Joseph Mikhailovich Babynets
Painter, Honored Artist of Ukraine, member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine (since 1985).
He was born on February 8, 1934 in the village of Zarichovo in a peasant family, where besides him there were three other children. His father, as the artist recalled, dreamed that his son would study to be a master teacher, who at that time was respected by all, but the fate was different. After seven classes of the village school in 1948 he entered the Uzhgorod School of Applied Arts in the painting department. His first teacher was Sandor Petki. Ernest Kontratovych first taught him drawing, and then, in his sophomore year - Vilmos Berets. The great Adalbert Erdely taught him painting in the third year, and Joseph Bokshay led the work in the studio. He was the first to bring students to nature, to draw from nature. It was interesting to study with such artists, but only 12 out of 30 students reached the end of their studies - the others dropped out.
In addition to the desire to paint, Joseph had another hobby - dancing. After graduating from the Uzhhorod School in 1953, he went to study at the Kiev Choreographic School. After graduating from 1955-1958, he served in the Soviet Army (in Zhulyany near Kyiv), where he danced in an amateur song-dance ensemble. After demobilization, he worked in the dance group of the Transcarpathian Honored Folk Choir. And only in this period the fine arts prevailed in his life.
From 1961 to 1967 Joseph studied as a part-time student on the Faculty of History and Theory of Fine Arts of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. Repin, where V. Plotnikov was his teacher. There he received a degree in art criticism. During education here, he was transferred from the dance group to work as a poster artist of the Transcarpathian Regional Philharmonic. Later, the young artist worked as a designer in various organizations of Uzhgorod and in particular in the USRR Art Fund art- production plant. There he began as a graphic artist, later became the chief artist (1982-1985) and even the director (1986-87) of this plant. At the same time he was the secretary of the Transcarpathian organization of the Union of Artists.
A special place in the artist's creative biography is occupied by his art articles in the press, which appeared in print in the 1970s. In them the author wrote about the work of Transcarpathian artists - contemporaries of the author. But the desire to create himself, rather than evaluate and judge others, was stronger, and therefore he prefers art-creation, leaving the art practice.
Since the early 1960s he has traveled to open airs, most often with Anton Kashshay, Fedor Manail, Zoltan Sholtes, Andriy Kotska, and Jozef Ruszczak. Thus began his journey in art. He worked mainly in the genre of landscape and flemish art, adhering to the artistic principles of realistic painting. The artist's works tend to intimacy. They are full of inner warmth, emotional peace and dimension.
Joseph Babynets has been a participant in art exhibitions: regional - since 1970, all-Ukrainian and foreign - since 1979. Author of 7 solo exhibitions: 1993 Debrecen (Hungary); 1994 Uzhhorod; 1996 - Gortobad (Hungary); 1998 - Trenčín (Slovakia); 1999 - Mukachevo, Debrecen and Nyíregyháza (Hungary). In 2008 he won the Joseph Bokshay and Adalbert Erdeli Prize for his work «Picturesque Autumn». Despite his respectable age, the painter took part in collective exhibitions for the rest of his life.
His works are in museums and private collections in Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy, France and Germany. The most famous are:
«The Uzh River Valley» (1960);
«View of Montenegro» (1973);
«Winter. Urban Motive» (1976);
«Museum-Dam on the Black River» (1978);
«Autumn Carpathians» (1980);
«The Village of Strigalnya» (1990);
«After Haymaking» (1991);
«Under the Nevytsky Castle» (1992);
«The Last Snow» (1993);
«Picturesque Autumn» (1995);
«Winter. Gortobad» (1997);
«Flemish painting with Apples» (1999);
«Blue Day»
«Winter Silence» (2000).
All photos are taken from the website:
https://zakarpat.brovdi.art/khudozhnyky/myttsi-zakarpattia/babinec-josip#parentHorizontalTab3
References:
Joseph Babynets:
https://zakarpat.brovdi.art/khudozhnyky/myttsi-zakarpattia/babinec-josip#parentHorizontalTab1
Baglay J. «Artist from the Lemko village» (To the 70th anniversary of Joseph Babynets) // Uzhhorod. - 2004:
https://zakarpat.brovdi.art/images/zBibliography/babynec/05.jpg
Myshanych V. «Joseph Babynets. Life in search of beauty and harmony» // Transcarpathia online – 2014:
https://zakarpattya.net.ua/News/119907-Iosyp-Babynets.-ZHyttia-u-poshukakh-krasy-i-harmonii
Nozhka A. «A week ago, on February 8, its anniversary ...» // Voice of the Carpathians – 2017:
http://goloskarpat.info/culture/khudozhnik-iosip-babinets-z-uzhgoroda-pro-zhivopis/
Timofieva O. «Movement, progress, harmony… Joseph Babynets» - 70 // Silver Land. – 2004:
https://zakarpat.brovdi.art/images/zBibliography/babynec/04.jpg
