The dissertation is devoted to the research of Victor Poltavets (1925–2003), an outstanding historical painter, battle artist, whose creative and professional development dates back to the second half of the XX – early XXI century, coinciding with the period of the Soviet totalitarian system and the ideology generated by it. Socialist realism as the leading artistic method was a form of the new academicism, in which genre definitions acquired ideological meaning, bringing aesthetics and politics closer together. Ukrainian historical genre has a deep artistic tradition, due to both historical and cultural and artistic circumstances of its origin and development.
V. Poltavets' creative path as an artist fell on the post-war period and was formed at the Kharkiv Art Institute under the influence of the battle painting workshop of
M. Deregus. It was found that the first works of the artist, including his graduating picture, were devoted to World War II and were thematic and battle plots, executed in the general style of socialist realism, although they differ in truthfulness, increased psychology and author's interpretation of events. At the same time, the artist's work includes works on ancient Ukrainian history, in particular the era of the Cossacks and Kyiv Rus ("Koliivshchyna", "Battle of Berestechko", "Commander Bohdan Khmelnytsky", "Sviatoslav"), which in later years will be decisive for V. Poltavets.
V. Poltavets' early creative activity was objectively consistent with the phenomenon of "Khrushchev's thaw", which covered decades from the mid-1950s to the mid-60's. finding its place in the stream of artistic pursuits, especially in the area of synthesis of tradition and innovation, which enriched Ukrainian art with a living, distinctly individualized view of life and the world. The focus on the best examples of national art and the powerful development of national tradition provided a balance of traditional and modern, which brought new accents to his artistic vision of the national picture of the world. In this sense, we can talk about the artistic sixties of
V. Poltavets, his nonconformism, which fully reflected the nation-centric, state- building, anthropocentric, spiritual trends of the second half of the twentieth century, leaving its mark in the history of Ukrainian art. Along with the concept of socialist realism, another term existed and was embodied in various artistic manifestations – artistic nonconformism, a cultural and artistic phenomenon that existed in opposition to the official artistic doctrine of Soviet fine arts, its presence in Ukraine dates back to the early 1950s. – 1960 years and which opposed the ideological clichés regulated by academicism in art, was a manifestation of free art, not bound by any ideologues. Local artistic nonconformism is a kind of continuation of the avant-garde tradition, which was interrupted by the official ideology of socialist realism.
V. Poltavets' artistic heritage represents samples of painting and graphics, which were the result of creative research and intellectual work, embodying images of historical figures and thematic plots of the heroic history of Ukraine (Scythian period, Kievan Rus and Cossack era, Civil War, the Second World War). Each work of V. Poltavets is associated with the renewal of the visual language and the arsenal of means of expression and serves as a combination of traditional and author’s compositional and spatial principles of creating a picture. The artist managed to develop an excellent, subjective view of the history of the Ukrainian people, in its various manifestations, interpreting the man-hero, the avenger, the leader, as well as the material and natural environment of their life, in the difficult conditions of the dominance of the Soviet socialist-realist canon.
Key words: V. Poltavets, historical-battle genre, Ukrainian fine arts, painting, graphics, book illustration, historical themes, Kharkiv school of painting,
M. Deregus, artistic composition, stylistic characteristics.
