UKRAINIAN DESIGN

 

Another master of traditional folk art (but with a twist) in her country was, HANNA SOBACHKO-SHOSTAK who was born in 1883 in  Skoptsi, Ukraine. She completed two school grades, started working for rich villagers in the field, and helped her mother weave and embroider, drew on paper and painted houses.

Landlady Anastasiia Semyhradova opened an educational and demonstrational carpet studio in Skoptsi in 1910 where she, together with painter Yevheniia Prybylska, tried to revive the traditions of carpet making and embroidery. They invited Hanna,  who worked as an embroideress at the cartel during 1910–1916.

The studio also experimented with the avant-garde, and Hanna Sobachko became friends with famous futurist Aleksandra Ekster and switched to decorative graphic art.  She painted decorative panels with watercolors and gouache in the spirit of “rural futurism” – dynamic compositions, asymmetrical, bright images of flower ornaments and birds with the avant-garde influence.  Her art won many awards and she exhibited in Kyiv, Russia, Paris, Berlin, and New York. 

In 1932, Hanna Sobachko-Shostak moved with her family to Cherkizovo village, in the region of Moscow,  where she worked at Eksportnabyvtkanyna factory.

 Her decorative paintings, with floral and fauna motifs, are distinguished by their dynamic composition, asymmetry, and use of intense colors.  Her works were highly appreciated abroad, in particular, by Henri Matisse.

In 1963–1964 her designs were featured on Ukrainian stamps.

A book about her by H. Miestiechkin was published in Kyiv in 1965,  the year she died.