The phenomenon of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut

The 90th birthday anniversary of the prominent Ukrainian artist, representative of the Sixtiers Group, Sofia Karaffa-Korbut was marked on the eve of Independence Day. The artist was born in Lviv on August 23, 1924. She graduated from the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts in 1953. Karaffa-Korbut started her career as a painter, graphic artist, had been working with ceramics for some time, and in late 1950s she came back to printmaking and book graphics. About 60 books by Ukrainian and foreign writers were published with Karaffa-Korbut’s illustrations.

Her rise to the top of the artistic world was not easy. Her father was abroad, so she grew up with her mother, who fully dedicated herself to bringing up the only child. Sofia displayed extraordinary abilities back in the childhood. She read a lot and was fond of drawing. Graphic works she created at the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts were distinguished by artistic maturity, and a lithograph she made based on Lermontov’s poem Mtsyri while studying at the mentioned institute (now an Academy of Arts) can be counted as one of the achievements of the contemporary graphic art. Unfortunately, Karaffa-Korbut’s work in graphics was put on hold. Continuing education at ceramics department required some time to learn the techniques of this art. Nevertheless, these years did not go in vain: the artist made several themed plaques with motifs of old Lviv, Ivan Franko’s works, and folklore.

In the late 1950s, Karaffa-Korbut leaves ceramics for good and returns to printmaking and book graphics. She makes several gouache paintings based on Ukrainian folk tales (A School in the Woods, A House in the Woods), and she creates her first linoleum engraving work Yavorivshchyna in 1959. It was an attempt to revive color engraving, founded in Lviv by prominent master of graphics Olena Kulchytska. However, the usage of several colors in Yavorivshchyna erased the border between graphics and painting. The artist refuses to further experiment in this area, creates several monotypes, which she did not favor as well, and after that she concentrates on illustrating many books with gouaches and is simultaneously involved in printmaking.

Having received positive feedback from critics for The People’s Avenger Lukian Kobylytsia (1960), which was displayed at many exhibits, Karaffa-Korbut sticks to single-color and color linoleum engraving, which towards the end of her life was replaced with ink and pen. She perpetuated her farewell to     ceramics in an engraving A Tragedy before Exhibition (1961) by depicting a confused and scared artist and her assistant near a broken ceramic work, which was supposed to be displayed.

Karaffa-Korbut’s graphic talent was revealed in full force in the 1960s, when she started work on a string of engravings based on Shevchenko’s themes. This series occupies a special place in her versatile heritage. The majority of works of this cycle are independent prints based on Shevchenko’s poems. When they appeared at exhibitions, they impressed not only with the innovative interpretation of images in Shevchenko’s poems, but also with formats unusual for graphic works. The artist worked on her Kobzar for several years. The first works based on Shevchenko were made in 1961, the last ones – in 1968. The publishing of Kobzar, illustrated by Karaffa-Korbut, in 1967 became an important event in Ukraine’s artistic life.

Images of physically and spiritually strong heroes with enormous will-power, who struggled and were unbroken in captivity (Maksym Zalizniak, Ivan Pidkova, Hamalia, Slave, Your Cursed Faith, Tsar), became the leitmotif of her work. Alongside, works of deep lyricism, tender maternal feeling, were created (Everything Went Quiet, She Hears from that House how the Child Is Breathing, Maria, and others). There is no doubt Karaffa-Korbut belongs to the greatest artistic interpreters of Taras Shevchenko’s poetic heritage.

Another boost in her talent was revealed when she turned to Lesia Ukrainka’s works. Her color linoleum engravings Lisovyk and Mavka, Mermaid, I Am Sleeping are true graphic masterpieces, and compositions I Will Sow Colorful Flowers on a Poor Sorrowful Field, It Will Fly Round the World like a Free Bird were directly connected to poetry of the Sixtiers Group, spread at the time through samizdat. The artist made poetic world visible, thus achieving a synthesis of two arts.

The artistic language of Karaffa-Korbut’s many works brings to mind the style of Ukrainian graphics of the 1920s-1930s, associated with the names of Yurii Narbut, Pavlo Kovzhun, Mykola Butovych, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, and others. Graphic masterpieces, Ivan Franko’s poem Ivan Vyshensky (2001) and the artist’s swan song, Lesia Ukrainka’s feerie Forest Song (2000) were published after the artist’s death.

Karaffa-Korbut died on November 29, 1996. She was buried in her native village of Kutkir, near Lviv.