Barskyi Vilen

Vilen Barsky was born on October 27 in Kyiv. His father was an engineer, and his mother was a pharmacist. His childhood memories were closely related to the Botanic garden, since his family lived across from it. During the war, the family was evacuated to Stalingrad, then, before the decisive battle, moved to Sernur (Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), and returned to Kyiv after the war.[1]

In 1951 Barsky graduated from the Kyiv Art School and entered the Art Institute.

In 1957 he graduated from the Kyiv Art Institute, Faculty of Painting and Graphics, faculty of Painting and Graphics. After graduating from the institute he began experimenting in the field of fine arts, creating abstract compositions.

Due to his ideologically unbiased position, the artist came under pressure from the Soviet authorities. Thus, in 1959, after a home search, he was taken to the KGB office. As a result, he lost the right to government orders and participation in exhibitions for a long time, sharing the participation of the best representatives of the generation of the sixties.

In 1967 he joined the Union of Artists of the USSR.

In 1981 he left Soviet Kyiv for good and settled in Dortmund with his wife, the poetess Olga Denisova.[2]

Barsky's search for and formation of his own path in art was connected with his active interest in the work of outstanding artists in various fields. He listened to the philosophical and aesthetic concept of his senior colleague Valery Lamakh, set out in the "Schemes".[3] He was delighted with the talent of director Sergei Parajanov.

Feeling various influences, Barsky maintained self-identification. He experimented a lot, looking for new means of artistic expression: there are works made using an airbrush (1965), smoke and fire (1968), a template of his own hand (1969).[4]

1981— under the pseudonym Victor Belenin, he published six visual poems in the Ark magazine, published in Paris. In the same year, they are shown at the exhibition "L'emigration Russe. L’art en Voyage ”at the Trans / form gallery in Paris.

1982— holds a solo exhibition at the Catholic Academy Schwerte (Germany). A catalog of Barsky's works created in 1959–1980 is published for the event.

1990-s — Barsky's works are published in Ukraine and Russia, in particular in the literary-critical magazine Zoil (1997), the anthology Samizdat Veka (1997), the poetry collection Dom s Chimera (2000), and others. [5][6]