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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 31 October 2008

One of the Grygoriy Shyshko paintings depicting an industrial landscape

‘Singing’ Shyshko’s art on show

HE takes an industrial landscape and turns it into a canvas so rich with fiery hues that critics suggest that it almost “sings” with vivid colour.
The work of Grygoriy Shyshko (1923-1994) on show at Islington’s Chambers art gallery from next week, records the changing backcloth of the Ukraine’s extreme summers and winters.
A Socialist Realist artist, Shyshko’s celebration of industry in reds and oranges has captured the imagination of new art lovers.
The themes that dominate his works are the mines, steelworks and construction sites in and around Kryvyi Rih, the mining town where he lived for most of his life.
More than 60 paintings will be on show with prices ranging from £1,500 to £100,000.
Art historian Catherine Marshall, who will launch the exhibition, said: “This is an artist who has become increasing popular with art lovers looking for something really striking.”
Shyshko graduated from The Odessa College of Fine Art in 1953.
His paintings are in museums in the Ukraine and Russia and in private collections all over the world. Shyshko was first shown in London in 1993 and since then he has had 12 retrospectives in the UK.
In 1934 Stalin had established the need for an art that was “socialist in content, national in form” and, in this context, Shyshko’s paintings would have been politically acceptable.
They conformed to the notion of celebrating the beauty of labouring life in the service of the state. They captured the distinctive period of Stalin’s post-Second World War industrial revolution. But, at the same time, Shyshko managed to develop his own distinctive style independent of official Soviet realist art.
His paintings served as a powerful means of personal expression, conveying his own unique responses to the local landscape.

• The Shyshko exhibition is at Chambers Gallery, 23 Long Lane, EC1, near Barbican, from November 5 to December 5. Details: 020 7606 8844.

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