Hay sculptures inspired by art of Maria Pryimachenko
Nearly 50 paintings of the folk artist were presented for the public
Nearly 50 paintings of the folk artist were presented for the public. By the way, many of those paintings have not been put on display for a long time. Art works of Maria Pryimachenko found their thematic and stylistic continuation in the sculptures made of hay by Oleksii Shevchuk. The exhibition will be open until January 25.
Paintings by Pryimachenko that are presented at the exhibition had been obtained from the funds of the Taras Shevchenko National Museum (14 paintings of 24 stored in its vaults), Hryhorii Galagan National Oblast Chernihiv Art Museum (23 paintings), National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine in Pyrohiv (17 of 250 paintings), and also from the private collection of the Pryimachenko family.
Today Pryimachenko’s paintings are worth tens of thousands of dollars at auctions, but when she was still alive and working in her native village of Bolotnia (now Ivankov raion in Kyiv oblast) her countrymen did not realize that she was a rather unique master working next to them. Pryimachenko’s neighbors felt sorry for Maria because when she was still a child she was infected with polio and could not work in the field. However, the disability did not rob her of life experience, marriage and birth of her son Fedir, who also became a folk artist, her student, and friend. The name of Maria Pryimachenko became known to the world in the mid-1930s. At the World Exhibition in Paris Ukrainian artist was awarded the gold medal for surprising the whole artistic world with her paintings. Among those who got to know her art work were Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Louis Aragon. When Picasso saw her paintings, he immediately admitted that, if Pryimachenko lived in France, she would be more famous than he. Since that time her art works have enjoyed a great success at the art exhibitions in Paris, Warsaw, Sofia, Montreal, Prague, Beijing, Budapest, Moscow, Vienna, Bratislava, Berlin, and Zagreb. In 2009 UNESCO also announced that it was the year of Maria Pryimachenko. Not surprisingly her work still inspires other artists and even fashion designers.
Author of the project presented in the Taras Shevchenko Museum – Oleksii Shevchuk as if transfers nine fantastic and cosmic images of animals from Pryimachenko’s paintings into sculpture (in modern terms, into 3D format). Trying to figure out their planetary mission, Shevchuk suggests that the ornaments of the animals present an encrypted message to future generations in the form of allegorical formulas: Zebra is a formula of changes, Lion – nobility, Cow – abundance, Turtle – speed, Fox – wisdom, etc.
The installation is full of symbolism and allegory: sculptures are made of hay – simple, naive, natural material that resembles a multidimensional structure of the universe, consisting of fine threads that connect space. The central figure is a woman master (Pryimachenko herself): philosopher – creator – shepherd – Trypillian woman, symbol of fertility and beauty, dressed in plakhta, on which ornamental formulas of all shapes are combined. Sheaf of hay is an incubator that produces eggs of perspectives that hatch fantastic animals – hay sculptures designed to do good on earth.
“Pryimachenko’s compositions are so bright and colorful! Today there is no other master who would have worked in such an original manner, could embody his or her imagination in art, and could combine in a very delicate way reality and the subconscious,” said Oleksii Shevchuk. “The idea of the current exhibition was conceived in collaboration with the family of the artist. I dared to transfer her art work into format of sculpture, but deliberately made all the figures big, so that they looked as a worthy addition to her art work. This resulted in a large-scale exhibition.”
The author does not deny that the idea of making his hay sculptures was prompted by popular toys made of hay. “I have not seen such sculptures before,” admitted Shevchuk. “Thus, initially it was even a bit scary to start working on this: I was not sure what would come out of this. But then I found the right technological method for implementing the creative vision in real life. Now it is clear for me that I will continue this creative work.”
As for the mission of this exhibition across our country, Shevchuk together with Yulia Shylenko, curator of the exhibition and curator of the Taras Shevchenko National Museum, hope that along with the existing catalogs of Pryimachenko’s art works from private collections, finally there would be published a catalog of artist’s works based on collections of the Ukrainian museums, which, to everyone’s embarrassment, has not yet been published! This exhibition should become the impetus for the creation of such a catalog. After all, besides the abovementioned museums, Pryimachenko’s paintings are stored in the Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Art – 650 paintings (the largest collection) and in the Zaporizhia Art Museum – 500 paintings.
