What do repositories hide?

The exposition displays 17th-19th-century icons and pictures by Pyotr Konchalovsky, Oksana Pavlenko, Konstantin Kuznetsov, and other artists from the Zaporizhia Oblast Art Museum’s collections, restored by specialists of the National Research and Restoration Center of Ukraine. Except for two icons, all the artworks are being exhibited for the first time.

Den was lucky. When we came to the museum the next day after the exhibit’s crowded and bustling opening, we were given a tour by Tetiana BYCHKOVA, deputy director of the National Research and Restoration Center of Ukraine, in charge of restoration research. As one of the most experienced Ukrainian restorers, she was personally involved in “rescuing masterpieces from oblivion.” Her professional career started in 1976, when she began to cooperate with the newly-established Zaporizhia Art Museum. “I am deeply attached to this exhibit,” Ms. Bychkova confessed.

It took a very short time – from June 2016 – to restore all the works because, according to Ms. Bychkova, the only difficult thing was to renovate temperas. But the main attraction of the exhibit for the general public is, of course, not in this.

A GIRL WITH A NIMBUS BY ALEKSANDR VOLKOV (1915)

“Except for two icons – The Holy Virgin of Smolensk (18th century, restored by Marharyta Khrebtenko) and Synaxarion for December (first half of the 19th century, restored by Ivanna Levchyk), – nobody has ever seen these works, for they have not been exhibited anywhere so far,” Ms. Bychkova says, pointing to the exposition. “Even the Zaporizhia museum’s deputy director said jokingly, when she saw them at this exhibit: ‘Look, it turns out our repositories hold genuine treasures!’”

In the words of Ms. Bychkova, the canvases were kept in good conditions (in folders) in Zaporizhia, but they could no longer be displayed in their present shape because the paint had peeled off in some places in the course of time. Oil pictures had no subframes. The icons were in the worst condition.

“The flax-seed oil varnish went dark on Synaxarion. The other icons could not stand upright at all – you could only put them flat on the surface. On St. John the Baptist (18th century), the background was painted over – our restorer Yulia Mechkovska even left a fragment for comparison,” the restorer says.

Watching the exposition that consists of restored originals and colored plates with the photos of what they looked before the restoration, captions, and the names of restorers, the true rescuers, suggests that it is an art-related detective story whose plot centers on you personally here and now. We discuss it with Ms. Bychkova. She says: “Restoration exhibits are in vogue now. They arouse more and more interest. And can it really be uninteresting? Look at Nara. A Yellow Tree (1918), a beautiful canvas by Pyotr Konchalovsky. You can see it only now for the first time in many years.” The restorer points to this landscape, a star attraction at the exposition. The picture immediately catches your eye, owing to bright colors and expressiveness.

A LANDSCAPE BY KONSTANTIN KUZNETSOV (1924)

You can see two works by the famous artist at the exhibit – the master created the other landscape, Sudak. St. George Mount, in 1917, when he first traveled to Crimea after returning from World War One.

No less interesting seem to be the French landscapes by Konstantin Kuznetsov (1863-1936), one of the outstanding Russian emigre artists, who lived in Paris and painted under the influence of Monet and Pissarro. The exhibit also displays Red Trees, a picture by his wife Aleksandra.

The pictures were brought to Zaporizhia from the USSR Ministry of Culture’s art archive in Zagorsk in

1980 and were kept in folders for almost 40 years. “I wish Kuznetsov were better known in Ukraine, for he was an artist of a very high level,” Ms. Bychkova points out.

Then we switch to discussing the oeuvre of Aleksandr Volkov who painted his Landscape (1914) and A Girl with a Nimbus (1915) under the influence of St. Sophia temple mosaics and Mikhail Vrubel’s paintings at St. Cyril’s Church. The would-be People’s Painter of the Uzbek SSR graduated in 1916 from the Kyiv Art School, where he was taught by no other than Fyodor Krichevsky. You can appreciate the combination of Krichevsky’s Ukrainian painting traditions and Oriental colors in his oeuvre if you see the picture Tea House. Listening to a Song (1932). Volkov’s son presented it to the Zaporizhia Oblast Art Museum as far back as 1984. Then Ms. Bychkova and I discussed the destiny of Boichukist artist Oksana Pavlenko (1896-1991), whose Young Pioneer Girl (1930-32, restored by Anastasia Chernychenko) would surely be a gem of any exposition of Ukrainian avant-garde art. And it will perhaps become one because the restored canvases, or even the entire exhibit “Rescued from Oblivion,” are now going to be shown in Zaporizhia.

“See how many artworks are on display? And in fact we have as many restorers,” Ms. Bychkova says with a sigh in conclusion. “It’s very few for all of Ukraine. You can’t even imagine what treasures are kept in our museums’ repositories. But it is impossible to show them unless they are restored. There are a total of about 200 restorers in this country, for all genres. It’s a tiny fraction. Be sure and write about this.”

We do. Maybe, it is historians who write history, but it is only restorers who can truly reproduce it. Fortunately, in spite of all problems and troubles, we do have people capable of reconstructing the truth, the people who rescue memory from oblivion…