The creative meeting with the famous Israeli sculptor, Yuliia Segal , born in Kharkiv, will take place in the AVEC Gallery (Sumska St., 70) on May 25 (the beginning at 16:00). Here the sculptor’s second personal exhibition in Ukraine “Yuliia Segal. 60 years later” takes place. In the exhibition three dozens of works relating to the different periods of the author’s creativity are presented.
Yuliia Aronovna Segal was born shortly before World War II in Kharkiv. In 1941 she was evacuated to Kazakhstan together with her mother and the grandmother. In the ’50th Yuliia returned to the hometown to get into the art school and became a sculptor.She worked as the art director at school, at puppet theatre, in television. Yuliia graduated from V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute. Her creativity was noticed – the first exhibitions were held. According to critics, Yuliia Segal made a revolution in relief sculpture – she started creating through-hole compositions – windows and doors forming air space of other reality. In the 1970s and 1980s she creates many compositions with lonely human figures in a city interior. It’s been said, Yuliia managed “to embody loneliness of the city person in a sculpture “. The Soviet art critics often criticized her for excessive pessimism. In the early 1990s Yuliia Segal immigrated to Israel. There she continued to pursue sculpture art in Sanur, the well-known village of artists. In 2005 many artworks of the sculptor were transported to Jerusalem. Yuliia Segal’s works are in the collection of the Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery and also in private collections of Russia, Germany and the USA.
Various household objects and ordinary people are the main heroes of sculptural compositions of Yuliia Segal. But unlike her well-known American namesake, the idol of pop art George Segal, Yuliia doesn’t depersonalize things, doesn’t destroy the person, and, on the contrary, people inspirit them with feelings, memoirs.
“My works illustrate life and sojourn – depending on the view. Here is one of my favourite artworks named “Development of a plot”. It was a competitive task on a symposium of minor forms in West Germany. The subject was “table” — Yuliia Segal tells. — First, I represented the table similar to the icon – a meal, where angels with wings and nimbuses sit. Then ordinary people and bread are represented at a table and in conclusion the table is empty. Further there are no people any more — nothing remained. Sad story. And then I moved to Israel. People there read horizontally across and it has been found out that my work looks more optimistically: at first there was nothing, then people and food appeared and after that spirituality”.
The exhibition of Yuliia Segal’s artworks in Kharkiv is returning home after 60 years. She came back to the city where was born and learned the ropes. Yuliia returned being a mature master with the world recognition ready to share the creativity with us.
Evening with Yuliia Segal will be held in the AVEC Gallery on May 25. Beginning at 16:00. Free admission.
