VIENNA.- This first comprehensive exhibition outside Ukraine explores the development of modern art in the cultural centers of Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv during the first half of the 20th century. Modernism in Ukraine is revealed to be both international and avant-garde. From Jugendstil to Constructivism, the exhibition relays the tempestuous and fascinating history of cultural identities in Ukraine.
General Director Stella Rollig: Modernism in Ukraine developed its progressive artistic power in the midst of great unrest and adverse socio-political conditions. The works gathered in the exhibition defied the social and artistic conventions of their time, making them ambassadors of a modern civilization grounded on cultural values, both in the past and present.
The Modernist movement in Ukraine unfolded against a complicated sociopolitical backdrop: World War I, the 1917 Revolution, subsequent short-lived independence as the Ukrainian People’s Republic (1917–21), and the founding of Soviet Ukraine. Despite the tumult, Ukrainian art, literature, theater, and film flourished.
Like many other European nations, Ukraine experienced a national awakening at the beginning of the 20th century, which, as elsewhere, was associated with the attempt to develop a national style of art by drawing on folk motifs and distinctly national themes, says curator Konstantin Akinsha.
Until the first art academy was founded in Kyiv in November 1917, artists from Ukraine were forced to complete their studies elsewhere, initially mainly in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Gradually, however, the focus shifted to Western European centers such as Vienna, Krakow, Munich and Paris. There, young artists explored the latest achievements in painting and became part of an international artistic milieu, adds curator Katia Denysova.
The Boichukists (бойчукісти), followers of the monumentalist Mykhailo Boichuk (Михайло Бойчук), created their own national school of mural painting inspired by the Byzantine tradition and Ukrainian folk art. In Kharkiv, Vasyl Yermilov (Василь Єрмілов) became the foremost exponent of the Ukrainian version of Constructivism. Meanwhile in Kyiv, Oleksandr Bohomazov (Олександр Богомазов), the country’s preeminent Futurist, developed the style known as Spectralism. In the late 1920s, the Kyiv Art Institute became the last refuge for pioneers of modern art such as Kazymyr Malevych (Казимир Малевич). All these developments were brutally halted by Stalinist repression in the 1930s.
With works by Oleksandr Murashko (Олександр Мурашко), Heorhii Narbut (Георгій Нарбут), Alexandra Exter (Олександра Екстер), Sarah Shor (Сара Шор), and many more, the exhibition provides an insight into the complex history of modernism in Ukraine and sheds light on an essential but little-known part of European culture.
