It is hard to believe in the power of art in a world in tumult, especially as the war in Ukraine - a conflict that in the last nine months has killed 6,557 people (up to 13 November 2022, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR) destabilizing the world's economy - continues. Most members of the G20, currently meeting in Bali, strongly condemned the war, demanding Russia's complete and unconditional withdrawal from its neighbour's territory.
Art can certainly be a way to get inspired and react to the brutality of this conflict, but can also be a tool to learn, discover and ponder about history and the importance of heritage and culture. These are the main aims of an exhibition opening later on this month at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain.
"In the Eye of the Storm. Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s" (29 November 2022 - 30 April 2023) is a comprehensive survey of Ukrainian modern art that takes visitors on a journey through the ground-breaking works produced in Ukraine in the first decades of the 20th century.
The museum conceived this event also as a way to focus on the complicated socio-political backdrop in which Ukrainian modernism developed: visitors are indeed invited to consider the first three decades of the 1900s and the events that marked them, from the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 to the Ukrainian War of Independence (1917-21), and the creation of Soviet Ukraine.
During the Stalinist repressions against Ukrainian intelligentsia, writers, theatre directors and artists were executed, while the Holodomor, the man-made famine of 1932-33 that affected the major grain-producing areas of the country, killed from 7 to 10 million people.
Throughout these decades, shaken by these events, Ukrainian art went through a period of experimentation as proved by the 70 works - from oil paintings and sketches to collages and theatre designs - on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza. Arranged in chronological order, the exhibition opens with masters of Ukrainian modernism, such as Oleksandr Bohomazov (also known as the "Ukrainian Picasso" for his works in the new style of cubo-futurism), Vasyl Yermilov, Viktor Palmov, and Anatol Petrytskyi.
In some cases, the paintings selected for the exhibition show the progress of the artist: in Bohomazov's case the exhibition features his works combining Cubism with the dynamic chaos of Futurism ("Landscape, Locomotive", 1914-15), but also his late 1920s paintings depicting scenes of people's everyday life and work ("Sharpening of the Saws", 1927).
Exploring the polyphony of styles and identities, the exhibition includes neo-Byzantine paintings by the followers of Mykhailo Boichuk and experimental works by members of the Kultur Lige, who sought to promote their vision of contemporary Ukrainian and Yiddish art, respectively.
Graphic designers and architects will enjoy El Lissitzky’s compositions, Vasyl Yermilov's magazine cover designs and Kazymyr Malevyc's sketch of the painting for the conference hall of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kyiv (1930).
The exhibition also showcases artworks of internationally renowned artists who were born and started their careers in Ukraine but became famous abroad, among them Alexandra Exter, Wladimir Baranoff-Rossiné, and Sonia Delaunay.
The latter is an obvious choice for fashion fans: her painting "Simultaneous Dresses (Three Women, Forms, Colours)" (1925), is indeed the perfect compendium of her passion for geometric patterns, shapes and silhouettes.
But there is more to discover in the event for those who are into fashion, costume and set design. The event includes indeed Anatol Petrytskyi's sketches for the costume design of Minister Pinh in the opera "Turandot" (State Opera Theatre, Kharkiv, 1928).
A master of the Ukrainian avant-garde, Petrytskyi worked in the '20s in Moscow with the choreographer K.Ya. Goleizovsky on a production of "Eccentric Dances" at the Moscow Chamber Ballet.
Petrytskyi studied at Moscow's VKHUTEMAS (1922-1924) and was influenced by Constructivism. He worked as a painter, set designer, illustrator and poster artist and also in his case the exhibition attempts to create a path through his multi-faceted practice, including from his rationally "engineered" costume designs, characterized by a striking geometric minimalism, but also his paintings such as "Portrait of Mikhail Semenko" (1929), in which he portrayed the dissident poet shot in 1937 using cubist and expressionist techniques and the intact and torn inscriptions of Ukrainian-Russian futurism.
Another artist to check out if you like costumes is Vadym Meller: the exhibition features his sketch for the choreographic movement "Masks" for Bronislava Nijinska's School of Movement (Kyiv, 1919).
The Ukrainian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist, Constructivist and Expressionist artist, transitioned to scenography in the post-revolutionary years. From 1918-1921, he worked with scenographer and dancer Bronislava Nijinska (sister to the famed Paris-based Ballets Russes dancer Vaslav Nijinsky) who had established an experimental ballet studio - the School of Movement - in Kyiv. Meller became the leader of the Constructivism movement in Ukrainian theater design and the sketches included in this event perfectly reflect Nijinska's rhythmical organization and dynamic Futurist expression.
While "In the Eye of the Storm" celebrates the diversity of the artistic scene in Ukraine, it indirectly reminds us that, while people are the first casualties in any war, art and culture are under threat wherever there is a conflict and it is always important to safeguard heritage for future generations.
Many of these works are on loan from the National Art Museum of Ukraine and the State Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema of Ukraine (that preserves many costume sketches) and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza collaborated with the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, and received the support of President Zelensky and the Office of the President of Ukraine to secure through complex negotiations the exceptional loan of these works from the war-torn country. After Madrid, the exhibition will continue its journey and stop at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany.
Image credits for this post
Oleksandr Bohomazov
Landscape, Locomotive, 1914-1915
Oil on canvas. 33 x 41 cm. European private collection
Oleksandr Bohomazov
Sharpening the Saws, 1927
Oil on canvas. 138 x 155 cm. National Art Museum of Ukraine
Alexandra Exter
Still Life, 1913
Collage and oil on canvas. 68 x 53 cm. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. ©Exter-Lissim Archives, Paris.
El Lissitzky
Composition, 1918-1920s
Oil on canvas. 71 x 58 cm. National Art Museum of Ukraine
Vasyl Yermilov
"Nove Mystetstvo" ([New Art], magazine cover design), ca. 1927
Indian ink and gouache on paper. 36 x 23,9 cm. National Art Museum of Ukraine
Kazymyr Malevych
Sketch of the painting for the conference hall of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, 1930
Pastel and gouache on paper. 44 x 31 cm. National Art Museum of Ukraine
Sonia Delaunay
Simultaneous Dresses (Three Women, Forms, Colours), 1925
Oil on canvas. 146 x 114 cm. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. ©Pracusa S.A.
Anatol Petrytskyi
Costume designs for Minister Pinh in the opera "Turandot’"at the State Opera Theatre, Kharkiv, 1928
Gouache and Indian ink on paper. 72 x 54 cm. Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema of Ukraine
Anatol Petrytskyi
Portrait of Mykhailo Semenko, 1929
Watercolor, lead pencil and ink on paper. 61,5 x 47,5 cm. National Art Museum of Ukraine
Vadym Meller
Sketch for choreographic movement "Masks" for Bronislava Nijinska's School of Movement, Kyiv, 1919
Watercolor on cardboard. 60 x 43 cm. Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema of Ukraine
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