Self-portrait with Son

Artist Alla Horska, a significant figure of the Ukrainian dissident movement of the 1960s, paid a life for her views. She worked in the field of easel and monumental painting. In her work the artist drew from the Ukrainian avant-garde and folk art, which she considered the preservation of Ukrainian cultural memory. Together with her husband, artist Viktor Zaretskyi, she created a series of mosaics and panels. Self-portrait with Son is marked by the influence of the "austere style" with its dramatic outlook and lack of pathos. The artist portrays herself with her 6-year-old son Oleksii on a motley conventional background. Resemblance with the iconography of Our Lady with a Child highlights the dramatic notes of the work, combining it with traditions important to Alla Horska.