Cocktail tour

A novel event recently took place in Kyiv’s cultural life: a cocktail tour called “Ukrainian Culture in Color, Sound, and Taste,” organized by the director Serhii Proskuryn in honor of the Art Museum Development Foundation’s fifth anniversary.

Gorgeously arrayed guests found themselves in Ukraine’s treasure trove, the National Art Museum, where they were taken on a tour aimed at acquainting them with our national masterpieces. The unusual excursion was accompanied by refined music and wine tasting. The green, red, and dark yellow halls are the colors of Ukrainian artistic culture. Cahors, Tokay, herb-flavored liqueurs, and vodkas symbolized the tastes of Ukrainian artistic culture. Baroque and classical music, old city romances, and folk songs reflected the sounds of Ukrainian artistic culture. There is no denying that the idea of combining all this is original.

The cocktail tour was led by the deputy director general of the National Art Museum, Maryna Skyrda, and 1+1 TV Channel host Yurii Makarov. Compositions by Dmytro Bortniansky were performed by the Ensemble of Soloists of the Levko Revutsky Men’s Choir (artistic director: Bohdan Antkiv). The Collegium Quartet played Beethoven, National Opera soloists Iryna Semenenko and Angela Shvachka performed Marko Kropyvnytsky’s arrangement of the old romance “Don’t Ask Me,” and the vocal group Mansound presented a jazz potpourri of Ukrainian folk songs. The night at the museum was marked by a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

A special attraction of the cocktail tour was the appearance of legendary actor Bohdan Stupka. Three gold medals were awarded to the museum’s art patrons: Petro Bahrii (founder of Hanza Co.), whose donations have helped keep the museum premises in proper condition, and Filia Zhebrovska (chairperson of the board and director general of Farmak Co.), a co-founder of the foundation, who helped the museum acquire Liubomyr Medvid’s paintings and the sculptural portrait of the artist Tetiana Yablonska by Viacheslav Klokov. The third gold-medal recipient was UKREKSIMBANK, in the person of its chairman of the board Viktor Kapustin, which is responsible for the museum’s publishing programs.

The names of the medal recipients were entered in the Golden Book of Art Patrons. The medals, designed by Oleksandr Sukholit, were presented by Ihor Mitiukov, director general of the Institute of Financial Policy, who is a founder of the foundation and its honorary chairman of the board. Five years ago he donated the painting of Gypsy Woman by the avant-garde artist Viktor Palmov, which marked the start of the foundation’s activities.

Anatolii Melnyk, the museum director, and founder and chairman of the board of the foundation, gave a detailed report on what the foundation has achieved over the years. Thanks to its sponsors, various exhibits and large art projects were organized. The art museum has been enriched by the works of Alexander Archipenko, Viktor Palmov, and Oleksa Hryshchenko. Dozens of albums based on the museum’s rich collections have been published, including a commemorative one entitled The National Art Museum of Ukraine, as well as works on icons, Ukrainian portraits, art of the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries, Ukrainian modernism of the early 20th century, and artists of world caliber, such as Serhii Vasylkivsky, Mykola Pymonenko, Volodymyr Orlovsky, Serhii Svitoslavsky, and Oleksandr Murashko. The museum’s journal Muzeinyi provulok (Museum Lane) has made its name through its six issues and fine prospects. Every guest of the cocktail tour was presented with a copy.

Naturally, the museum’s first and foremost objective is development: opening up the fonds rather than withdrawing into itself, as well as staging and exchanging exhibits with its leading counterparts throughout the world. It is gratifying to recall the NAMU’s exhibits in the Netherlands and US, and local exhibits of works by Goya, Pirsomani, and Japanese calligraphists. Over the past five years the foundation has supported more than 25 exhibits, projects, and cultural events.

The foundation’s activities mark a new stage in the museum’s collection-building efforts. Among the first artworks that the foundation donated to the museum was Palmov’s Gypsy Woman (1919-20), a gift from the foundation’s honorary chairman of the board Ihor Mitiukov. In 2004 the foundation’s co-founder, Petro Bahrii, purchased with his own funds Archipenko’s Female Figure (1914) at an auction in Vienna and donated it to the museum. This was a remarkable cultural event, considering the sculpture’s artistic value and the fact that there are hardly any works by this world-renowned Ukrainian sculptor in his homeland. Archipenko’s Female Figure, included in the exhibit Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930, is on display in the US (Chicago and New York City) in 2006-07. With the foundation’s support a collection of works by Hryshchenko, together with his archives, have been transferred to Ukraine.

Thanks to another co-founder, Filia Zhebrovska, works by Liubomyr Medvid and Viacheslav Klokov were added to the museum collection in 2006-07. Works by Mykola Mazur, Viktor Hontariv, and Andrii Antoniuk were donated by the foundation’s co-founders, Anatolii Melnyk and Fedir Shpyh, and foundation member Serhii Bondarchuk.

The foundation next plans to focus its attention on:

— major exhibits, including Alexandra Ester” (fall 2007) and Ukrainian Artists of the Paris School (2008);

— a TV documentary series on the NAMU’s history and collections, including the combined documentary feature film project The Ukrainian Portrait;

— work on a NAMU CD-ROM;

— restoration of a collection of ancient wood sculpture and a collection of antique furniture;

— computerization of the museum collection’s research catalogue and its chapter-by-chapter publication;

— purchase of special equipment to display icons, specifically Saint George, The Mother of God of Volyn, and Saint Nicholas;

— reconstruction and refitting of the NAMU’s premises to expand its storage capacity, etc.