Remembering Kateryna Bilokur

“If we had an artist of this level of skill, we would make the whole world talking about her!”

Pablo Picasso

An outstanding Ukrainian painter, a representative of “Naive art” has died 54 years ago. Bilokur and her paintings could have existed organically within any era, say critics from different countries. Although Bilokur never went to school and never learned painting, her pictures really fascinate people. She is self-taught Master. We remember that her entire life was spent in the village of Bohdanivka, which is lost in the meadows of what is today Kyiv oblast. The time in which the artist lived (1900-61), was not kind to her – but in her paintings Bilokur seems to have found a refuge from the violent events that had raged in Ukraine in the early and mid-20th century. In is a known fact that three of her paintings: Tsar Colossus, Birch, and Collective Field, were presented in 1954 at the International Exhibition in Paris. When Pablo Picasso saw them, he exclaimed: “If we had an artist of this level of skill, we would make the whole world talking about her!”

Grand compositions were especially characteristic of the Bilokur’s artwork. The artist carefully copied plants from nature and at the same time interpreted the world on her own. It was as if she arranged the states of nature in a peculiar order – twilights, dawns, hot afternoons...

Starting from June 16, Mystetsky Arsenal will host an exhibition: “Kateryna Bilokur. I want to be an artist!” This large-scale retrospective of the prominent artist’s paintings will also feature works by Ukrainian female artists working in the genre of video art. Alla Zahaikevych, composer, will present an electro-acoustic performance “To Fly...” – this is an audio installation, which uses techniques of algorithmic composition in Concerto misterioso by avant-garde composer Leonid Hrabovsky. The exhibition will be opened through July 19.