The concept of a bullfight in the painting cycle «Ole!» by Les Podervianskyi

The review of Les Podervianskyi’s exhibition “Ole!”, which was presented at the Dymchuk Gallery in Kyiv in autumn 2021, focuses on the concept of bullfighting as a universal artistic plot. Many artists of different generations, including such eminent as P. Picasso or F. Goya, have repeatedly reproduced the bullfight, as a phenomenon of Spanish culture, in their artworks. Recently, some contemporary Ukrainian artists have turned to the symbolism and aesthetics of this Spanish plot, which is evidenced by the appearance of thematic exhibitions, including “Ole!” The text considers the phenomenon of L. Podervianskyi’s personality as an artist in the context of the history of contemporary Ukrainian art. It analyzed the variations of interpretations of torero and bull images from the standpoint of bullfighting philosophy, which allows us to comprehend the metaphorical depiction of the Spanish traditional battle in painting. The presented series of paintings is considered from different angles: 1) color and compositional solution; 2) the matador and the bull as multi-valued symbols of the universal plot; 3) the system of the exhibition project in the gallery space. One of the highlights is on the connection between text and image, in particular in the combination of the title and the image itself. Separately, it is covered the topic of Japanese culture, which is one of the central ones in L. Podervianskyi’s work: similar features in the construction of Japanese poetry and compositional techniques in painting are analyzed; the interchangeability of the use of bullfighting and kung fu plots as an artistic technique is explained. Mixing and layering the Ukrainian experience of the artist, images of the bullfighter and the bull and Japanese traditions creates a new system in the artistic dimension, in which the confrontation between the individual and the external world and the inner self becomes the central point.