Synytsia Grygoriy

More than 30 years ago, the Hryhorii Synytsia Art Gallery was opened at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Today, his paintings adorn the foyer of the university’s Centre for Culture and Arts. In reality, however, they do far more than decorate the space. They speak, ask questions, and address us with the voices of our ancestors as we hurry past in the bustle of everyday life. Their creator—monumental artist, Boychukist, member of the Sixtiers generation, mentor, and teacher of a distinguished cohort of Ukrainian artists, Hryhorii Ivanovych Synytsia—through his talent and his entire life, embodied a profound love for and devotion to Ukraine’s national identity, its people, and its cultural heritage.

 I first met with the artist Gregory Sinitsa in 1988 at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in his solo exhibition. Easel and monumental works of Gregory Sinitsa were placed in two large exhibition halls of the seventh building.

"I forever understood and acquired: folk art - the primary source of art forms... It is known very long time ago, it lived, gained strength in the people, in its subsoil. Ethnographic, subject, other signs are yet a nationality.