. The demonstrations of the social activities were unions, circles, galleries, exhibitions. The suggested approach allowed conducting a comprehensive research of the artists' creative work in interaction with their vision and social activity. The movement which had initially an indistinct organization, gradually acquired the hierarchal structure, i. e. it has evolved from the informal "happening" relations to the more regulated, hierarchical relations of "clientele" type. Different variants of regional manifestations of "Nova Khvylia" in vision, aesthetic and social behavior have been researched. Main factors of the phenomenon decay have been analyzed.