“Kyiv collection”

“Kyiv Collection” is a joint project with Kyiv Mohyla Academy’s Judaica Center. Kyiv artists are represented at the exhibit by both very well-known and unjustly forgotten names.

Organizers say that, when preparing the exposition, they could not, unfortunately, embrace the whole cultural stratum of the time. It is just an “ark” of sorts that has gathered various-scale personalities who interacted in the same cultural milieu. All the exhibited works are manifestations of an unbiased creative effort. This profile draws public attention to such an interesting phenomenon as Kyiv art in the second half of the 20th century. The authors of the displayed paintings, graphics, and sculptures are associated one way or another with the Kyiv State Art Institute (a.k.a. NAOMA) – they either studied or taught at it.

The exhibit shows a continuity of traditions in the relationship between the two generations of the exhibited masters, the Sixtiers and their mentors, Tetiana Yablonska, Illia Shtilman, and Serhii Hryhoriev, who taught at the institute in different periods. Other role models for younger colleagues in the profession were Yevhen Volobuiev, Heorhii Yakutovych, and Boris Rapoport. The uncompromising Hryhorii Havrylenko was considered spiritual leader of the 1960s generation.

The older-generation outstanding artists – Tetiana Yablonska, Serhii Hryhoriev, Illia Shtilman, Boris Rapoport, Yevhen Volobuiev, Heorhii Yakutovych, and Olena Yablonska – were recognized long ago as classics of Ukrainian art, and their works have occupied a proper place in the museums of Ukraine and other countries as well as in private collections. The works of most Sixtiers have also made their way to museums and major private collections. But it is quite a rare occasion to see their heritage at museum and gallery expositions. Some of these works remain with their descendants and are seldom exhibited.

Uncommon artistic individualities, they all found a unique creative manner, realized their talent, and lived an honest life under an authoritarian regime and pressure of the ideology of socialist realism. Contrary to these circumstances, they created a talented and humane art.

The “living classics” Borys Dovhan, Mykola Rapai, Halyna Hryhorieva, Yakym Levych, and Oleh Zhyvotkov still continue to work fruitfully. The exhibit displays their works of the past few decades. All the artworks are being shown by courtesy of the authors or their families. Each of the works allows the spectator to feel the author’s living soul and his or her heartbeat, recreates an inimitable image of Kyiv.

Yulia Zakharchuk is an art critic