Danylo Movchan – paintings, interview

UKRAINE DANYLO MOVCHAN

DANYLO MOVCHAN is an Ukrainian artist born in 1979 who lives and works in Lviv, Ukraine. His works are mainly located in churches but also in private collections in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Western Europe, Canada and USA. Danylo studied at the Lviv Decorative and Applied Art College named after I. Trush in its restoration department after that he was studying Sacred Art at Lviv National Academy of Arts. In Danylo’s works, he turns to topics that can open the path to God for him. Movchan is looking for images of new Christian symbols, where a person with their problems stands in the centre.

WAR IN UKRAINE

There is not enough peace to continue art

In your works you draw on aesthetics and mysticism belonging to the icons of eastern literature. In our world, contemplating an icon is both a path to God as well as a miracle, and the iconographer, i.e., its author, breaks away from the habit of expecting specific cognitive content. (So – to an extent – the splendour of the creator is diluted.) The piece becomes a mere tool – a message. Meanwhile, your painting is unique. How do you explain this discrepancy?

For my part, I do my best to listen to my inner voice. I can’t appraise my unique relationship with God and actually I don’t want to. Ideas come to me and spark new compositions, new images. I think this is an inherent part of every artist’s experience. But as an artist, I’m also a product of the environment and culture I live in and I draw inspiration there too. As you delve deeper into your environment, ideas begin to stream towards you. Notwithstanding, aspects of Christianity serve as additional fuel for my art. They give me food for thought.

The characters in your paintings seem to approach the viewer. They wouldn’t look out of place illustrating children’s fairy tales; many of them feature a stark white background. Is this how you bridge religious and secular worlds because those from a secular world might not necessarily know how to interpret Byzantine icons? Don’t you sometimes feel like you are straying near the limits of the established canon?

I approach this topic very carefully and creatively. This is a direction I’ve chosen deliberately. In portraying the sacred, one shouldn’t just take a topic and duplicate it. I see this clearly when considering centuries of iconography. New forms are always needed for a contemporary understanding of the truths of Christianity.

Is it easier to be an iconographer today in an increasingly black and white world – a world with binary views of good and evil? Is this not in synergy with the traditional iconographic palette’s depictions of good and evil?

My artistic language the way of my communication with the world has changed since that war

I don’t agree with that idea. I can’t say that the world has turned black and white. Our emotions have become increasingly nuanced and fundamental to our understanding of the world around us. If anything, colours have gained definition and become more vivid, rather than becoming blacker and whiter. We’re surrounded by many colours, quite a few of them representing various forms of good. The evil in my paintings, however, remains black.

There has been a war in your homeland for over a month. You have stayed in Kiev, a city under siege. We’re observing the war from behind the safety of our own borders. Above all, we are filled with admiration for the incredible attitude shown by Ukrainians defending their country. You have demonstrated remarkable dignity and restraint with respect to the wrongs and suffering inflicted on you; no complaints, no self-pity It’s extraordinary. This attitude shares similarities with the contemplation of an icon, with full awareness of the meaning of what is happening.

In the beginning, there were a few days of shock. For me, for my family, for everyone. Eventually however, I realized that I had to create new work – to show a new reality. Naturally, many questions arose – from my artistic point of view, there was a seeming dearth of colours and words to express this tragedy. I have noticed that my own artistic language, the way I communicate with the world, has changed since the start of the war.

For several years I have been drawing on paper with watercolors. Recently, this has proved to be a particularly useful technique, as it gives me the ability to bring my ideas to life quickly.

In the visual sphere, we are dealing with real images of death again, not metaphorical ones. Images of dying kings, saints, and knights who fell in combat against evil; images of the slaughter of innocents; medieval memes are all making a return. It seems that the work of iconographers has particular significance and meaning today.

In this terrible time of war for Ukraine, does art provide a reprieve - for its creator, the creator’s family, and the audience - from self-doubt and crushing despair?

It’s impossible to say at this point. We’re under constant risk of death. We’re in danger of witnessing the destruction of our entire culture and heritage. I’m still making new work, just to survive these nightmarish days and nights. But since the onset of the war, I’ve stopped painting icons. There is not enough peace in my heart to continue this sacred art. [MK]

The work of an icon painter, has a special meaning and message today