A great master

The Ukrainian monumentalist painter, graphic artist, and art historian Mykhailo Dmytrenko (1908- 1997) belongs to the generation of national artists who, by force of difficult circumstances and rejection of the communist ideology, was forced to leave their native land forever and find a second homeland overseas. Emigration to a free society enabled Dmytrenko to fully reveal his powerful talent, which was based on solid national ground, and thus make a sizable contribution to 20th-century Ukrainian art.

Unfortunately, very few Ukrainians, apart from a narrow circle of experts, know about Dmytrenko. He was born on Nov. 9, 1908, in the famous Cossack town of Lokhvytsia, Poltava gubernia, the birthplace of two other outstanding Ukrainian artists: the sculptor H. Pyvovarov (1908-1942) and the choirmaster N. Horodovenko (1885-1964).

Dmytrenko showed a talent for drawing early in life. It was noted by two professional artists based in Lokhvytsia, the painters V. Zhuravliov and F. Artamonov, who taught at his secondary school. They helped the boy master the basics of drawing, painting, and composition, as well as choose a career in the arts.

Long before he began attending school, little Mykhailo would pore over the sketches of a painter who was restoring the wall paintings at the Holy Virgin Nativity Cathedral and boarding at the Dmytrenko home. Mykhailo visited the cathedral repeatedly to gaze fixedly at the icons and majestic iconostasis sculpted by the well-known woodcarver Sysoi Shalmatov (1720-1789) which was commissioned by the last Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host, Petro Kalnyshevsky (1690- 1803), and later made sketches of them. The wooden cathedral founded by Kalnyshevsky burned down after being struck by lightning in the summer of 1797. Miraculously, the unique Baroque iconostasis was saved, and it adorned the new marble church until the early 1930s, when it was torn down by local militant atheists, as were the rest of Lokhvytsia’s churches: St. Michael’s, the Church of the Holy Protection, the Church of the Holy Transfiguration, and St. John the Baptist’s.

Lokhvytsia’s rich artistic milieu in the early 20th century, which emerged on the basis of its unique monuments of sacral culture, had a beneficial effect on the future monumentalist artist and helped shape his national identity and esthetic tastes. A noble dream was kindled in him: to devote his life to the paintbrush and colors. Hard work, endurance, and diligence helped him achieve this dream.

The boy set off for Kyiv to live for a time with his former teacher Zhuravliov. For two years he studied at an industrial art school, where he worked with a shovel more often than with a paintbrush. In 1926, after competing with more than 500 applicants (only 60 were chosen) Dmytrenko enrolled in the Kyiv Art Institute. The dream that he had been stubbornly pursuing finally came true.

At this time, a pleiad of outstanding Ukrainian artists, such as Vasyl and Fedir Krychevsky, Mykhailo Boichuk, Mykola Burachek, Kostiantyn Yeleva, and others, taught at the institute. Dmytrenko’s talent developed and was strengthened under the guidance and influence of Fedir Krychevsky (1879-1947) who encouraged his students to respect national traditions in art and creatively enrich them. The students, at this point free of Communist Party strictures, were thrilled by these artistic innovations. The constraints came later.

Those years were characterized by a thirst to study the heritage of Ukraine’s princely period, which was heavily influenced by Byzantine Christian culture, absorb the humanistic ideals of the Renaissance, and express them in Cossack Baroque monuments. Kyiv - impressive, wealthy, and beautiful - had not yet been touched by the ruinous and demonic force of militant atheists. As Dmytrenko later said, only on this fertile ground of national spirituality could a strong and healthy national culture be nurtured.

After graduating from the institute in 1930, Dmytrenko worked for a time in Donbas and at the Kyiv Theater of Young Workers. Then Krychevsky invited him to be associate professor at the department of drawing in the Faculty of Architecture. During his tenure at the institute, Dmytrenko took part in Ukrainian art exhibitions in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other cities. He showed his graphic works and paintings, proving himself a mature master of various genres of fine arts.

Artists were now being forced to create in line with party instructions and apply the methods of so-called socialist realism, which channeled almost all the creative forces into agitprop. In 1939 Dmytrenko was sent to Lviv to found a local branch of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine. Galician masters treated him with respect, recognizing his talent and industriousness and, later, witnessing his sincere patriotism and concern for the destiny of Ukrainian culture.

Dmytrenko was in Lviv when the Second World War broke out. In the first year of German occupation, Ukrainian artistic life in the city was still vibrant. In an attempt to unite Ukrainian artists, Dmytrenko became a cofounder of the Union of Ukrainian Visual Artists. The union held several art exhibitions. The largest, held in 1942, featured the works of artists from every district of Galicia and was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Dmytrenko exhibited genre paintings and women’s portraits, a favorite with the artist. These works clearly showed that he had not only developed the finest traditions of national painting but also enriched it. On instructions from Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Dmytrenko painted a church in Horodok Jagiellonski near Lviv.

Before the Germans retreated from Lviv, Dmytrenko and a few Galician artists fled to Germany, where they had to move from city to city and live in Displaced Persons camps. After the war Sviatoslav Hordynsky and other Ukrainian painters, including Dmytrenko, organized Ukrainian artistic life, held art exhibitions in Munich, Regensburg, and other German cities, and published the short-lived journal Ukrainske mystetstvo (Ukrainian Art) which was one of the best Ukrainian publications in the West at the time.

Once transatlantic immigration became possible, Dmytrenko moved to Canada and later to Detroit (US) for permanent residence. Using his own designs and sketches, he used a variety of techniques (fresco, mosaic, stained glass, painting) to decorate Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches in Canada (Toronto) and the US (Detroit, Bedford, Minneapolis, New York, etc.). In these places of worship he created majestic and inimitable monumental compositions that still have the power to evoke amazement and admiration. His titanic work, which took a lot of spiritual and physical efforts, can only be compared to the works of Renaissance masters.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims, who gather every year in the main chapel of the famous city of Lourdes (France), can feast their eyes on the wonderful altar icon “The Holy Virgin with Baby Jesus,” which was painted by Dmytrenko in 1976. The artist said that he executed this icon and others for the Lourdes chapel in gold colors so as not to put the Ukrainian land and the glorious name of Ukraine to shame. This icon evokes lofty prayerful sentiments in worshippers and reminds the world of the thousand-year-old Christian Ukraine.

Another magnificent icon painted by Dmytrenko in 1969, “St. Olha, Princess of Rus’-Ukraine,” is displayed at the museum of Istituto San Clemente in Rome.

Dmytrenko’s painting and decorative manner is based on supreme examples of Byzantine art dating to the age of Emperor Justinian I (6th century A.D.) and the traditions of ancient Ukrainian art, which the painter masterfully interpreted in a new historical space, meeting latter-day esthetic requirements. His works also occupy an important place in the final decades of 20th-century American art.

In 1954, on Dmytrenko’s initiative, Toronto hosted the first high-profile exhibit of American and Canadian Ukrainian artists, which drew the attention of the general public and became a kind of review of the Ukrainian Diaspora’s artistic potential. From then on, such exhibitions were regularly held in Detroit, New York, Toronto, and other cities. They helped talented young Ukrainians realize their creative potential and take an active part in art developments on the North American continent.

Dmytrenko was able to realize himself as a monumental painter of sacred art only far away from Ukraine. During the communist era this genre was mindlessly suppressed for many decades in Ukraine, and thus a huge layer of culture was lost. This could not but affect the spiritual state of society, for, as we know, deliberate and repressive efforts were made to slow down the sacral architectural and fine arts processes that had flourished in Ukraine from the times of Kyivan Rus’ until the early 20th century.

Through his multifaceted and indefatigable efforts, Mykhailo Dmytrenko enriched Ukrainian national art with priceless masterpieces on which contemporaries on different continents continue to feast their eyes and admire his unique talent.

Heorhii Shybanov holds the title of Meritorious Master of Arts of Ukraine