The exhibition “A Studio of linocut of Leonid Bondar” dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the opening of Art School named after O.O.Osmerkin in the town of Kropyvnytskyi was presented within the museum art project Gallery of Children’s Art.
    The Art School was founded in autumn in 1959. In 1992, to the 100th anniversary of the artist and pedagogue, the school was named after O.O.Osmerkin.
    One of the creative founders of the school is Leonid Ivanovych Bondar (1938-2013) - Merited Cultural Worker of Ukraine, a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, a laureate of the Regional Award in Fine Art and Study of Art named after Oleksandr Osmerkin in the nomination “national tradition”. In 1960, after graduation from Symferopol State Art College named after M.S.Samokysh was sent to the town of Kirovohrad (currently Kropyvnytskyi). He worked in Children Art School as a teacher, deputy principal, and for more than 20 years as a principal. As an artist has been in a constant creative search, which brightly reflected his artistic talent in painting and graphic art. Taught many generations of talented artists, many of whom became members of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, laureates of regional, all-Ukrainian, and international competitions.
    Leonid Bondar was fond of linocut. He became interested in it at the beginning of the 1960s and achieved great skills in it. He shared his knowledge with the pupils.
    At the beginning of the 1970s, he insisted that a big etching press was bought for the school. This is how a studio of children linocut appeared. The peculiar feature of this technique is affordable materials. The tools are also easy to make. The exhibition presents works from the collection of demonstrative pupils’ works created in the 1980s in the technique of color linocut. It is a difficult technique because a separate plate of linoleum is graved for each piece of paper. And prints are made from the lightest to the darkest colors and are laid one over the other. Clearness of the ideas, decorativeness, and skills impress, but the choice of themes is impressive too – Ukrainian folk holidays, illustrations to literary works after trade fairs, popular folk tales “Firebird”, “Swan-brothers”, “Ivan-Pobyvan”, “Cossack Mamaryha” and others, and also everyday life compositions, for example, “My granny”, which can be easily distinguished even without titles.” – mentioned the leading researcher of the museum, Merited Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadezhdin in the booklet to the exhibition.
    The jubilee exhibition, that was organized on the initiative of the current principal of the school Hanna Tymofiienko, presents 26 creative works from the series: Folk Traditions, To the Trade Fair!, World of Fairy Tales, and Cozy Household created in the 1980s on the paper 58х42 and 42х58cm of size. Even though young artists didn’t sign the works, these linocuts brightly demonstrate a high professional level of teaching in the art school and prove the uniqueness of the skills of the Fine Art teacher Leonid Bondar.