Gurzuf. Morning

Orest Sleshynskyi was a prominent Ukrainian painter and a representative of the so-called "severe style." 

The artist is also known for his pedagogical work. He became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine in 1970 and was granted the title of Honoured Artist of Ukraine in 1993. Orest Sleshynskyi’s paintings are held in the Odesa Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art of Odesa, and in private collections in Ukraine, Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan.

The artist was born in 1930 in the city of Smolensk. When the future painter was 15, his family relocated to Odesa.

From 1947 to 1949 he studied in the marine engineering department at the Odesa Maritime College, and in 1949 enrolled at the Odesa Art College. From 1950 to 1955 he served in the Soviet Navy, stationed with the Baltic Fleet.

Between 1955 and 1959 he continued his studies at the Odesa Art College under Liubov Tokarieva-Alexandrovych, and also studied in Leningrad.

From 1965 to 1974 he taught specialist disciplines at the Odesa Art College. Between 1974 and 1978 he held the position of Chief Artist at the Odesa Art Production Kombinat of the Artists' Fund of the Ukrainian SSR. From 1990 he worked in the Department of Painting and Art History at the Odesa Pedagogical Institute named after K. D. Ushynsky.

The artwork of Orest Sleshynskyi was featured in republican, all-union, and international exhibitions from 1959 onward. Solo exhibitions were held in Odesa in 1981 and in Kyiv in 1983.

He lived in Odesa until his death in 2008.

The artist worked in the field of easel painting, producing genre compositions, landscapes, and still lifes.

Among Orest Sleshynskyi’s original paintings are Shipbuilders (1966), The Cruiser "Aurora" (1968), Road Above the Sea (1969), Paris. Pont Neuf (1980s), Peonies (1993), Odesa. Near the Opera (1994), and many others.

UFDA digitized Gurzuf. Morning (1986) by the artist from the collection of the Regional Communal Museum of Local History in Borshchiv. This painting is now available for viewing on the fund's website.

Art historians and critics place Orest Sleshynskyi's art style within the "severe style" — a movement in the realist art of the second half of the 20th century — combined with the traditions of Ukrainian easel painting.

His works are free of incidental everyday detail or excessive elaboration. Forms are typically generalized, bold, and expressive.

Sleshynskyi worked in easel painting across a range of subjects: seascapes, industrial and genre scenes, still lifes, and classical landscapes.