Although in an online format, the closing of the 24th International Repin Plein Air took place warmly and touchingly on Ilya Repin's birthday. In fact, this year's plein air was supposed to be a jubilee one, the twenty-fifth. However, due to the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, it had to be canceled. But the Chuguev city hall, despite all the difficulties, although still online, managed to preserve the plein air as a visiting card of the city's cultural life. Moreover, given the level of the participants' works, it is already called one of the most successful in recent years.
This year, 25 artists from Chuhuiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Odessa, Dnipro, Chernihiv, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Zhovty Vody, Lubny, Vynohradiv, Kolomyia, Lviv, Vinnytsia, and Poland participated in the open-air exhibition.
All works are united by the theme "Long live Ukraine in songs and paintings!", and the artists were inspired not only by existing Ukrainian songs, but also, in the words of one of them, "by those that will be composed in the future.".
Addressing the participants of the plein air, the head of the Chuguiv city military administration, Galina Minaeva, thanked them for their contribution to the multiplication of Repin's traditions in the art of Ukraine. According to her, today we can confidently say that Repin's plein airs not only have a future, but also become an increasingly significant phenomenon in the artistic life of all of Ukraine from year to year.
