Artistic Images in the Painting of Oleksandr Kodenko: Analysis and Interpretation

The article is dedicated to the exploration of the imagery system in the abstract paintings of Alexander Kodenko (1944–2021). The artist’s creative legacy includes a series of figurative and abstract canvases that reflect contemporary views on religious themes. Having received a classical art education at the Kyiv Art Institute (now the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture) as a student of the workshop of the battle-painter Viktor Puzirkov, during active creative explorations, he turned to non-figurative painting. Studying the philosophy of the Far East and interest in transcendental practices in the early 1990s laid the foundation for the author’s mythology. In his abstract canvases, the artist developed sacred themes in the infinite cosmic space, using religious and authorial images. By tracing the terrain of О. Kodenko’s imagery system, he sought to understand the profound mechanisms of his own creativity and reflect them in his works. The use of figurative elements in abstract canvases creates multifaceted symbolism, allowing the artist to convey his own subtext to the viewer. The sacred space the painter demonstrated as a meditative journey during which he contemplated the essence of the concept of the sacred. Analysis of works from different periods allows tracking the evolution of artistic language through the images depicted by the author in his canvases. Complex abstract compositions testify to О. Kodenko’s aspiration for synthesis as a principle of his creativity, opening up new boundaries for the reproduction and exploration of the transcendental in contemporary art.