Arshytsa is a creative association of artists that was created in the late 80s. This is the time when artists, uniting in groups, developed creative programs, concepts, and planned joint exhibition activities. The association initially had the goal of developing its own creative program. They briefly expressed it in two words “MATTER OF THE SPIRIT”, if we decipher it a little - the materialization of spiritual entities. The desire to unite for joint exhibitions was preceded by regret that the discovery of new directions in art has no followers and is not developing on the territory of Belarus. The first stone for building the ideology of their work, most of the artists of the creative association chose the fact of “sublation of representation.”

For more than 20 years, artists from the Arshyts Association have been demonstrating the results of their creative discoveries and their spiritual experience at exhibitions. This is a sufficient period of time to draw conclusions. I think the time has come to say: each of the artists of the association has developed his own approach to the non-objective; painting, graphics, decorative and applied arts, installations (these are types of art that were demonstrated at exhibitions of the creative association). Now the question arises: can art that lacks representation be called fine art? I think that a more appropriate definition for this art would be: visual art, expressive art, or more precisely visually - expressive art. This is art that reflects the world, but reflects it not directly, but indirectly. Displays through the artist’s imagination and figurative associations.

The non-objective art of the artists of the Arshyts creative association can be called associative or associative-figurative. The artists' works evoke a wide range of associations with objects in the surrounding world. An important advantage of such art is that the artist encourages the viewer to co-author. That is, in order to read and understand the artist’s work, the viewer must “turn on” his imagination to generate associations, overcome the inertia of the mind to activate fantasy.

Text: Antonina Faley