ACADEMIC TEXTS REPOSITORY

Summary

The article attempts an artistic-aesthetic analysis of modern art in Zakarpattia during the 1960s-1980s, characterized as nonconformism and underground. The liberalization of the political and ideological regime during the so-called Khrushchev's «Thaw» led to a change in the principles of total control and a decrease in the engagement of the Soviet system. The study argues that D. Kremen and Y. Cherniy truly contradicted the established philosophical, ethical, and aesthetic codes of society and directed their art towards self-expression. The author of the article considers artistic processes not through a selection of official events, but through a combination of ideas that define the particular development of the cultural environment during a certain historical period. The change in the overall cultural paradigm allowed for the inclusion of the names of those Zakarpattia artists in the all-Ukrainian context whose creativity was suppressed or briefly highlighted during Soviet times. In the practice of individual artists, we observe a revival of tradition, particularly in ethnic imagery. In painting, social and everyday life themes were actively developed, with ordinary peasants being the main protagonists, in contrast to the industrial themes that were prevalent in Ukrainian painting at that time. With the consent of the artist's family, for the first time, the letter from D. Kremen to Y. Cherniy is published, which complements the overall characterization of the cultural life of Zakarpattia on the brink of the 1970s-1980s and serves as a vivid confirmation of the author's support during a time of sharp criticism and persecution of the artist.