Ukraine With French Coloration

Maria Marchak-Tomain was born in Kosmach, a village in Kosiv district Ivan Frankivsk oblast, but has lived and worked in Paris for quite a while. There she made her name, as evidenced by eight personal exhibits held in the French capital. Making one’s name in the West means good money, so she lives comfortably and even sends humanitarian aid to Ukraine. French art devotees were conquered by the harmony, openness, tenderness, and sunny luminance of her works. They are charged with enthusiasm, something seldom found in Ukrainian artists these days. Kyiv enthusiasts saw all this in her exposition organized at the National Art Museum.

She borrows quite a number of subjects from the Hutsul folk heritage and Carpathian creative tradition. Remarkably, she easily switches from pastel to watercolor to crayon, coming up with absolutely unique surrealistic still lifes and pencil sketches of Barcelona and Paris. Yet the bulk of the exposition consists of the Ukraine series. Very symbolic, considering that Marchak- Tomain’s career dates from the early 1990s, parallel to her native country’s democratic independent effort (she left Ukraine five years ago) and her origin, fellow countrymen, the nation’s culture, and its environment continue to inspire her talent.