Naive but wise

The naive painting art of the Ukrainian folk master Maria Prymachenko received much hype in 2008, on the occasion of the birth centenary of this talented artist whose name stands next to those of Henri Rousseau, Niko Pirosmani, and Ivan Generalic. Yet this goes for the international scene – in Ukraine Maria Prymachenko is unique. During, before and after 2008, The Day has often referred to the artist’s life and oeuvre. Yet the depth of Maria Prymachenko’s talent and world-view compels us to come back, again and again, to her works and the meaning hidden in them. For this reason, The Day’s Gallery is giving readers a “free” chance to have a glimpse of some of the master’s works from the album “I Give You the Sun” published in the jubilee year.

It will be recalled that Maria Prymachenko was born and spent all her life in the village of Bolotnia, Kyiv region. The bulk of her artistic legacy – about 650 pictures painted in 1936-87 – is kept at Kyiv’s Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art. About 100 works are part of the Zaporizhia Oblast Art Museum’s collection. Prymachenko used to paint flowers, beasts, birds, and people. Thanks to her inimitable manner of painting, she created a symbolic universe of her own and expressed the wealth and beauty of people’s spirituality.

The artist’s oeuvre are her own words best sum up her work: “I do sunlike flowers because I love people, work for joy and happiness, so that all nations love one another and live like a flower all over the Earth.”