Ukrainian identity in the creative work of William Kurelek through the example of the series "The Ukrainian Pioneer" and "Ukrainian Pioneer Women"

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to raise the question of the Ukrainian identity in the artwork of Canadian Ukrainian artist William Kurelek, using as examples of his series "The Ukrainian Pioneer" and "Ukrainian Pioneer Women " as well as to characterize the problem in the context of the author's artistic searches. Methodology. General scientific and interdisciplinary methods of research - analysis, synthesis, generalization, formalization and a comparative method were used to carry out the set of tasks. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is the analysis of art-stylistic features and the identification of the features of Ukrainian identity in the works of W. Kurelek.  Conclusions. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of his "multi-series" art, for the first time, four types of concept of identity were presented, which the author portrayed in accordance with selected contexts: national, social, personalized (personality) and identity as a "sense of community". In particular, the characteristic features of Ukrainian identity are analyzed in detail using six examples of W. Kurelek’s works of his series “The Ukrainian pioneer” and some works of his series “Ukrainian pioneer women”. In his art, we find a single formula of Ukrainian identity, which the author understood as a set of ethnic, national, gender, and religious characteristics inherent in one or another person, demonstrating his identity in the corresponding group affiliation.