Factors of change in the artistic environment of Lviv in the 1960s–1980s: tradition, resistance, restoration of cultural memory and intercultural communication

The article examines and analyzes the central factors that shaped the artistic environment of Lviv during the 1960s–1980s and influenced the trajectory of artistic transformations in the following decades. It traces how tradition, cultural resistance, the recovery of historical memory, and the intensification of intercultural communication– under the constraints of a totalitarian regime– contributed to the development of Lviv’s art scene and the formation of its unique regional specificity. Tradition is explored in the context of the continuity and preservation of modernist practices, made possible by artists with prewar European training who operated in conditions where modernism was forced out of the official canon and survived in underground networks, including alternative academies and art groups.

The study highlights nonconformism as a form of resistance to the official canon of Socialist Realism, which became a catalyst for change and fostered the growth of creative freedom within unofficial art circles. It also demonstrates how the restoration of cultural memory gained momentum during periods of relative liberalization and declined during times of political repression. These processes included the reintroduction of early 20th-century Ukrainian artists into cultural discourse, reflection on historical trauma, and efforts to sustain cultural continuity through temporary initiatives and small-circulation publications. Furthermore, the article underscores the impact of intercultural exchanges between Lviv artists and their counterparts from other Soviet republics, which played a significant role in shifting creative paradigms. The research is grounded in historical-cultural, comparative, and interdisciplinary methodologies, enabling a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena within a broader context. The scholarly contribution of the study lies in its analysis of the complex interplay of internal and external factors that defined the development of Lviv’s artistic milieu under Soviet rule and laid the groundwork for the gradual expansion of creative autonomy, which profoundly shaped the transformations of the artistic process in the late 1980s – early 1990s.

The purpose of the article is to explore and analyze the key factors that influenced the development of the artistic environment in Lviv in the 1960s–1980s, particularly in relation to tradition, resistance, cultural memory recovery, and intercultural communication.