The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 4 (190), 994—1000
UDK 7.071.1-058.53:7.072.3
- Received: 12.06.2026
- Accepted: 11.07.2026
- Published: ??.??.2026
«ESCAPING THE KOMSOMOL» AS A METHODOLOGICAL MANIFESTO OF CONTEMPORARY ART CRITICISM
BABII Nadiia
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9572-791X
- DSc in Art Studies, Professor,
- Vasyl Stefanyc Carpathian National University,
- 57, Shevchenko Str., 76000, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: nadiia.babii@cnu.edu.ua
HUBAL Bohdan
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3072-2982
- Professor,
- Vasyl Stefanyc Carpathian National University,
- 57, Shevchenko Str., 76000, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: bohdan.hubal@cnu.edu.ua
Abstract. Relevance of the topic: The turn of the 1990s in Ukrainian art discourse is traditionally defined as a period of absolute liberation of the artistic process. However, the rejection of totalitarian dogmatics was often carried out through a hasty, mechanical dismissal of the past, which led to a renewal of conformism. Researching this transition is fundamentally important for understanding why the brief explosion of freedom quickly surrendered to market conjuncture.
The aim of the article is to reveal the essence of the sociocultural paradox of «escaping the Komsomol» in Ukrainian art and art criticism of the transition era, tracing the logic of integrating non-conformist aesthetics into new forms of market conformism.
Methodology. The methodological toolkit is based on Roman Yatsiv’s concept of «escaping the Komsomol». Through the prism of this research lens, this study applies the method of comparative and critical analysis to deconstruct the «escape» phenomenon in its evolution. The empirical base of the research consists of testimonies from members of informal art associations of the second half of the 20th century, as well as cases of the contemporary reception of this heritage within the coordinates of the art market and art criticism at the beginning of the 21st century.
Results. It is proven that the concept of «escaping the Komsomol» is a cross-cutting historical and theoretical matrix that explains the genesis of contemporary Ukrainian art and reveals the internal causes of the current crisis in art criticism and the art market. It is substantiated that in the absence of a formed institutional and ideological alternative, the primary «aesthetic resistance» of the late 1980s quickly capitulated to the pressure of a chaotic market and strategies of opportunistic creative labor. Mechanical de-Sovietization of art and critical thought, deprived of knowledge about the continuity of cultural memory, gave rise to the phenomenon of «pseudo-palimpsests». In this phenomenon, a superficial renewal of visual forms still masks the latent preservation of old mental markers («Komsomol»), turning the Ukrainian artist and critic into hostages of a permanent state of escape.
Keywords: Roman Yatsiv, «escaping the Komsomol,» art of the 20th — early 21st centuries, art theory, art criticism, new conformism.
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