Main image: Maria (Margit) Sielska. Crimea, 1961. Photo by ArtLviv

The art exhibition featuring the paintings from the collection of the art historian, academician of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Literature, honorary academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, and distinguished figure in the arts of Ukraine, Eduard Dymschits, is returning the Odessa Art Gallery to the forefront of its own exhibition activities, research, and the display of Ukrainian art.

The artists' long and prolific careers have paved parallel paths in the development of Western Ukrainian art, spanning from the late 1920s to the second half of the 1980s.

Having developed during the interwar decades, initially influenced by the Lviv and Krakow schools of academic painting, Margit and Roman were part of the artistic association of young Lviv artists known as ARTES. This group embraced almost all the contemporary Western European art trends of the time. The expansion of local aesthetic traditions before World War II led to the emergence of a vivid phenomenon in Lviv modernism, closely linked to late post-impressionism, cubism, and documentary realism. The Italian, Spanish, and French surrealism in the work of ARTES artists created a vibrant but unfortunately short-lived "surreality." Their studies in Paris in the early 1930s enriched their artistic language for a lifetime. Learning from Fernand Léger, the Parisian circle of Pablo Picasso, and extensive research into the Barbizon school heritage and Paul Cézanne's influence on their work lasted throughout their lives.

Roman Sielsky, Beach with a Blue Awning, 1959

The vivid light and colors of the setting sun remained with them during the darkest times. In the classrooms of the Krakow Academy and during the post-war socialist realism period, the Selskys always found their uncompromising space of freedom.

"They were not just a loving couple, but also like-minded creators. These artists are among the most famous masters of visual arts not only in the Galician region but also in the context of the entire national culture," says Eduard Dymshits.

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the artists, and we are delighted to introduce you to the vibrant painting tradition of Western Ukraine.