A large inter-museum project, “Carpathians. These Mountains Know No Submission,“ which will use paintings, graphics, and decorative and applied arts to tell the story of the cultural image of the mountainous region and its significance for Ukrainian identity. This was reported by the museum’s press service.
”The Carpathians are an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration and national spirit. The region of Cheremosh and Prut was a Ukrainian citadel even in times when artists were deprived of the freedom to freely create national art,“ said Oksana Pidsukha, acting director general of the National Museum ”Kyiv Art Gallery.”
According to the organizers, the exhibition reveals the multifaceted image of the Carpathians through mountain landscapes, portraits of the freedom-loving inhabitants of the region, and genre scenes from the life of the highlanders. The museum emphasizes that the natural landscape has shaped the national character of Ukrainians for centuries, influenced the historical fate of the people, and found reflection in art.
The official presentation of the project will take place on March 10 at 5 p.m.
The exhibition is based on paintings, graphic works, and decorative and applied art by Ukrainian artists from the 1950s to the 1970s. A special place among them is occupied by the works of the Shistdesiatnyky artists — a generation of artists for whom the Carpathians became a symbol of spiritual freedom and a space for the search for national identity.
After World War II, artists went to the mountains to learn more about Ukrainian culture, feel the power of traditions, and demonstrate their inner freedom at a time when the Soviet system was trying to subordinate art to the canons of socialist realism. It was in the Carpathians that they sought new meanings and explored the interconnection between nature, man, and everyday life.
The exhibition features works by famous Ukrainian artists, including Veniamin Kushnir and Lyubov Panchenko, whose paintings convey the atmosphere of the mountainous region and its cultural depth.
A separate section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Transcarpathian school of painting, represented by works by Yosyp Bokshay, Adalbert and Janos Erdeli, Ernest Kontratovich, Gavril Gluck, Zoltan Sholtes, Anton Kashshay, Adalbert Marton, and Vladimir Sidoruk. In their works, the beauty of the Carpathians is conveyed through a subtle sense of light, a rich color palette, and the special atmosphere of the highland landscapes.
The thematic and stylistic palette of the exhibition is complemented by works by Ukrainian classics of the 20th century — Mykola Hluschenko, Serhiy Shyshko, Mykola Maksymenko, and Roman Selsky.
Special emphasis is placed on the graphic works of Heorhii Yakutovych, in particular the illustrations for Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky’s novel “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” as well as his linocuts from the series “People of the Village of Dzembronia,” which deeply convey the spirit of Carpathian culture and the life of mountain communities.
The exhibition is also complemented by porcelain figurines and majolica by famous Ukrainian sculptors. Some of these works were created for the anniversary dates of the Soviet period associated with the so-called annexation of Western Ukraine to the USSR.
The exhibition includes works from the collections of the National Museum “Kyiv Art Gallery,” the Museum of the Sixties — a branch of the Museum of the History of Kyiv, the galleries “NYU ART,” ARS Kerylos, “Nostalgia,” “Vernissage,” as well as from private collections.
The magazine DNA is the project’s information partner.
The museum is open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (except Mondays and Thursdays), and until 7:00 p.m. on Tuesdays. The full ticket price is 200 UAH, and 100 UAH for eligible categories.
