Belarusian patron gifted 15 paintings by Tsvirka, Zhdanau, and Klinau to Skaryna Library in London
Belarusian collector from the USA, Iosif Levitan, donated 13 works by the classic of national landscape, Vital Tsvirka, and one work each by representatives of the Belarusian artistic underground, Aliaksei Zhdanau and Artur Klinau, to the library.
The new collection covers several important trends in Belarusian painting of the late 20th century — from classical landscape to post-avant-garde of the 1980s.
The collection's core consists of 12 landscapes by Vital Tsvirka, painted in the 1970s and early 1980s, and one of his still lifes. The artist is known for his unique perspective on the Belarusian landscape.
Tsvirka was a People's Artist of Belarus, rector of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts, and chairman of the Union of Artists of Belarus. Most of his works are preserved in the National Art Museum.
Two more canvases represent a new Belarusian trend of the late 1980s.
Aliaksei Zhdanau's painting "Mutants. Family IV" was created in 1989. Zhdanau belonged to Belarusian unofficial art, participating in groups "Pluralis", "Forma", and "Corvus Cecus". He explained his series about mutants as a reflection of the societal mutation that began after the 1917 revolution.
Artur Klinau is represented by his early work "Landscape with Pipes", also painted in 1989. This is a rare example of the artist's expressionist period, as he later moved on to installations, Sots Art, photography, literature, and cinema.
Both paintings — by Zhdanau and Klinau — were exhibited in 1989 at the First Republican Exhibition of Non-Traditional Art "Panorama" in an abandoned house on Minsk's Handlovaya Street. Later, they were shown at exhibitions of new Eastern European art in Amsterdam.
Other works from his collection, Iosif Levitan donated to museums in the USA and to Belarusian diaspora organizations in America.
All 15 paintings can now be seen at the Skaryna Library in London.
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