+ go to featured works

For the past twenty years, Alexandr Onishenko has made a name for himself as one of the Czech Republic’s most successful contemporary Impressionists. Admirers of his work may be bewildered to see the newest addition to Galerie Jakubská’s available collection. At times reminiscent of Modigliani, these early works are unquestionably Expressionist and span the period just before and several years after his arrival in Prague.

Here in the gallery you have the opportunity to view these classic works from an exciting period of flux and change in the artist’s career. When placed next his Impressionist landscapes and iconic rooftop paintings, fascinating questions inevitably arise. How was his style transformed from these different origins to such a powerful reinterpretation of Impressionism? But these early pieces aren’t just different from the artist’s work today, Expressionism is considered to be the exact opposite of Impressionism.

The term was coined by Czech art historian Antonín Matějček in 1910:

An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself… (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures…

“Immediate perception” can be said to be one of the defining interests of Impressionism. One school is concerned with the outside world, the other focuses on the world within: objective versus, subjective reality.

Expressionist painting has often corresponded historically with period of violence, chaos, and change. With political and religious titles such as “Perestroyka”, “Adam and Eve”, and Faith Retrieval”, Onishenko’s period of Expressionism proves to be no exception. It was a time of political upheaval for the world and, for Onishenko, a heady time of travel and introspection. These paintings are full of optimism, humor, and – as we see in “Ukrainian Girl” – maybe a little homesickness as well.

In Prague, he found a new life and great success. Over time, he became more settled and this feeling of being at home led him to look out at the world again. Maybe it was achieving greater maturity as an artist, or maybe it was because the world around him was settling down. In either case, he turned to perhaps a higher calling: to express himself by giving voice to the beauty of nature.

The progress of Onishenko’s painting matches perfectly with developments and changes in his life. In the relatively short span of twenty years he has moved from one extreme to the other. Making this retrospective collection available for the first time is not only meant to bring us to look back into the artist’s past. Next to the artist’s work of today, these paintings should also lead us to ask Onishenko a new question: what does the future hold?