UKRAINIAN BRANCHES of Paris School
The National Art Museum unveiled a Jacques Chapiro exhibit as part of French Spring
When I, being a rather successful student of a Soviet school, read a book by Ilya Ehrenburg People, Years, Life, suggested by my parents, a whole new great worlds opened up for me. That strange Parisian life was filled with melodious names of poets and writers, filmmakers and artists from all over the world, who “flew” to the “cultural Mecca” and the cafe La Ruche (which means “hive”) was the place of their informal communication. Guillaume Appollinaire and Amedeo Modigliani, Alexander Archipenko and Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and many other outstanding personalities – each created art of new time in their genre. In fact, this distant acquaintance gave a powerful impetus for my cultural self-identification.
Name of our fellow countryman Jacques Chapiro (in his life before Paris, which began for him in 1925, he had the name Jacob) belongs to the great pleiad, which would later become known as “Paris School.” It is very popular among museum workers, art critics, and collectors these days! Thus, the exhibition that opened within the framework of the jubilee tenth festival “French Spring” at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, organized by this museum, the auction house “Dukat,” publishing house “Antykvar,” and French Institute in Ukraine, is truly a priceless gift for lovers of fine arts.
The first thing you’ll see when you come to the exposition is a collage of black-and-white photographs of the artist. Every photo tells its story and is very dramatic. And it is not by chance: when Chapiro came to Paris he was already a well-known theater actor back in Ukraine. He worked with Vsevolod Meyerhold and Yevgeny Vakhtangov. In France he finally got absorbed in painting and actively participated in the most famous salons and exhibitions.
Soft, slightly muted colors in his art works, surprisingly, only make them more positive, emphasizing the low-key, but very rich beauty of life. The exhibition features about 60 drawings and paintings created by the artist which were provided by museums and private collectors.
It is also very valuable that apart from the exhibition that will be open until May 4, the organizers have planned a series of interesting lecture-meetings. On April 13 you can get better acquainted with Jacques Chapiro, find out more details about his life and creative work from the guest of the festival Daria Suslova – she will deliver an open lecture “Jacques Chapiro – Multi-Faceted Artist.” Jean-Claude Marcade, famous French scholar and a deep connoisseur of the avant-garde of the former Soviet Union. He was the one who discovered and studied for many years the phenomenon of Ukrainian avant-garde, which, unfortunately, is more popular with French people that with people in Ukraine. On April 14 Mr. Marcade will tell the guests of the festival about the peculiarities of Ukrainian avant-garde art in the first quarter of the 20th century – from Mykhailo Boichuk to Vladimir Tatlin and Kazimir Malevich. And on April 21 Vita Susak will deliver a lecture with a fascinating title “At the Heart of Gruyere Cheese: Arkhypenko and His Compatriots in ‘Paris Hive.’”
It is important that the audience will get this invaluable chance to communicate with famous art critics as a bonus to the exhibition. The pass to the lectures will be a day ticket to the museum on that day. Enjoy the exhibition and the new experience, which, of course, like nothing else will facilitate your self-identification.
