Opanas Zalyvakha's authorial postcards: main points, contexts, visual images (based on materials from private archives)

Abstract

The main goal of the research. Realization of general characteristics of epistolary heritage of the well-known artist-sixtier Opanas Zalyvakha and arrangement of postcardsfrom private archives as text and visuals sources. Outlining the specifics of the authorialpresentation of graphic images of postcards, identifying of semantic accents in the text with the help of lettering. Methodology. The author applied a systematic approach, deduction methods, historical and typological methods for a general analysis of the artist'sepistolary in the context of the research of the sixtiers' correspondence. In the course ofthe research, a structural-typological method was used to systematize and study textual and visual sources, and an iconological method was used to outline the figurative and symbolic content of postcards images. Scientific novelty. Opanas Zalyvakha’s epistolary was outlined as a valuable historical and artistic source. A part of the artist's authorial postcards from private archives was introduced into scientific circulation and the historical and cultural context of the time of their creation was comprehensively cleared. The interpretation of graphic images of postcards and accentuation of meanings in the textual material of the artist's autographs was comprehensively analyzed. Conclusions. The article is the first attempt to systematically consider the aesthetic, philosophical, and semantic meanings which are reproduced in the texts and images of the authorial graphic postcards of Opanas Zalyvakha. The postcards’ textual information deepens these informational facts about the personalities who lived in the sixties and is a testament of the deep psychological introspection of the artist. These postcards allow us to understand the peculiarities of the artist’s existence in totalitarian conditions and the specifics oftheir work. Postcards’ visual images have powerful spiritual and aesthetic contents. These postcards allow us a more accurate understanding of the importance of intellectual and artistic heritage of the sixties in the formation of cultural and artistic national worldview of the second half of the 20th century.