"Child of War" by Myron Kataran

Myron Kataran "Child of War", 2015 - 2023. Oil on canvas. 300 x 200 cm.

Myron Kataran belongs to a cohort of artists whose work is still little known in Ukraine. Instead, the European audience is much more familiar with his works. And all because for a long time the artist exhibited his works under a pseudonym. Only a characteristic seal with wavy black and white stripes in a circle, well known in a closed elite circle of art lovers, confirms the authorship of paintings of that period.

Myron Kataran. Photo of the artist.

The artist was born in 1984 in the village of Lysiatychi, Stryi district, Lviv region. He received his professional education at the Kosiv College of Decorative and Applied Arts and the Lviv National Academy of Arts at the Department of Ceramics. However, he found the greatest manifestation of his talent in graphics and painting.

The artist's oeuvre includes more than a thousand paintings, which speaks volumes about the artist's extraordinary work ethic, bordering on real creative fanaticism. The artist's working day begins at six in the morning and often lasts until late at night. Whenever you enter the artist's studio, which consists of three large workrooms, a living room and several utility rooms, there is always perfect cleanliness and order. Only the area where the artist is currently working is slightly smeared with paint. At the end of the working day, there are palette knives rubbed to a shine, brushes and construction brushes perfectly cleaned, paints lined up in a row in their places; probably, in this meticulousness - both in life and in work - one can find a manifestation of the Austrian roots of the Kataran family.

Myron Kataran "Child of War". Fragment

The artist works in three creative programs: "Grotesque Graphics", in which he created a large series of lively, dynamic portraits of world music stars (Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney and others) in his own style with grotesquely exaggerated proportions; "Allegory-metaphor", in which computer graphics are used to create sketches for monumental paintings from small finished elements that, when optically mixed at a distance, form complete compositions - often contrasting or opposite in meaning to their components (for example, in the painting "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing", a sheep figure is formed from small images of wolves); "Abstraction-association", in which the artist creates large format, detailed and harmoniously balanced in composition and colour abstract paintings. In his abstract works, instead of a reflective concept, the artist offers a new understanding of the formal values of art, which manifest the synthesis of the sensual and the supersensual, the unity of imagination and intellect. The artist's works of this trend often use the spiral motif, which is associated with the cut of a tree trunk, the movement of the galaxy, and elements of the human genetic code. With various expressive means and techniques of his art, Myron Kataran tries to raise the eternal topics of humanity - war and peace, life and death.

Myron Kataran "Child of War". Fragment

The large scale of the artist's thinking and creative method implies the creation of not single works, but entire series of paintings. One of such series of works by Myron Kataran is called "Horsemen of the Apocalypse". Of particular relevance in this series is the work "Child of War". This is a vertical canvas, 300x200 cm in size, painted with oil paints in grey, black and white tones. Against the backdrop of a desolate, sun-cracked desert landscape, the figure of a girl is depicted, whose body consists of numerous fragments of firearms and cold weapons. The large size of the work suggests that it should be viewed from a distance. This creates the effect of optical mixing of details, which removes the focus from the image of individual, carefully painted fragments and directs the viewer's attention to the general outline of the composition. A complete image of a girl appears - a generalised symbol of children innocently affected by war. The artist began working on it in 2015 and, detailing the smallest fragments down to the smallest screw, which should be viewed under a magnifying glass, completed it only in 2023. The work became prophetic and acquired a special significance in our time, when thousands of Ukrainian children lost their homes and parents, and some lost their lives, as a result of the bloody realities of war.  

All of Myron Kataran's works are deeply meaningful, have a solid intellectual base and are supported by a principled civic and moral concept. In this way, the artist expresses his position on the depressing events in Ukraine and encourages the viewer to reflect. Each author's project is executed using a special technique selected following the creative idea and compositional solution. By combining various artistic techniques, transforming established images, rethinking the established academic principles of aesthetics and harmony, the artist creates a whole symphony of painting. 

Ivan Bilan

PhD in Art History,

Head of the Art-Module Art Association