 The Artist Volodymyr Roll By Kateryna Ivanyshyna |
Could one formulate a typical image of an artist? Would that be Kyiv’s XXI century “dendi” who sells his works to curious tourists and drinks a lot at bohemian parties? This looks to be true. The alternative is a completely different one: a hungry “monk of art” who hates the whole world and his talent as well. This picture may seem a little exaggerated but it still has some truth in it. Volodymyr Roll is neither of the first cast nor the second. He is, however, one of the many whose life is divided into two periods – in his case, soviet and post-soviet. He is one of the few who went against the mainstream and refused to create commercially successful “art”. For that he sacrificed high fees and sonorous fame, comfortable everyday life and Kyiv’s glamour. He is still living in the village Vilshanka (Gytomyr region) where he was born and rarely shows up in the capital. He does not dream about wealthy life but is thankful to God for his gift.
“Art cannot be the means of earning money”, says Volodymyr, “and an artist cannot be a beggar or a sponsor-hunter – it is humiliating! Maybe I am too ambitious or conservative but this is not my way.”
His way was always different from the one that was common: “When I was studying in the regional art institute and later in Moscow Suricov’s art institute we were taught not to reveal ourselves but to borrow ideas from western glamorous pop-art magazines. The Soviet Union did not need individuals but craftsmen – I refused to do that,” he continues.
A little later Ukraine encountered a post-soviet period when everyone wanted to speak freely but were still too afraid. “The beginning of the nineties is the time of my early works where the political background is vivid and quite sarcastic. That is why the authorities did not want to exhibit them”, says the artist. His portrait of five communist heads (“The Sextet”) looks pretty true and even funny today while during those days it was considered dangerous.
One of his first exhibitions was devoted to the soldiers of the Ukrainian Partisan Army(UPA) where the artist again portrayed the horror of the soviet era. “That exhibition was seen by many UPA soldiers still alive at the time. The viewing evoked tears from many as they stood in front of the works,” says Volodymyr. Today’s young generation can only imagine what the words “political prisoner” mean. For such people as Vjacheslav Chornovil or L. Luckjanenko, both of whom were proclaimed “nationalists”, a term that equated to “criminals” during soviet times, a picture showing a man’s head between jail bars (a work called “The Prisoner”) was painful enough to cause tears. No less meaningful were other of Roll’s images like “The Backs of the Heads” symbolizing the shaved heads of Afghanistan soldiers.
It was not by chance that the artist appealed to Chornovil: nearly 10 years before the tragic car accident that took the life of the Ukrainian politician Volodymyr Roll painted “The Cross” that was a symbolic portrait of Chornovil. After the funeral ceremony many people said that Roll’s picture was almost like a photograph of Chornovil’s tomb. Today the work is preserved in the newly opened memorial museum to Vjacheslav Chornovil in Kyiv.
“After my exhibition of Soviet era material I received many invitations to work abroad. It is worth mentioning that my exhibition in Ukraine was not on any list of coming-soon cultural events,” continues Roll. After the same exhibition the artist had problems signing into the Union of Ukrainian Artists, the state institution that officially acknowledges one as an artist.
After that episode Volodymyr realized his disappointment in the way modern art and artists had to strive for a living. So he chose his own way of doing things. Today several Kyiv and regional museums, private collections abroad (e. g. France, Czech Republic) and his own workshop in his village house his pictures. He does not want to exhibit his art any more as that would mean advertising it as a consumer product: “A picture is much more than a fancy detail of someone’s interior. An artist should have several “fans” of his art and create only for them and for himself.” says Roll. He has some fans – at least his wife and brother.
Volodymyr turned away the numerous proposals to work abroad: “I have many relatives in European countries who would arrange my comfortable living there but I can’t leave Ukraine. I believe an artist is a guarder of the culture where he was born and he does not have a right to resign from his post. And besides this, I find more ideas on my own vegetable garden than anywhere in the world,” says he.
Such a position may sound foolish as he stays unknown for the vast majority of people and even his co-villagers rest indifferent towards his art. Many of them don’t even know he is an artist.
Volodymyr himself acknowledges that his works, in his words are “simple and symbolic”: the faces of his heroes look like ancient idols from Ukraine’s pagan past. Perhaps that is why the image of the “stone baba” often appears on his canvas. “My figures are simple like primitive sculptures or wooden-carved statues of our ancestors,” he explains. The tendency towards the use of ancient amateur art is not by chance; his father who originally comes from Western Ukraine is a carving master and his mother is an amateur artist. Volodymyr explains his choice of the artistic way: “I want to show the real Ukraine – not as a myth of an eternal blooming village country where people wear “sharovary” and drink horilka , but the true Ukraine – with far larger cultural roots, with dark historical times, a country that was deeply infected by the Soviets and from which period it is still trying to recover.”
In his everyday life Volodymyr Roll is hospitable and cheerful. His country house is a perfect place for his workshop and a source for his inspiration – the vegetable garden is right beside. He comes to Kyiv only to buy canvas and paint. It seems he does not like the capital, the former Soviet center of Ukraine’s crossed life and its painful lessons.
“I have always gone against,” he says, “against communist ideology, all existing rules, but never against art.”
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Ivan Mykolaychuk A Talent of Remembered Ancestors
My American Adventures at O'Hare Airport
The Black Madonna
Read also previous issue' articles:
THE EAR: Time to Stop Traffic Terror
The USSR: What was it?
Socialist Realism From One Collector's Viewpoint
Weak Laws Make Ukraine Europe's Dumping Ground
Social Entrepreneurship Expands in Ukraine
Lenin and Ukraine
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