Republican Art Gallery in Minsk’s Kozlov Street showcases pictorial and graphical works, sculptures, and decorative-and-applied arts

Republican Art Gallery in Minsk’s Kozlov Street showcases pictorial and graphical works, sculptures, and decorative-and-applied arts — ceramic and batik items — created by members of Mogilev and Bobruisk organisations of Belarusian Union of Artists

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‘A person is a demiurge; he creates while working on the world’s substance, shaping it and enlightening it. There’s great lightness in creativity; it encourages us to fly but, at the same time, there’s also a great difficulty, pain and obstacle for flight’.

Nikolay Berdyaev

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The Mogilev and Bobruisk organisations do not boast the greatest number of artists. However, they are rich in personalities, and have strong traditions of the national school, as laid by famous predecessors. The Mogilev Region has produced so many great masters, famous both in Belarus and far beyond: Vitold Belynichsky-Birulya, Anton Barkhatkov and Pavel Maslennikov.

In building on the experience of the previous creative generation, contemporary painters haven’t rested on their laurels; they’ve sought out new forms of artistic expression. The painters, sculptures and ceramic masters whose works are on show at the current exhibition at Minsk’s Arts Palace each have their own creative dialogue with the past. Some have moved away from depicting reality, boldly breaking forms; others are carefully preserving and developing the traditions of the realistic school.

Spectators at the exhibition note that each artist is remarkable in their own way: they have their own world perception and outlook, and diverse approaches towards creativity. Each is unique creatively.

“We’ve gathered together our best canvases, graphic pieces, sculptures, batik and ceramics. We’re connected by our place of residence: it’s around us, it’s inside us,” notes the curator of the exhibition, famous sculptor Andrey Vorobiev, the Chairman of the Mogilev regional organisation of the Belarusian Union of Artists. He notes, “Everything that we’re showing here has been created recently: over the last decade. We’ve thoroughly wiped away the dust from what was created previously.”

Audiences will also see Alexey Litin’s photographs of regional artists at work in their studios, recording their processes, as a chronicle. This will surely be of interest to the sophisticated residents of Minsk.