PEACEFUL ART FROM UKRAINE

In past centuries, spirituality and culture coexisted and complemented each other. Today however, we live in a time of their total separation. Countries of the Soviet Block suffered this most of all after WWII, when Communism took over banning most religious art.

For me some of the best religious art is coming out of the Ukraine, noted for its iconography, but now seeing a play between this classical style and a more modern approach.

Ukrainian art has long been influenced by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Slavic mythology. But  today Ukrainian contemporary art has evolved into a vibrant, dynamic scene with the major social and political changes of the 20th and 21st Centuries.   

Lyuba Yatskiv- Creation of the World

In past Blogs I have presented the art of Ivanka Demchuk, who goes beyond the boundaries of the conservative art form of  the icon, as she uses different color palettes and contemporary compositions.  Ulyana Tomkevych is another wonderful artist who also uses elements of the icon but gives her art a new vitality with modern patterns and shapes. But perhaps my favorite is Lyuba Yatskiv. “She is an intuitive artist who begins with free sketches and adapts them to historic prototypes, creating long, sinous lines, which extend and bend holy figures in expressive ways.”  (John Kohan - Sacred Art Pilgrim)

While I am familiar with the women of this country, I have found two men whose work I do not know, but who have a major influence on the art scene in  the Ukraine today.

'I am for stillness', declares the Ukrainian artist Feodosiy Humeniuk. 'I am for an art that is deep and peaceful, like the soul of my people'. 

FEODOSIY HUMENIUK is one of Ukraine's great artists, a visionary master who brings legends to life. He is an Honored Artist of  the Ukraine and winner of the prestigious Shevchenko Prize (1993). In 2009 he was given the title of People's Artist of Ukraine. His art combines the traditions of old Byzantine art with folk art and modern Western styles and he is a dominant influence in Ukraine's artistic processes today.

St. George & the Dragon

Feodosiy was born in the village of Rybchyntsi, near the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine in 1941. He studied at the Dnipropetrovs'k Art College where he was a pupil of Iakiv Kalashnyk. In 1971 he graduated from the Ilya Repin Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad.

In 1975 he organized an exhibition of nonconformist artists in Moscow, a seminal event that defied the enforced tenets of Socialist Realism. After participating in another exhibition of nonconformist art in Leningrad in 1976, he was accused of nationalism and denied the right to reside in Leningrad.

In the Desert

Together with his wife Natalia and his daughter Ulyana, he moved to Dnipropetrovs'k, where he lived for six years. In 1983 Humeniuk returned to Leningrad, where he was invited to participate in the exhibition of the Group of Fourteen. In 1989 his work was exhibited abroad at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, York University in Toronto, and the Ukrainian Museum in New York. 

His work was later exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris. In 1993  he began to direct a studio at the National Academy of Art devoted to historical painting, a genre he has sought to revive in Ukraine. In 2000 he was named professor of painting and composition.

Feodosiy has held over twenty solo exhibitions and participated in over forty group exhibitions. His work, skillfully combining folkloric content and avant-garde form, is a cornerstone of contemporary Ukrainian art.
With almost muted colors and very geometric design, for me he conveys the beauty of his people and their culture.

Holy Family

Christmas Festivities