Small Graphics by Boris Pianyda

Abstract

The small form is usually regardered a subsidiary of the large easel format. Yet it represents an autonomous field of artistic creativity. This observation fully applies to the small-scale graphic works of the renowned ceramic artist, Borys Pianyda (1935–2020) – Honored Artist of Ukraine and leading master of the Budyansk Faience Factory, widely known for his paintings on faience. Pianyda turned to small-form graphics in his mature period, when his creative outlook had already been shaped by years of engagement with the material and spiritual culture of his environment. The poetics of the small form is rooted in the distinction between creative life and artistic production; it is actualized precisely as an expression of the artist’s inner creative being. The concept of the small form encompasses, on the one hand, a reduced physical format and, on the other, a scale commensurate with human perception. In the context of the crisis of the “grand picture” as an artistic form and modernism as a mode of artistic thinking, the small form became both a testing ground and resource for seeking new directions. Today, small form continues to stimulate the development of plastic thinking of both the artist and the viewer. Within the small form, the artist’s organic nature finds its most authentic manifestation. In his small-scale graphic works, B. Pianyda turns to deeply personal, inwardly experienced imagery, developing his core creative theme: human life within its traditional natural and cultural environment. This theme unfolds into a mythological cycle of life and being, of action and image. Through these works, the artist created a personal mythology – a symbolic universe reflecting his spiritual and emotional world. Despite their apparent heterogeneity these works are united by the personality of the author’s individuality, by the integrity and organic nature of his emotional, psychological and volitional sphere. Pianyda’s small-form graphics fully reveal the nature of his artistic language and plastic thinking. Though these works have not yet acquired museum status, they remain an essential part of the artist’s creative heritage – one that deserves preservation and recognition in our turbulent times.