Gavdzinsky

Collections of art gallery in the town of Nova Kakhovka includes more than 1,000 pieces of painting, graphics, sculpture, and decorative and applied art of the Soviet and modern periods. Since February 2003, the gallery bears the name of Albin Gavdzinsky, an honored artist of Ukraine and an honorary citizen of Nova Kakhovka, who donated all his artworks to the city. Gavdzynsky was born in Odesa. In his art he preserved the traditions of southern Ukrainian impressionism despite the fact that he worked in Soviet times.

It was his paintings that prompted us to gather Kherson artists on an excursion to Nova Kakhovka. The fact is that from 1951 to 1960, Gavdzinsky worked on the construction of the Kakhovska HPP, and his paintings reflected the transformation of the landscape. That time these transformations were perceived as the victory of the Soviet people over the forces of nature, and now we perceive that as the destruction of the ecosystem. The Watchtower is on every painting; it survived during that construction. In fact, for us, paintings of Gavdzinsky became a visualization of threatens for the Tower connected with the expansion plans of Kakhovska HPP (construction of Kakhovska HPP-2).