BOOK REVIEW: A fitting tribute to artist Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn (08/08/04)

BOOK REVIEW

A fitting tribute to artist Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn

"Arkadia Olenska-Petryshyn: Oil Paintings, Etchings, Drawings," Bohdan Boychuk, editor. Kyiv/New York: National Art Museum of Ukraine and The Ukrainian Museum, 2003. pp. 171. $45 (hardcover).

by Dr. Daria Darewych

"To establish one's own identifiable manner in the cacophony of 20th-century imagery is no small achievement." Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn, a Ukrainian American artist, succeeded in accomplishing this through her creative endeavors, according to Jaroslaw Leshko, writing in the foreword to the recently published book "Arkadia Olenska-Petryshyn: Oil Paintings, Etchings, Drawings."

This book is a beautiful and fitting tribute to Olenska-Petryshyn - artist, art critic and editor - who died tragically in 1996. Bilingual publications in Ukrainian and English on Ukrainian artists are few. Those dedicated to professional artists trained and working in the diaspora are even fewer. Professionally written, edited and designed art books are a rarity, and those written in good English and Ukrainian are rare indeed. This publication, therefore, is an unexpected treat.

This attractive hard cover book was published in the autumn of 2003. The introductory essay, "Paintings of Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn" by Jaroslaw Leshko, professor of art history at Smith College, Northampton, is informative and thoughtful. It guides the reader through Olenska-Petryshyn's developments in painting and provides an analysis of the work in one of the mediums in which the artist excelled. The author has obviously studied the oil paintings carefully and researched their context.

There are 100 full-page reproductions of paintings, prints and drawings, including 92 paintings in full color in the album section.

In the introductory essay Prof. Leshko writes that "Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn's life was consumed with art which defined and nurtured her. She brought to the process of the making of art passion, discipline and an immense intellectual curiosity." His stated aim was to document the evolution of Olenska-Petryshyn's career as a painter. As a result he does not deal with her drawings or her work as a printmaker.

The author explores some of the defining moments of Olenska-Petryshyn's life in relation to developments in her oeuvre as seen in the context of broader developments of French 20th century painting and in particular American art of the New York School. The approach is chronological and parallels the divisions of the album into "Early Works (1955-1961)," "Abstract-Figurative Period (1962-1967)," "Figurative Period (1967-1974)," "Flora - Foliage and Flowers (1974-1980)," and "Flora - Cacti (1980-1996)." It is stimulating to read an insightful and art historically sound discussion of the artist's paintings.

Prof. Leshko provides an analysis of individual works of art, which are reproduced in miniature within the text and appear as full-page images in the album section. This is a welcome and refreshing departure from much writing on Ukrainian art and artists where specific works do not get much attention. Style, formal elements and iconography of selected characteristic paintings within each period are discussed. Prof. Leshko supports his claims with references to artists and styles which had an impact on Olenska-Petryshyn at specific times in her career. He discusses some of the images in detail and provides insights into the work. Occasionally Prof. Leshko only hints at underlying meanings by examining the formal and symbolic elements and posing questions, but he stops short of providing answers as in discussing "Castle of Arianrhod," the interesting and enigmatic work that graces the front cover of the book.

His thesis that Olenska-Petryshyn rejected the mimetic approach to art in favor of the expressive is logically argued and documented with examples of her work throughout her 40 creative years. Quotations of statements about her art and art making made by the artist are used to further support the advancement of his thesis. Page references are provided, but for some reason the source is not indicated.

Over-all in the introductory essay Prof. Leshko creates a convincing picture of the artist's development as a painter from her formative years to maturity. Olenska-Petryshyn's unique and fascinating vision crystallized in the 1970s and prevailed in her work for over 20 years. Starting with the stylized foliage in combination with figures, Olenska-Petryshyn moved to highly controlled arrangements of flowers and plants, grounded in nature but transformed by her experience of them as line, color and texture. A trip to Arizona in 1980 resulted in the start of her most prolific cactus series which she pursued passionately and with dedication until the end. It is this last series that distinguishes her work from other artists, both in Ukraine and in the United States.

Also included in the monograph is a listing of individual and group exhibitions, a list of paintings in public collections, a bibliography and a biographical chronology. The bibliography is chronological, but unfortunately it is not in the accepted bibliographic format. The list of illustrations at the end provides measurements and media, but does not include the location of the works. Only some of the dates are listed.

The publication was compiled and edited by the poet Bohdan Boychuk of the Ukrainian New York Group who knew the artist personally, as she was a younger member of the group. It contains two photographs of the strikingly beautiful young Olenska-Petryshyn. Ihor and Severyn Barabakh were responsible for the aesthetically pleasing design. It was a joint publication of the National Museum of Ukraine and The Ukrainian Museum (New York).

According to the information provided in the book, Olenska-Petryshyn was born on June 19, 1934, in Roznoshentsi near Zbarazh, Ukraine. She emigrated with her parents to the United States of America in 1949 and lived in New York. After obtaining her high school diploma, she studied art at Hunter College with such renowned American abstract expressionist artists as Robert Motherwell and William Baziotes. She also took lessons from the Ukrainian artist Myroslav Radysh. In 1955 she received her B.A. and in 1956 married Volodymyr Petryshyn, a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University.

As an active member of the New York Group of Ukrainian writers and artists, she helped organize the Association of Young Ukrainian Artists and in 1957 exhibited her works for the first time at the group show of the Association of Young Ukrainian Artists in New York. In 1963 Olenska-Petryshyn received an M.A. from Hunter College and exhibited her abstract expressionist paintings at the Bodley Gallery in New York. When the Petryshyns moved to Chicago in 1964, the artist took graduate level courses toward a Ph.D. degree in art history. From 1967 until her death she lived and worked in New Brunswick, N.J. She exhibited in the United States and internationally in Canada, Belgium, China and Ukraine. In all she had 48 solo exhibits and took part in numerous group shows.

I had the opportunity to see her large canvases of exotic flora and cacti in 1983 in an unusual but appropriate venue: the beautiful Garden Centre of Greater Cleveland in a setting of equally fascinating tropical plants and flowers.

Starting in 1990 with an exhibit at the National Museum in Lviv, Olenska-Petryshyn had nine exhibitions at all the major museums in Ukraine, including two shows at the National Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv in 1991 and 1996.

Olenska-Petryshyn was very much a part of the Ukrainian artistic and literary community in the United States, especially in New York. She was art editor of Suchasnist and wrote extensively about Ukrainian art and artists in the diaspora and in Ukraine. Her writings, including articles on art theory, particularly the development of the expressive theory of art in the 20th century, were published in 1997 under the title "U Vymirakh Formy i Ekspresii Statti." by Svitovyd Publishers in Kyiv. Mr. Boychuk wrote the excellent introduction to the collection. For some reason this information has been omitted from the "Chronology."

There are some minor inconsistencies in the publication, such as the spelling of the artist's name on the cover as Arkadia and "Arcadia" throughout the text and all of her professional literature and signatures. There are also a few typos missed by the proofreaders.

On the whole however, the author, editor and designers of the book are to be congratulated on a wonderful and serious publication that enriches our knowledge of Ukrainian artists and highlights the contribution made by one of the artists of Ukrainian heritage to American art.

The book is available from The Ukrainian Museum in New York, 212 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003; telephone, (212) 228-0110 at a cost of $45 plus postage and handling.

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