Ronald Kostyniuk

A professor emeritus of Fine Arts at the University of Calgary, Ron Kostyniuk RCA began his career as a teacher of biology. While still a student at the University of Saskatchewan, his native province, Kostyniuk became interested in the writings of artist Charles Biederman, whose analytical approach to art struck a chord with Kostyniuk's scientific background. While teaching biology in high schools around the Prairies, Kostyniuk also began a career as a constructivist artist, and in 1970 and 1971 attended the University of Wisconsin in order to earn Master's degrees in Biology and Fine Art, respectively. Kostyniuk's constructed reliefs, based on the early twentieth-century Russian movement that was concerned with space, time, colour and the relationships between geometric shapes, have always been tied to Kostyniuk’s knowledge of biology. According to him they reflect nature's forms and processes, without actually imitating them, referring to them as "visual analogies to nature’s created forms" (1988). While not directly related to the artist’s Ukrainian background, he feels that the vivid colours and intricate geometrical combinations of his mother's own Ukrainian craftwork have also been a strong inspiration (1998). Over the years Kostyniuk's constructed reliefs have grown more and more complicated, evolving from Cube series (ca. 1963 to 1967), Rod series (ca. 1968 to 1969), and Planar series (1966 to 1968), the kind of work Virgil Hammock described as "earlier pieces . . . based on a horizontal grid while there seems to be a movement toward vertical elements as well as an expanded interest in colour" (1969), to Winged Form series (ca. 1971 to 1975), where the plane is opened up into three-dimensional space, pieces of the relief sticking out into space, with movement being created by the smattering of coloured pieces and the juxtaposition of angles. From these he moved to Kinetic Form series, (ca. 1969 to 1975) to Crystalline series, (ca. 1976 to 1978) where Kostyniuk used many small planes to create facets resembling the forms of crystals. Following this he worked on Crystal in Landscape series (ca. 1975 to 1978), a variation in which the crystals are seen in the broader context of landscape, then interpreting landscape itself in Horizon series (ca. 1980 to 1982) and Foothills series (ca. 1981 to 1982). His work in the 1990s has included Urban Landscapes (ca. 1992 to 1993), using tables and pedestals to support crowds of tiny geometric people, and An Anthropomorphic Architecture (ca. 1991 to 1993), expanding his forms to include buildings and other kinds of enclosures. Kostyniuk was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1975.

Creator Id: 338
Social Media Link: Social Media Link
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Country of Birth: Canada
Province of Birth: Saskatchewan
Year of Birth: 1941
City: Calgary
Country: Canada
Type of Creator: Artist
Gender: Male
Mediums: sculpture
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Work by Ronald Kostyniuk

Relief Structure

Work ID: 9515

Description: Cube Series.

Measurements: 71.12 x 80.01 cm

Collection: Large version: Glenbow Museum, Calgary / Small version: The Artist

Date Made: 1967

Materials: enamel on wood

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA