Female Corporeality and Religion 2023
Online Art Exhibition
The Great Mother of Rain
Volodymyr Slepchenko
Graphics
Cardboard, author's mixed media
58 x 42 cm
2023
Original is not for sale, but one can buy a digital copy for €200
Description
From the cycle “Trypillia and Trypillians”, series “Echoes of Ukraine's Ancient Times”
“Trypillian culture” is a Neolithic culture that developed on the territory of today’s Ukraine 6000-10000 years ago. It left numerous archaeological traces, most notably ceramics with rich decorative patterns.
In this image a young Trypillian woman is identified with the ritual figure of the Goddess of Rain. She embodies the cosmic image of a woman whose breasts produce rain from the clouds, similar to the concept in Indian mythology (where clouds are heavenly cows) or in Greek mythology with the multi-breasted Artemis.
A ceramic jar with a typical ornament on it and a ‘Pysanka” (traditional decorated Easter egg) with a symbolic representation of the Tree of Life flank the feminine images on both sides. This artwork is permeated by very archaic imagery traditional to the Trypillian and Ukrainian cultures.
Volodymyr Slepchenko
In his work, academician Volodymyr Slepchenko constantly returns to the theme of the female body in various cultural and sociological contexts.
Volodymyr Slepchenko (b. 1947) is a Ukrainian painter, graphic and monumental artist, and master of psychological portraiture. He works in the artistic orientation of romantic symbolism, inventing his own technique and unique artline style. People's Artist of Ukraine, Honored Artist of Ukraine, academician. Head of the Department of Culture and Arts and Academician of the World Academy of Arts (MONDIAL ART ACADEMIA), France.
He has participated in numerous regional, national, foreign and international exhibitions. He is the winner of many national and international awards, including the Botticelli Prize in 2019. Since 1970, he has held more than 80 personal exhibitions in Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Canada, Israel, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, Spain, Japan and other countries. He was a participant in the group exhibition of Ukrainian artists "Autumn Salon-90" in Paris (France) in 1990.
Volodymyr Slepchenko's paintings and graphic works are held in museums, galleries and private collections in Ukraine and in many countries of the world. Since 2005, the portrait of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta Andrew Bertie has been on permanent display at the Gallery of Portraits of Grand Masters in Malta. Since 2018, the painting "The Great Baptism" has found a place of honor in the permanent exhibition on the second floor of the main shrine of Ukraine - St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.
For more than 50 years, the artist has been fruitfully working in various types and genres of fine arts, but among the main works of the artist are paintings on historical themes from the Trypillia era to the present.
