“I work with eternal material that does not burn in fire and does not sink in water”

I first spoke with the artist back in the middle of the 1980s in his studio filled with pieces of ceramics, paintings, and huge folders with graphic drawings. As a result of that meeting I wrote about the considerable artistic heritage of the master back then. Wide reading audience learned about the creative work of the extraordinary artist, who tried to synthesize traditional and modern vision of the artistic image, advocated national character in a broad sense.

Pechorny worked in the Society of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the USSR from 1973 until 1979 and at that time he designed souvenirs made of majolica and pottery, including plates, flasks, carafe, mugs, quarts, pipes, and Damask with Cossack theme. These ceramics caused a furor among the Ukrainian Diaspora overseas. And the reaction of the government was quite the opposite. Apart from serious talks with the artist, somebody destroyed all of his works and forms for their production in his studio. Only the intervention of the head of the Society of Historical and Cultural Heritage Professor Petro Tronko protected Pechorny from further trouble. “I work with eternal material that does not burn in fire and does not sink in water,” said the master.

Today, the creative legacy of the artist includes over a thousand drawings made mostly with ink and markers in a style of “ceramic graphics.” These works are unique in their artistic approach and in manner of execution, which makes them unique in the contemporary Ukrainian easel art. One of Pechorny’s favorite image-symbols is phoenix as the embodiment of the revival of Ukraine, which is gradually rising from its knees after centuries of sleep. Typical ceramic figure is always present on his desktop and it as if inspires the artist to create new art works…

The reason for our meeting with Pechorny was the fact that he recently received the highest state award for a series of ceramic plates based on the works of Taras Shevchenko.

Mr. Pechorny, please tell us how did you get the idea to illustrate the works of the great Kobzar in ceramics?

“Throughout my entire artistic career I have been closely connected with arts and crafts to which I devoted nearly 50 years. It is always based on folk traditions and beliefs of the beautiful and unusual that a person encounters – flora and fauna, beliefs, folklore, language, way of life. All of this is present in immortal poetry of Taras Shevchenko, who allegedly accumulated the genetic code of the Ukrainian nation. Gradually I got an idea to transform Shevchenko’s writing in artistic image. I spent many months creating graphic sketches of future ceramic plates, in which, according to the plan, apart from various compositions there had to be depicted a characteristic fragment of a poem like ‘Swim, swim, Lebedonka, on the blue sea,’ ‘Before the dawn Cossacks took harness out of the pit – golden sword and hook-rifle’ or ‘Our thoughts, our song won’t die, won’t perish!’ and others. As a result 30 decorative plates over 60 centimeters in diameter made of crude pottery using engobe painting, characteristic of Trypillia period, came into being.”

These plates are special due to the skillful painting on them and the technology of their making. Do you have some special secret?

“I managed to develop my own drawing style, learned to perceive the surrounding world in unique images. First I mastered certain artistic knowledge in Kyiv College of Applied Arts and in Vera Mukhina Leningrad Higher Art-Industrial School, later I learned a lot at Horodnytsia Porcelain Factory in Zhytomyr oblast and in Kyiv Research Institute of Ceramics and Glass, as well as in Production Association ‘Artist’ in Kyiv and many other places.”

You come from Siversk area. You were born in the village of Roishche in Chernihiv oblast. Have you ever researched the genealogy of your family of Pechornys?

“Only to the second generation. My father Petro Pechorny lived to be 95 and my grandfather Myna lived to be 105. Thus we have a family of long-livers. There were seven children in my family: I had two brothers and four sisters. From the stories my father told us I can assume that our ancestors came from the Ural, where the Pechora River starts. Hence, perhaps, the family name – Pechorny. They came to Ukraine a few centuries ago. My ancestors, apart from farming, earned their living by wicker weaving, making sieves and brush of horsehair. When I was 11 my mother died and my childhood ended…”

What is your creative credo?

“My credo is to combine together traditionalism and modernity in my creative work. I do not understand those artists who ignore our past or treat it superficially. By doing so they lose their spiritual connection with the land, where they were born. Just think back to the art history, about the outstanding artists of the Renaissance. Every one of them became famous for their masterpieces only because in their paintings there always was present the local color, material and spiritual culture of the ethnic group that gave the world the certain genius. When I studied at Leningrad Art and Industrial College I had the opportunity to visit the Hermitage, where I spent hours making sketches of paintings from different parts of the world, including Egypt, Greece, China, Japan, and Western Europe. In art of these countries modernity was naturally combined with traditionalism. I should also mention boichukists in this regard, who in their work focused on the ancient art of Byzantium and Kyivan Rus’. Dealing closely with ancient icons, wall painting, they tried not only to revive Ukrainian mural painting, sculpture and graphics, but also tried to modernize them.”

By the way, the Kyiv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Art and Design, where you chair the Department of Art Ceramics, is named after Mykhailo Boichuk. On what do you focus students’ attention while teaching them all kinds of artistic intricacies?

“For me as a teacher it is important to cultivate in students the need for searching for artistic solutions in working with clay. Most of them due to the lack of experience ignore the very important preparatory period of making graphical sketches of pottery or ceramic works – pots, vases, kumanets, plates, jugs, cups, quarts, pitchers, flasks, tiles, etc. A talented ceramist is one who is able to combine skills of a graphic artist, painter, and sculptor all at the same time. I understood this principle very well when I studied at the School of Arts and Crafts attached to Lavra, where I began to master the profession of an artist. Besides you have to feel clay as a material because it, figuratively speaking, does not burn in fire and does not sink in water…”

For a long time you have been working with the Ukrainian Culture Fund on a voluntary basis. What sphere of activity of this NGO are you responsible for?

“I cooperate with the Ukrainian Culture Fund since its foundation, which is a quarter of a century already. I am a member of the Fund’s Presidium, member of the Board of Trustees of the program ‘New Names of Ukraine’ which aims to identify gifted children and promote their creative development.”