18x12x9 cm, Terracotta, 1973
A gift of Oleksandr Mykhaliuk and Raisa Maievska, 2013
There are lyricism, humour, and kindness inherent in Kapshuchenko’s works. The artwork “Z Koshykom” (“With a Basket”) is full of emotion. The woman on the bench adjusts her headscarf and holds a basket on her lap while a cat snuggles by her feet. The sculptor did not aim to create an anatomically perfect work. He was more interested in capturing his characters’ mood and, in this work’s case – the spontaneous movement of the woman, as if caught in a moment— an original and unexpected storyline. The viewer will involuntarily smile in response to this woman and her cat, who adds colour and a positive mood. The sculptor pays a lot of attention to the details of human feelings and emotions. Such a stylistic approach allowed the master to create delicate, expressive, and rhythmic aspects of various human life situations. In one of the reviews of Kapshuchenko’s exhibition in the USA, one can read: “Kapshuchenko is an individualist with an inexhaustible imagination, whose works speak the truth, rather than being statically frozen in a pose like standard ornaments.”(From the Article by Vira Ke, “Sculptor P. Kapshuchenko and His Works,” Published in “Svoboda” on January 25, 1985). It is this description that resonates with this work.