PREVIEW ART
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. z; ‘ I. x.‘ \- .\N l ' ‘5 . I Mykota Pymonenka: Wedding in the Kiev Region (detail), 1891
John Byme: Sell Portrait The proudest boast oltbe newly reiurbished City Art Centre is that it has become the llrst gallery in the United Kingdom to instal an escalator. Obviously the addition is there to ease access ior the disabled (there is also a new tilt) and to make visiting six ltoors oi art a little sweeter tor the
weary. But, lor GAG curator Herbert Coutts, the escalator is also an important symbol, ‘I like to think ol the gallery as a sort oi department store,’ he says. The image is oi eager art lovers surveying the contents oi each store as they rise, majestically, up through the building.
And there is plenty to see: apart irom the tour lloors presently set aside ior Ukrainian art, there are three more iloors oi art irom the city’s permanent collection, a welcome addition tor those ol us who lind the Gallery at Modern Art too lar away tor weekday visits. Most ol the ‘important' Scottish artists oi this and the last century are represented. Fergusson’s lamous ‘The Blue llat’ hangs alongside works by the Colourlsts, Glasgow Boys and Glasgow Style artists. Contemporary artists include Bellany, Byme, Davie, Biackadder, nedpath, Eardley,
E llowson, Currie, McFadyen and nae.
! Two more iloors, still to be developed,
5 will be devoted to educational
I programmes.
; Expensive and lengthy as its
. reiurbishment has been, the changes
! to the City Art Centre should better
. - . - . leguipltto carry on its role asamost Mykola Kaspemvych: cum (detail), c1920 { public-spirited oi art galleries. This
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academy had been founded and | result was a beguiling mixture of ; Not surprsingly, there are no ; exhibiting space has, perhaps uniquely Ukrainian artists challenged to forge primitivist folk art and continental examples of Socialist Realist art in z in Edinburgh, managed to create an a national art. These are some of the cubism. But the creative freedom Of i the exhibition. presumably the atmosphere in which an 008808 t0 00
those years was short-lived: in 1937 Ukrainians fee] that Communism’s | intimidating. in 1985 the ‘Emperor’s BOiChUk was charged being ‘an I favoured genre has very little to so i wamon' .mlbttlon to agent of the Vatican’, and he and his ~ with their own perception of i with its record-breaking 4000 visitors a wife were executed. Stalin had
great works of the avant-garde; inspired by the Cubist and Futurist movements of France and Italy, once again Ukrainians injected a
themselves. I day. The iuture holds some promising
traditional element of their own, In decreed that henceforth all art must Spirit of Ukmine; 500 years of shows too, particularly January’s the case of Mykhailo Boichuk, the be Socialist Realism, dedicated to ! painting continues at the City Art ‘Great Rubbish Show’. Watch this outstanding artist of this time, the the glorification of the Soviet state. i Centre until 9 jan. I space. (Miranda France)
The List 23 October- 5 November 1992 53