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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

An Alternative to Kitsch

26 January, 1999 - 00:00

Interviewed by Taras MAKHRYNSKY

I am no longer surprised that our state spits on its men of arts and letters.
It is only the natural course of events in a communal apartment, where
privatization has begun and everyone runs to the kitchen to quietly remove
the refrigerator, cooking utensils, cups, and whatever is in them.

Those who failed to get even a spoon would be happy to get the leavings
from the master's table, ignoring the cockroaches scurrying between their
fingers. I am surprised only that there is something left in the refrigerators
at all. In search of an answer I turned to the director of the Honchari
(Ceramists) Artistic Association, Tetiana ANDRIYENKO.

Q: Ms. Andriyenko, is it true that Honchari is Ukraine's only salon
specializing in ceramics?

A: Absolutely. And our salon is also a creative association patronized
by fifty artists and about 200 others working on a contractual basis.

Q:. You have enough experience to judge today's major trend, the
Kyiv school of ceramics. Would you mind enlarging


on the subject?

A: Of course not. I do appreciate this trend and school, and
I should mention the positive role played by our masters: Mylovzorov, Rapai,
and the Isupovs. All of them came from monumental art. The early 1980s
saw a kind of creative construction boom when subway stations, cafes, and
large hotels needed to be decorated. Naturally, monumental ceramics was
no exception, experiencing a creative upsurge. Suffice it to remember the
panel on the facade of the House of Creative Collectives done by Rapai.
Now that was true author's creativity! Also, tribute is due Oleksandr Mylovzorov
who took up ceramics and experimented a great deal deserving every praise.
He succeeded in opening the Triptych Salon representing these and many
other artists. Many of them would later join us. In the early 1990s, Andriy
Ilyinsky and his group also started working for us. A sufficiently democratic
salon had appeared in the city for the first time. After all it takes membership
in the Ukrainian Union of Artists to have one's works exhibited elsewhere
in Ukraine.

Q: Frankly, your salon displays works that seem far ahead of what
we traditionally regard as Ukrainian ceramics. Why?

A: I simply just don't understand any references to our displays
as "non-traditional Ukrainian ceramics." Nonsense! All these works are
done by people born, raised, and educated in Ukraine. This is what we know
as the Kyiv school of ceramics.

Q: We all know that every artist in Ukraine faces the same problem,
earning a living. In other words, they have to choose between creativity
and money. How do you see this situation?

A: Several years ago I would hear from many of them something
like "birds don't need money." A lot has changed since then. Money is something
we all need now. I tell them, "whatever you do, you are artists with talent
and skill." Makieyeva's cup will always be the way she did it, and same
is true of Ilyinsky, In short, I think that a true master can always preserve
his creativity in even commercial and utilitarian assignments.

Q: Has it occurred to you that the overall creative level on Andriyivsky
Uzviz has been dropping of late?

A: It has, and you are right, of course. The very image is being
smeared by all those hefty skin-head boys trading matrioshkas. When I came
to work here some of those self-styled masters said that decent artists
would never have their works displayed here. Indeed, where are all their
works displayed now? Nowhere. It is also true, however, that the artistic
level was much higher then.

Q: In other words, is Andriyivsky Uzviz slowly but surely descending
to the level of kitsch?

A: It is and there is no denying it.

Q: Why?

"People have to find a way to survive. I mean that artists have to make
their works adjusting them to the tastes of those who can afford to buy
them. The intelligentsia is practically washed up. Today's teachers, engineers,
doctors, others like them cannot afford pictures, even for the sake of
their children. And I just can't understand what the state is doing about
this situation. Nothing, it seems. Is it going to raise our children in
any rational manner? I don't know. Consider this: one now has to pay to
enter the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery of the Caves! Four hryvnias! So
how much do you have to pay if you visit with your wife and children? It
has been suggested to us more than once that we charge an entrance fee
at Honchari. How could we? Of course, if we did we would have less trouble
in terms of bar brawls and theft, and we would have some revenue. Yes,
we could, considering that we have schoolchildren visiting us by classes
(something like a Tatar invasion). But we never would. There is a woman
who often visits us and buys something now and then. I mean she did, now
she doesn't, because she's on pension. She comes and she says, "It's like
visiting a museum." If we charged entrance fees she'd never come again.

 

Honchari Art Salon interior remains major attraction on Andriyivsky Uzviz in Kyiv
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