Kryvolap: His Journey, Ukraine’s Colors, Freedom, War, and Art

Anatoly Kryvolap turns 80 on Sept. 11. A Ukrainian painter and master of non-figurative painting and landscape, was awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in 2012. He became a full member of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine in 2021 and received the Academy’s Gold Medal in 2025 for his outstanding contribution to Ukrainian visual art, and also named a National Legend of Ukraine. Since 2010, Kryvolap has topped the rankings of the most expensive Ukrainian artists at international auctions, including Phillips, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, and Christie’s.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Kyiv Post: When did you first feel that being an artist was your calling? Anatoly Kryvolap: It all began in childhood. Drawing was the most natural thing for me. When I asked my mother the same question you are asking me now, she said, “When you were little, you would draw horses all over my walls. And I had to whitewash those walls all the time after your creative adventures.” In her monograph about you, art historian Olesia Avramenko wrote: “It is unlikely that anyone could have imagined then [during Anatoly Kryvolap’s childhood] that many years later, a dark blue horse painted against a clear Yahotyn night would travel not simply to London, but to Phillips de Pury, one of the world’s most prestigious art auctions.” What color dominated your childhood and youth? What color was Ukraine for you then? Other Topics of Interest Zelensky Says No Three-Way Peace Talks Until Russian Elections, Warns Moscow Escalates Attacks During Diplomacy Kyiv and Washington remain in daily contact as Canada prepares new sanctions and joins Ukraine’s FREYJA air-defense initiative. Light blue and blue. The sky was blue. And so was the water. I grew up near a fairly large lake. At night, when there was no electricity, the darkness had this very particular nighttime color that created a kind of magic. And I also have these vivid childhood memories. When girls got married, they would put on Ukrainian traditional dress – embroidered shirts, plakhtas… All of this formed a mosaic of what I would later create. “Ukrainian Motif,” 2010. Oil on canvas. (Photo from Anatoly Kryvolap’s website) It is 2026. Looking at Ukraine through the eyes of an artist who has found the key to mastering color, what color is your country today? I think these are contrasting colors – dark blue, red, black. And, I suppose, there must also be bright yellow, because it is the color of light and hope. And if you look into the future, what color will dominate Ukraine? Our native colors – blue and yellow. This endless line of field and sky – although simple, it is very powerful. You have not left Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and began supporting the Ukrainian military from its first days. Yes, I haven’t gone anywhere. Even when the threat was just 30 kilometers [18 miles from Kyiv], I didn’t leave. My support was aimed at helping Ukrainian soldiers. Of course, I have somewhat greater opportunities, so overall I have purchased around $500,000 worth of aid for our military. You belong to a generation of artists who came of age during Soviet times. Yet you searched for and found your own distinctive style. Your work is deeply connected to the Ukrainian landscape, and recognition came to you, so to speak, at the right time. What has helped, and continues to help, you preserve that inner core? Pure intuition. During those years you mentioned, I was sitting in Kyiv, in a basement studio, in a boiler room in Nyvky, experimenting and searching – trying to understand how things should be, how to touch what was close and meaningful to me. I didn’t take part in exhibitions. I withdrew into solitude and became so absorbed in that search that I didn’t notice either time or the fact that, during that difficult but important period, I was essentially outside the artistic world. It lasted for about a decade, until around 1986-87. And it was an extraordinarily interesting and intense time. Anatoly Kryvolap at work, 2011. (Photo from Olesia Avramenko’s book “Metaphysics of Anatoly Kryvolap’s Pure Color.”) International recognition came later. Where was your first exhibition abroad? My first exhibition abroad was in Nuremberg in 1992. In Kyiv, I sold one of my paintings for an unimaginable $300 at the time. Then I went to Germany for the opening of my solo exhibition – and there my painting, a Carpathian landscape measuring 87 by 105 centimeters [34 by 42 inches], was bought for 12,000 German marks! I realized that what I was doing resonated with people and was valued. Your work is deeply connected to the Ukrainian landscape. I often thought about landscape, which had been unfairly pushed to the sidelines. I discovered how to use color to convey my feeling of nature. I also believe landscape is the most patriotic genre because it can fully and subtly convey the beauty of a country. Until around 2000, I worked very seriously with abstraction. I had been interested in it since my youth. Then, when I moved back to live outside the city, I saw again, from the perspective of my adult life, the lake I had admired as a child. A certain impulse appeared – both in my work and in life in general. So I became interested in working with landscape in a way that would restore its rightful place in art, based on my own personal history with abstraction. Tell us about your experience working on the murals created for the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the village of Lypivka, Kyiv Oblast. Anatoly Kryvolap while working on the murals for the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God. (Photo via Anatoly Kryvolap’s website.) At first, I refused the proposal. I told the project’s initiator and sponsor that I was an abstractionist and that this was not for me. Time passed, and one day a woman told me that this was not the kind of commission one could refuse. Perhaps I owed something to God. So I decided I would do the church, but on the condition that no one would control my work. And that is how it happened. I worked very harmoniously with Ihor Stupachenko. We divided the work. He took care of the themes and composition, while my responsibility was color. Everything happened in an exciting and somehow unexpectedly easy way. I felt some kind of help from above. On the first day I came to paint, there were four canvases, 2 by 4 meters [6 by 13], lying there. I simply decided to try to do something with them – and I painted one in a day. I painted the last canvas in an unusual way: they wheeled me around on a special chair. Strength kept appearing because throughout the entire process of creating the murals, there was some inexplicable help with all of us and above us. This church, which was shelled by the enemy in the spring of 2022, has become a true historical monument. The church was literally shot up by the enemy: the archangels had their chests torn open, the seraphim had their wings ripped off… We decided to leave the murals in this condition for future generations and as an example of a crime against Ukrainian culture. In 2015, artists Anatoly Kryvolap and Ihor Stupachenko began creating the first part of the murals, which were installed in the church in 2020-21. After the beginning of the full-scale war, the village of Lypivka was occupied by Russian forces. The church became a shelter. Fierce fighting took place around the church in the spring of 2022. The dome, where the archangels, seraphim, and Pantocrator had already been installed, was particularly badly damaged. – Kyiv Post How has your sense of beauty changed during the war? It practically hasn’t changed. What does freedom mean to you? Freedom is when you can do what brings you joy. To live the way you want, without prohibitions. Freedom is being able to express your thoughts openly when there is a need to do so. And freedom is also being surrounded by people who are equally free. Looking back at your journey – and it has been a long and beautiful one – what gives you the greatest sense of fulfillment? Everything. My entire journey, from the very beginning. I wouldn’t change a single day. With all the failures and successes, with everything I have experienced, my life has been incredibly interesting and exciting! The “Structures” exhibition at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, 2009. (Photo from Olesia Avramenko’s book “Metaphysics of Anatoly Kryvolap’s Pure Color.”) Tell us about your plans. What are your upcoming projects? My immediate plans are to open several exhibitions, and then I’ll think about what to do next. During the war, I continue working on all my main themes. Starting Sept. 8, my exhibition will be presented at the Museum of Avant-Garde. Two more exhibitions will welcome visitors from mid-September at Art-Domosfera and the Kyiv Picture Gallery. What would you like to wish Ukrainians and the world in your jubilee year? Ukrainians need to unite because the danger is obvious. And given that this is the first time Ukraine as a state has fought for itself, we need to understand that this is a historic fact, and we need to help the army – each of us in whatever way we can. As for foreigners, I would wish that they remain attentive, empathize with Ukraine and support it in this incredibly difficult struggle, the consequences of which will have such a profound impact on the modern history of humanity.