Robert Schuman, a German romantic and the outstanding European composer, managed to find and acutely phrased a fate of a creator - “...It is the artist's lofty mission to shed light into the very depths of the human heart.", he wrote in the mid of the XIX century.

A viewer becomes aware of the devout shine of the mysterious and powerful streams by the paintings of the talented Ukrainian painter Yuriy Nagulko. Their author – a lyric poet and romantic – appeals to the issues of the spiritual world searching for the answers on the eternal philosophic questions about the meaning of life and a man’s place in the earthy world.

It should be admitted that in the modern life nobody, except for a painter, dares search for the truth that, as huge torch, burns the hand of a bearer. Though, a great Johann Wolfgang Goethe stated two hundred years ago – “the truth should not have a definite form – it is enough if it flies as intangible spirit above us and creates solemn harmony...”

Spirit... Harmony... Pleasure of Learning... All this is visibly and invisibly presented in the paintings of Yuriy Nagulko “weaved” of the mysterious characters of the past history. The master is wandering in the labyrinths of the Biblical stories and gospels. He delves into the very depths of the Holy Scripture striving to understand the symbolic and messianic meanings of the Old and New Testaments – the genius masters of the past, El Greco, Rembrandt, Aleksandr Ivanov and Nikolai Ge, tried to do it long before him – and each of them had his influence on the creative manner of Yuriy Nagulko (either knowingly or unknowingly) that combines in itself the features of the philosophic realism of N.Ge, religious mystery of El Greco, “photography” of Rembrandt, verism (Italian “vero” meaning “true”) of Spaniard J.Rivera and Venetian Ja.Bassano. At the same time, Yuriy remains the son of his Ukrainian land, the person who has absorbed with his mother’s milk the lyrical softness and childish frankness of the folk naïve taken from the icons and frescos of the Old Russian churches.

The modern world is of less interest to Yuriy Nagulko than “the escape into the past” which turns his paintings into the fruits of the true inspirations. His genre is not a historic or religious painting just as it is – this is the alloy where the author’s fantasy plays the determinative role. All characters of Yuriy Nagulko – he does not go to sketches and does not paint from nature – are first born in his imagination before being poured on the canvases and transformed into the art reality where the human and divine secrets interlace with mystery of place, time and action being absolutely recognized.

Yuriy Nagulko is rather thoughtful in constructing his compositions being anxious for the vivid synthesis of colour, form and space – he, like a bricklayer, puts monumental figurative strokes with his palette-knife.

The master seems to have comprehended the monumentalism as a way of thinking through the various creations of the ancient art. Mesopotamia archaism, Greek icon-painting, Fayum portrait, Hellenic and Byzantium traditions are the general source of the whole European culture.

At the same time, the master’s immersion into the antiquity is also a cause to express his subjective emotional experiences as the metaphors of the Spirit Eternity and Soul Immorality, symbols of Good and Evil are still of current importance in our time.

Along with the inclination to the subject painting, the poetic and fine landscapes hold a special place in the art of Yuriy Nagulko – they have appeared of his impressions of the fascinating trips about Ukraine, Italy, Holland, France, Germany, Israel and Egypt. Their painting techniques and manner seem to be unusually natural and liberated. The spiritual tension of his sacral paintings is replaced with the beauty of the physical and material world; the relations with the nature are established the other way – on the emotional and impulsive basis.

It shall be recognized that the extraordinary creation of Yuriy Nagulko can be hardly fit within the frames of the known trends and tendencies of the Ukrainian art of the XX-XXI centuries where the postmodernism and vanguard of the contemporary art hold the strong positions.

The self-absorbed work of Yuriy Nagulko in the revival of the historic and religious painting – its traditions being lost in the Soviet times of the social realism ruling – makes him somewhat an anchoret on his isolate art island in the modern Ukrainian art. He is a guest from the other world among his colleagues – he, as nobody else, is capable to comprehend and realize the gap and ties of the generations.

God’s gift, art spirits and inexhaustible desire to create nurture an artist irrespective of the age. Yuriy is a strong believer and we have every reason to believe that his art life, which started in his mature age, is predestination from on high.

Being sincere in his faith and frank in his creative intentions, he managed to remain true to himself in the art owing to the fact that he studied from the nature, books and himself. Having visited the galleries of Florence, Venice, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg Yuriy Nagulko believes that the thorough study of the museum collections of the old masters is the only accurate way to the art perfection.

“I paint the way I see and feel it, and I feel it strongly. Others may see and feel the same, but nobody takes the risk to convey it. I have taken the courage to do it. I have the liberty to express my thoughts” – these words of the French postimpressionist Paul Cezanne reveal the creative credo of the master and they also help understand the principles of the Kyiv painter Yuriy Nagulko who was born in the other century, country and who creates some other art.

With wide and dynamic strokes of the palette-knife (he is not using the brush in the latest years) the master shapes the form, creates the texture and uses the surprising colours and tones contrasting the cold and hot on his large canvases that astonish with the spatial reasoning of their author.

Yuriy Nagulko – “an artist of imaginings, ideas and dreams” – violently and unsparingly creates the paintings that strike with the emotional tension of the heart.

There are some other important features to the painter’s portrait: ethic and aesthetic principles, extremely serious attitude to his occupation and interpretation of art as a moral deed.

Such a work respect distinguished the icon-painters of the Kiev Rus and Yuriy Nagulko is inseparably bound up with them by spiritual ties.

Zoya Chegusova, Honoured Art Critic of Ukraine, Shevchenko National Prize-Winner