Spring Polonynas

Ivan Shutiev was one of the most brilliant representatives of the Transcarpathian School of Painting.

The works of the Honored (and later National) Artist of Ukraine have been showcased at the premier exhibitions of the former USSR and in numerous countries worldwide. Leading galleries in Sweden, Japan, and Italy have acquired Ivan Shutiev’s paintings.

The artist was born on October 28, 1933, in Uzhhorod. His father was a furniture maker and hoped his son would follow in his footsteps. However, the young man was drawn to drawing.

The artist Vilmos Berecz, who had a workshop nearby Shutiev's father's business, noticed the teenager's talent for drawing and recommended that he develop this skill.

He graduated from the painting department of the Uzhhorod State School of Applied Arts (now the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts) in 1955, where he studied under the tutelage of Yosyp Bokshay and Adalbert Erdeli. He enrolled in the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts but later abandoned his studies there to continue working directly with Yosyp Bokshay.

When Shutiev was only 23 years old, he achieved sudden fame: a reproduction of his painting "Toward Evening" was published in Ogonyok, arguably the most popular and widely circulated magazine in the Soviet Union at the time. However, due to certain life circumstances, he was later expelled from the Union of Artists of the USSR.

However, Shutiev was not the kind of person to submit to fate or take a backseat, and he reclaimed his well-deserved recognition. He became a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine in 1962 and was named a Deserved Artist of Ukraine in 1975. The artwork of Ivan Shutiev was showcased in numerous All-Union and international exhibitions.

Starting in 1950, he began sketching the wooden churches of Transcarpathia—painting over a hundred canvases. Many of the churches he depicted were subsequently destroyed by the communist regime.

The artist passed away in Uzhhorod in 2019.

The artist belongs to the cohort of Transcarpathian masters of still life and was a multi-genre landscape painter. His canvases feature mountain panoramas of his native Carpathians and the shores of the North Sea, highland villages, and the cityscapes of Uzhhorod, Budapest, Bukhara, and Samarkand.

Among his famous works are "Autumn Landscape" (1970s), "Spring in the Carpathians" (1990s), "Still Life with Sunflowers" (1960), "Veretskyi Pass" (1969), "Spring" (1974), "Church of St. Archangel Michael in Uzhok Village" (1977), and many more. 

UFDA has digitized three of Ivan Shutiev’s original paintings: "Autumn. Overcast" (1985), "Spring Polonynas" (1985), and "Varetskyi Pass" (1988) from the collection of the Regional Communal Museum of Local History in Borshchiv. These paintings are now available for viewing in full resolution on the fund’s website.

One of the most brilliant representatives of the Transcarpathian School of Painting. Ivan Shutiev’s art style is often called "electric" due to its extraordinary energy and color saturation.

Although his work was rooted in realism, Shutiev infused it with a powerful emotional charge. His brushwork is free, broad, and dynamic. He didn't simply copy nature; he conveyed its inner state—the "breath" of the mountains and the volatility of light.

His palette is often described as radiant. He masterfully used contrasts, making his canvases appear as if they were illuminated from within. He was one of the first to create large-scale canvases that achieved a stereoscopic effect of mountain ranges.

Having formed his vision of the landscape within the school of Bokshay, he developed it in his own way—sharpening the contrast, adding speed to his brushstrokes, and giving the color a striking clarity.