«Inscription»
Volodymyr Budnikov

till 12 September

«Inscription»
Volodymyr Budnikov

Volodymyr Budnikov was born in 1947 in Kyiv. In 1965 he graduated from the Republican Art School named after T.G. Shevchenko, and in 1971 - the Kyiv State Art Institute (workshop of Tatiana Yablonskaya). Personal exhibitions were held in Germany, France, Austria, and annually in Ukrainian museums and galleries. Honored Artist of Ukraine, Professor of the National Academy of Arts. He currently lives and works in Kyiv.

«When we want to communicate something important not in the role of information, but in the sense of value, the first question is how to do it so as not to lose the main thing. There is a strange straight game between what is said and how it is said. The result of this contradictory relationship determines how securely the idea will be preserved, which has to be resolved in the language from time to time.

As I worked, I focused on the circumstances in which the speech may occur, as well as what threatens or hinders it. Moreover, I undertook «writing» rather than returning the painting to its literal essence - the principle according to which language becomes living, «living writing». The inscription appears as a boundary between the image and the narrative, being in both areas simultaneously, revealing how the abstract image holds the meaning in its perspective.

«Inscription»

The work of an artist is always exposed to language. It must deal with language. Of course, it is a language itself that reveals itself. Written, according to Boyce, in a sense turns into a picture. Following this correct statement, I drew the words and thus shook out the usual meaning so that the inscription would be alone with its own form each time. Something similar happens during the sound of a voice in singing when words are difficult to understand because of the peculiarities of pronunciation and because the everyday meaning attached to them becomes unimportant. In musical language, the phrase seems to be turned inside out; it brings itself to light. In the musical sound, the words continue to be turned into meaning through their separation from the verbal shell, their abstraction from the plot, to which they seem to be firmly embedded.

It was vital for me to focus on the duration of writing, on the process in the sense of progress, like growth or coming to the surface when the inscription reveals itself in fluidity. I focused on the inscription as an incomplete action to understand how a word is spoken when it is said».

From the text of Volodymyr Budnikov «Inscription», 2019

«The inscription in Budnikov's paintings is realized as an abstraction, breaking the habit of seeing a narrative, information, and concreteness in it. The artist raises the very concept of language and speech to the level of a philosophical category, a multidimensional phenomenon, a living organism that changes, leaves traces, undergoes metamorphosis, sheds old skin. Displays the inscription, the word from usability.

Budnikov emphasizes the freedom of interpretation, returning to art the right to life through co-creation with those who perceive, ignoring the question «What did the artist want to say?». Because the artist's job is not to say but to speak, encourage others to work to hear, live, think, and perhaps say something to themselves. Or the world».

From the text of Konstantin Doroshenko «What the artist wanted to say», 2019