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« 2025. # 4 (184)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 4 (184), 979—989

UДК: 75 : [316. 647. 6 : 316. 65] (477) “1960/1990”

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

ARTISTIC NONCONFORMISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF CREATIVE FREEDOM IN UKRAINE (1960S—1990S)

OHONOVSKA Sofiia

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1047-9177

Postgraduate student at the Lviv National Academy of Arts,

38, V. Kubiyovycha str., 79011, Lviv, Ukraine,

Contacts: e-mail: sophia.ohonovska@lnam.edu.ua

Abstract. The article examines the phenomenon of Ukrainian artistic nonconformism and the emergence of creative freedom in Ukraine during the 1960s—1990s. Throughout the Soviet period, the Ukrainian art scene operated under cyclical political pressure, with phases of partial liberalization alternating with periods of intensified ideological control. These factors shaped the dynamics of alternative artistic practices, which not only opposed the official ideology but also laid the groundwork for the establishment of creative freedom at the end of the twentieth century. Local centers of unofficial art and the underground played a particularly important role in these processes, as their initiatives ensured the continuity of the modernist tradition and supported artistic experimentation. 

Problem Statement: this study aims to supplement and refine existing scholarship on Ukrainian nonconformism by focusing on those aspects of chronology, sociocultural dynamics, and regional specificity that have remained less systematically explored in previous research. 

The purpose of the study is to determine how Ukrainian artistic nonconformism evolved under the influence of historical and sociocultural transformations, what factors contributed to its development, and how these processes affected the formation of creative freedom in Ukraine. 

The research applies a set of methods, including historical-cultural, comparative, and contextual analysis, which make it possible to identify both general patterns and local particularities in the development of the nonconformist movement. 

The results of the study consist in identifying and characterizing the key stages, regional centers, and mechanisms of self-organization and institutionalization of underground initiatives within the art scene. In conclusion, the article argues that Ukrainian artistic nonconformism should be seen not only as a form of resistance to ideological pressure but also as an active component of the process of establishing creative freedom in Ukraine during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as preserving the continuity of artistic traditions.

Keywords: artistic nonconformism, nonconformism, underground, freedom of creativity, transformation of Lviv’s artistic environment, artistic environment of Lviv, visual arts.

Received 16.07.2025

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