UKRAINIAN NATIONAL TREASURE

 

           "May I Give this Ukrainian Bread to all People in this Big Wide World" - 1982

In our last Blog we mentioned the artist  MARIA PRYMACHENKO.   She was born in 1909 to a carpenter and craftsman and in a small village near Ivankiv, 19 miles from Chernobyl, where she lived for most of her life. She contracted polio at an early age, leaving her with physical impairment, which influenced her life and her art.  By reports from her relatives, Maria grew into а thoughtful and considerate woman, having compassion for nature and every living thing.

 Her art reflected the Ukrainian countryside to which she added mythological-style scenes and fantastic beasts. She also drew from local mythology and folklore.

Maria’s mother taught her embroidery when she was only a child, and later the artist, Tetiana Floru,  recognized her talents and in 1935, invited her to work at the Central Experimental Workshop of the Kyiv Museum of Ukrainian Art.

At this time, Maria swapped embroidery for painting, and is considered a self-taught artist.

 In Kyiv, Maria underwent two operations, which enabled her to stand unaided. She met her partner, Vasyl Marynchuk, there. In March 1941, their son Fedir was born. She and Vasyl did not have time to get married before he went to war,  and he died in Finland.  She returned to Ivankiv and worked on a collective farm.

Her work was first exhibited in 1936 at the First Republican Exhibition of Folk Art, which traveled around Russia and Poland. It was when her work was shown in Paris the following year, that Picasso saw it and  said: “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.” 

The artist Marc Chagall, depicted realistic and fantastical animals in his paintings, which he called “the cousins of the strange beasts of Maria Prymachenko.” Since then, Maria has been a symbol of Ukraine.

In 1966, Maria was awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.UNESCO declared that 2009 was the year of Prymachenko.

Thankfully, her works are spread among Ukrainian museums and private collections. The largest part of her legacy, nearly 650 works, dating from 1936 to 1987, is kept in the collection of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Applied Art in Kyiv which so far survives.

Maria’s son Fedir became a folk artist and a master of naiveté, dying in 2008. Her grandsons Petro and Ivan also became artists.