The dissertation is devoted to the research of the Honored Artist of Ukraine Hryhorii Ivanovych Synytsia (1908–1996). Prominent monumentalist artist H. Sinytsia – a student of M. Boichuk's school in the early 1930s, in the era of Khrushchev’s Thaw initiated a new national coloristic direction in monumental painting. The study of the artist's creative activity is necessary for a holistic understanding of the ways of development of Ukrainian art in its national direction.
The aim of the research article is to identify the artistic and stylistic specifics of the monumental painting works by Hryhorii Synytsia in his concept of national art in form and content in the conditions of Ukrainian Soviet culture development between 1960s and 1980s.
The study of primary sources proved that fine art experts and critics' references to H. Synytsia's were selective or purely factual in nature. The need to study the multifaceted creative activity of the Boychukist, Sixties artist H. Synytsia determined the complex artistic, theoretical, historical and cultural approach of the research.
The research identified the main factors that influenced H. Synytsia’s personality formation: upbringing in orphanages, artistic education with the impressionist S. Danyshevskyi, neo-impressionist M. Gerschenfeld, and the Boychukists M. Rokytskyi and I. Padalka at the Kyiv Art Institute in the 1920s and 1930s led to the artist's critical attitude to the thematic and artistic limitations of the method of socialist realism.
Based on the study of the artist's works, a certain evolution in the formation of his innovative creative style at the end of the 1950s is revealed, characterized by: maximum expressiveness of color, built on the mutual influence of contrasting colors, correlation of generalized forms with rhythm and dynamics, monumentality of the artistic image. The author reveals the prominent role of H. Synytsia in the processes of artistic renewal of Ukrainian culture during the Khrushchev’s Thaw: his activities to popularize the work of folk artists, the direction of young artists of the Kyiv Club Suchasnyk (Contemporary) to create contemporary monumental paintings based on folk art.
Based on the newly discovered manuscript of the theoretical work by H. Synytsia Colour in the Fine Arts. The Answer to Toners, the principles of the theory of colouristic painting were highlighted, which he considered to be the foundation of the national school of painting. The practical implementation of the theory took place in the creation of an ensemble of mosaics for school No. 5 and the mosaic panel Woman-Bird in a jewellery store in Donetsk by the artists of the Sixties under the leadership of H. Synytsia in 1965–1966. The study reveals the stages of work on the mosaics, analyses the artistic, stylistic, figurative, and thematic features of the works. It is determined that the mosaics: Cosmos, Fire, Earth, Air, Life, Subsoil, Sun, Water, Prometheus created the understanding of the universe on the basis of the imagery and forms of folk art as the harmony of man and nature. It is noted that the mosaics, due to the unified figurative and stylistic concept of the project authors, created a holistic spatial and pictorial image of the school's architectural complex, which became an example of a harmonious synthesis of the arts.
The further color painting development is highlighted in H. Synytsia’s work specifically in the new forms, his techniques, and art types. The artistic, stylistic, figurative, thematic and technological features of monumental works in the author's technique floromosaics using natural materials are revealed. The continuity of the new decorative technique with the principles of M. Boychuk's school is emphasised.
The abstract creativity of the artist, the origins of which he saw in folk art – Ukrainian ornament, carvings, pysankas, is studied. The thematic, formal and substantive features of the artist's abstract works are revealed. It is shown that the author's definition of abstractions as imaginal was facilitated by the introduction of associative series, programmatic titles, which was intended to bridge the gap between semantics and form to introduce abstract works to the general public of modern Ukrainian art.
The research examines the achievements of the artists of the school of coloristic painting in the context of the general development of monumental art in the 1960s – 1980s. It was determined that coloristic painting as a stylistic national direction, capable of reproducing ideological, moral principles and aesthetic preferences of the Ukrainian people, became an important component of Ukrainian art, contributed to the national self-identification of Ukrainian culture in the second half of the 20th century.
