Inspired by Archaic Art: The "Primary Forms" Exhibition Opens in Odesa

The exhibition “Primary Forms,” created as part of the summer internship for students in the sculpture department of the M. B. Grekov Odessa Professional Art College, opened on July 5 at the Odessa Archaeological Museum.

The project is dedicated to exploring archaic sculpture as a source of contemporary artistic thought. The exhibits at the Odessa Archaeological Museum served as the starting point for the students’ creative work: anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, ancient sculptures, ritual objects, and symbolic forms that have preserved the primal energy of human culture.

“The students’ focus was not on historical reconstruction or stylization, but on identifying universal sculptural principles that remain relevant regardless of time. The archaic form emerges here as a vessel of collective memory and profound meanings. Its conciseness, monumentality, and symbolic expressiveness open up possibilities for contemporary reinterpretation, in which ancient images take on new nuances and personal interpretations,” explained one of the exhibition’s curators, art historian and and a staff member at the Odessa Archaeological Museum, Marina Avdeeva.

In the works on display, each artist offers their own way of engaging with archetypes and cultural memory: Sofia Ptashnik (“Two-Faced”), Kateryna Voitek (“Sea”), Kateryna Doroshenko (“Angel”), Varvara Nesinenko (“Totem Animal”), Zlata Maltseva (“Convention”), Lyubava Madonich (“Solis”), Yana Kim (“Balbal”), Ruslan Bugera (“Archaic”), Olena Bosyuk (“Zoomorphic Statuette. Reinterpretation”), Kateryna Komarnitska (“Chicken”), and Polina Petrovska (“Idol”). 

“What makes this exhibition interesting is that it is the first collaborative project between the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities and the Odessa Archaeological Museum. We were able to raise funds and assist with the organization. The Society secured funding to provide the artists with materials, produce banners and posters, and print postcards. All proceeds from the sale of postcards will go toward a fundraiser for our colleague, who is currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” said Oksana Hrytsyuta, chair of the board of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities and head of the exhibition department at the Odessa Archaeological Museum.

The archaeologist admits that this exhibition offers an unconventional view of the museum’s collection, one that is not clouded by professional bias.

“The sculptures and other artifacts are beautiful in and of themselves, but we study them purely from a scientific and methodological perspective and simply stop noticing their aesthetic beauty. But the artists focused precisely on that, and the result is incredible,” she says.

For a faculty member of the sculpture department at the Odessa Professional Art College named after M. B. Grekov and the curator of the summer internship project, Odessa-based sculptor Andriy Akhtyrsky, it was of fundamental importance that the entire process take place directly within the museum environment. 

“The students worked on their graphic art within the museum walls, while they created their sculptures right in the inner courtyard, surrounded by historical monuments. They had the opportunity to constantly observe ancient and archaic sculptures, as well as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, to study their plasticity, proportions, and generalization of form, and then to reinterpret what they saw in their own works. “The result was a series of contemporary works in which the students themselves sensed something primal, symbolic, and, to a certain extent, totemic,” the sculptor notes.

According to the instructor, ongoing communication with museum staff and archaeologists became an important part of the project.

“Almost every day, we received guidance from Alla Glavenchuk, museum director Igor Pistruil, Oksana Hrytsyuta, and other experts. They helped the students gain a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural context of the museum artifacts. In particular, Alla Vasylivna explained how, during the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, sculptures might have been painted using natural materials such as plants, leaves, earth, and mineral pigments. "This also influenced the artistic approach to our works: some sculptures were tinted in shades of cobalt, bluish, greenish, and sandy tones," the instructor noted.

Vladimir Chigrinets, a consultant at the Odessa National Art Museum, believes that the exhibition is a fine example of fruitful collaboration between quite different cultural institutions.

“Although the context in which archaeology and art education intersect may not be immediately apparent, art history offers many examples of artists turning to the art of ancient cultures, archaeology, and ethnography in search of inspiration. Thanks to the sincere dedication and hard work of all project participants, one of the most interesting art exhibitions in Odesa in recent times has opened at the Archaeological Museum,” he concluded.

Кирило Бойко, Ната Чернецька