Still Life with a Butterfly 1975

Editor: We’re looking at Karlo Zvirynsky’s “Still Life with a Butterfly” from 1975. It appears to be painted with oil paints and it has a kind of whimsical feel to it. There’s this collection of objects – dice, an hourglass, chess board – and yet the overall impression is somewhat melancholy. How do you interpret this work? Curator: This painting invites us to consider the sociopolitical context of Zvirynsky’s life. As a Ukrainian artist working in the diaspora, Zvirynsky experienced firsthand the repression of Ukrainian culture under Soviet rule. The "still life" genre itself becomes a loaded space. We see not just an arrangement of objects, but potentially a coded narrative. Notice the chess board – could it represent the strategic games of power? The hourglass and dice hint at fate, but controlled fate maybe? What's the symbolic meaning of the butterfly to you? Editor: Freedom perhaps? Fleeting beauty? Curator: Exactly. And situated within this arrangement, the butterfly, to me, embodies a yearning for liberation, for a future free from the constraints of Soviet oppression. The formal language employed in this “naive” style, might be Zvirynsky's way to circumvent the imposed artistic criteria established by the regime, but also create a sense of timelessness for the sake of survival and cultural memory. What do you make of that theory? Editor: That definitely makes me see it differently, I was focusing on the surface, now I see the possible deeper meanings. Curator: Precisely! By looking beyond the surface, we uncover the profound dialogues occurring in this seemingly simple still life. Editor: This makes me realize that art has to be considered as a kind of time capsule and an activist expression. Curator: Absolutely, it is! Thank you for that thought!