Serhíy Bélik is a well-known master of painting. He was born in Odésa in 1953. The artist seeks “the embodiment of spirit in matter» in all his works. As a true believer, Serhíy uses people and objects in his works to convey his mental and spiritual state through their essence. His work is based on intuition aimed at the creation of images and symbols that are open for a viewer’s interpretation.

Bélik’s painting “In the Museum. MoMA”, which was made in 2012, depicts a part of the wall in the hall of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. The famous work of Henri Matisse “Dance” is exhibited in this museum.

The painting depicts a circle of five naked women holding hands and dancing on a lawn. The figures are bright red, the sky is colourful blue, and the grass is green.

In the foreground, in the centre of Bélik’s work, a young girl stands with her back to the viewer. She is depicted in the MoMA hall at the forefront of the legendary “Dance”. Matisse’s painting occupies almost the entire wall visible to us. The figures of the dancers are the same size as the viewer standing next to the painting, leaning towards it and looking into the work. The girl almost took off her underwear and remained only on the black heels. It is understood that this is her last movement before joining the heroines of Matisse.

Matisse’s “Dance” has been beckoning the viewers with an inaccessible fest for many years. Bélik reflects on the eternal theme of the loss of the border between the viewer and the characters of the work. The artist provokes the girl into a desperate attempt to enter someone else’s celebration of life. This existence, inaccessible in the ordinary world, attracts with its pagan, almost initial dances and feelings. The author is a little ironic about a woman who is ready to give up everything and join the coven.