This thesis is devoted to the study of the ukrainian sculpture of the Late 20th Century and Early 21st Century. It is considered the transformations monumental forming in sculpture.
There have been determined the scientific and methodological approaches to the study of the chosen problematics and a significant amount of literature and visual sources have been processed. The problems of sculpture in a wide range of artistic practices are studied. Since 1991, an important aspect is the geopolitical and cultural openness of the Ukrainian artistic space to the world, which creates the need to introduce examples of achievements of key figures of cultural and creative process in Ukraine from the sphere of monumental sculpture in a comparative and analytical sequence with the most influential world artistic practices in the sphere of three- dimensional plastic. The dissertation systematizes and analyzes works of influential foreign artists created in the Late 20 — Early 21 century (experiments of minimalism, monumental works of land-art, significant works of sculpture and installation, which suggested new approaches in the artistic and ideological organization of space); the work of Ukrainian sculptors within the Soviet Union, which the most active period of falls on 1950-1991; selected works of Ukrainian sculptors, who create outside of Ukraine (mainly in Western Europe and North America) for the purpose of research; the works of Ukrainian artists, which are clearly manifested in the period 1991-2018, the period of Ukrainian Independence; examples of the latest sculptural and spatial experiments, which offers a young generation of Ukrainian artists, were researched.
Modern Ukrainian sculpture acquires new characteristics: instead of exaltation of the heroic past, philosophical overtones, experiments with space, plastic materials and form come to the forefront. The leveling of the boundaries between the types and styles of art created the need to consider and analyze contemporary Ukrainian sculpture in a wide range of artistic practices. There is a problem of new technologies, materials, means of expression and dematerialization of the object of art. The concept idea comes to the fore, gradually replacing the importance of form. The exhibition space becomes an incarnation of the work of art, not just an art object which is placed in it. Practice shows the metamorphic, synthesized phenomena of three-dimensional art, for which there are no clearly defined limits for the embodiment of ideas.
The practical experience of the author of thesis is important, since being in the role of not only an observer and an analyst, but also a practicing sculptor, gives an opportunity to characterize objectively and reasonably the phenomena of modern sculpture.
The examples cited in the dissertation confirm the integration of Ukrainian sculpture with the Late 20th — Early 21th century into the global cultural space and provide for the fruitful development of this sphere of art in the future.
