VISUAL-AESTHETIC CODE OF THE VILLAGE IN THE WORKS OF UKRAINIAN DIASPORA ARTISTS IN NORTH AMERICA: VASYL KURYLYK AND OLEKSA BULAVYTSKYI

Liliіa Ivanytska,

Ph.D. (History), Associate Professor,

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

 

Olena Serdobolska,

Ph.D. (History), Assistant Professor,

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2524-048X.2026.33.5

 

Abstract. The aim of the article is to examine the transposition of the aesthetics of the Ukrainian village in the works of Vasyl Kurylyk and Oleksa Bulavytskyi, with particular attention paid to its transformation within the Canadian and broader North American context. The authors analyze how the artists preserve a Ukrainian artistic vector in works depicting an unfamiliar geographical landscape, employing compositional strategies, color systems, symbolic imagery, and ethnographic accuracy as key artistic means.

The research methodology is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines art-historical and semiotic analyses of visual material. The study employs historical-artistic, comparative-stylistic, formal-stylistic, and iconographic methods, as well as a contextual approach aimed at interpreting the sociocultural factors shaping the image of the Ukrainian village. The integrated application of these methods enables the consideration of the Ukrainian village as a visual and aesthetic code in the artistic practices of Vasyl Kurylyk and Oleksa Bulavytskyi.

The scientific novelty of the study lies in its analysis of how the artists integrate Ukrainian cultural and aesthetic heritage into works created in conditions of emigration, particularly in representations of Canadian and American landscapes. The research concludes that the aesthetics of the Ukrainian village function as a distinctive «cultural code» that allows the artists to preserve national identity and transmit it to the viewer beyond the boundaries of their historical homeland.

Conclusions. The analysis demonstrated that the artistic representations of the Ukrainian village in the works of Kurylyk and Bulavytskyi function as a cultural code, enabling the preservation of national identity and its transmission beyond the historical homeland. The artists integrate traditional aesthetic motifs into new geographic and socio-cultural contexts through composition, color schemes, brushstroke rhythm, and symbolism. Thus, the Ukrainian village becomes not merely a landscape but a means of artistic transformation of cultural experience and the affirmation of cultural memory.

Keywords: Vasyl Kurylyk, Oleksa Bulavytskyi, Ukrainian diaspora, diaspora, aesthetics, Canada.

 

Submitted 17.11.2025

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