Is the range of what we know not too wide to interpret a particular image in only one possible way?

We suspect that the pictorial space conceals a story that cannot be grasped by any form of language, and that the image – which thus acquires a specific form of representation – opens up before us the painful territories of what attracts us but which we do not want to think about. Only here does the image fulfill its ostensible intention: not to soothe, but to disturb or irritate the lethargy of ordinary thought.

Behind the form of an easily interpretable reality evoked by the aesthetics of Libenko’s paintings, there are references to a concrete reality: the subjects of her paintings are generally associated with Ukrainian events, partly because of the painter’s origins. But we should not simply associate her paintings with the horrors of war: This interpretation is a trap. Let’s move away from the primary reference to Ukrainian events, because the narratives of these paintings go far beyond that. The narration and formalism of Libenko’s works are close to Symbolism, Expressionism or Arte Povera. We also find the non-subjectivity of Tachism, references to the war graphics of German New Objectivity and the visual language of Anselm Kiefer or the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. The fact is that Liza Libenko has developed her formal language in systematic work and that every step she has taken so far has been geared towards this form of expression.

Martin Gerboc