ALEXANDER ROITBURD 1961-2021 Odesa, Ukraine

Oleksandr Rojtburd (Ukrainian: Олександр Анатолійович Ройтбурд; 14 October 1961, Odesa, USSR – 8 August 2021, Kyiv, Ukraine) was a participant of the Ukrainian New Wave and co-founder of the theory of the Ukrainian Transavantgard In the early 1990s, the USSR as the social framework that subtended Soviet-Ukrainian art fell apart. Though one cannot reduce Soviet art to socialist realism or classical-style painting, the post-modernity of Ukrainian contemporary art has formed in contrast to the former phenomenon. In this respect, Rojtburd's painting was post-modern in this sense. He died from cancer in Kyiv on 8 August 2021. Aside from ironic, highly stylized, self-consciously painterly artistic works, his legacy includes the results of his local museum director activities. Further into the past, he exhibited a rhetorical involvement via Facebook commentaries and demonstration participation in the events of 2013-2014 in Ukraine's capital. [ Oleksandr Rojtburd is considered to be one of the important phenomena of the Ukrainian New Wave movement.[ At first sight, his works are mostly mythologically determined and pervaded by archetypal representations. Yet the elements of the surreal remain within the organic limits of a subtle evolution. As a painter, he never compromised on developing and defining his personal style through a transformation in search of the Greek model. His latest works are characterized by the rejection of sarcasm and drama. The conflict disappears from the scene in favor of subtle irony and intimacy