“The Mamaichuks: a View out of Time”

The Kherson Oblast Shovkunenko Art Museum is displaying about 40 pictures of the People’s Painter of Ukraine Anatolii Melnyk. This is the first time he exhibits his works in Kherson. Among them are original enormous monumental canvases on acute social themes, panoramic landscapes, and decorative floral motifs. The exhibit is named “The Mamaichuks: a View out of Time.”

The works are a warts-and-all portrayal of the Mamaichuks, today’s Ukrainians and descendants of the well-known Cossack Mamai. They have to tackle acute social problems. But, in spite of everything, the Mamaichuks are not losing love for life. “It is an irony about certain types of Ukrainians and the social situations they get into. But I think I have the right to express [this irony] as a Ukrainian and a citizen,” Melnyk says.

Looking at the fictional Cossack figures, we can see everyday problems, typical characters and customary human features, both good and bad. Love, sorrow, courage, embarrassment, disappointment, the ability to be a leader or to submit to fate, – this is all typical of Melnyk’s Mamaichuks. The author thus emphasizes the conventionality of historical stereotypes. The artist does not stop short of showing his heroes in a satirical light, mocking at their human weaknesses, such as vanity, megalomania, thirst for power, and haughtiness. Yet the ability to laugh at oneself, which we can see in many canvases, furnishes the exhibit with     an overall positive background, good humor, and an impetus to ponder over our history and the present day, which is closely linked to it.

The pictures’ titles comprise such topical words and meanings as “Lustration,” “Independence,” and “Mobilization.” Seeing a Cossack off to war, an otaman’s sad reflections on the native land, and a column of Cossacks ready to march after their leader… These figures can be easily projected onto Ukraine’s present day, although most of the pictures were painted several years ago.