This new book about Ukrainian art could not have been more timely. With relatively few publications dedicated to the art and artists of Ukraine on the English-language market, this one is a must-read. Reading this book in 2023 when Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture and heritage are under attack from Russia, you will notice the parallels with the early twentieth century becoming more and more apparent. 

In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s accompanies the art exhibition recently opened in Madrid. The exhibit is currently at Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. It will then travel to other international locations in 2023. 

12 scholars, including curators from the National Art Museum of Ukraine have contributed to this richly-illustrated volume. The publication includes an Introduction from Konstantin Akinsha, 16 essays divided into four chapters: I – Kyiv, II – Kharkiv, III – Odessa and IV – Aftermath. The last section contains colour plates. Altogether there are 221 illustrations in the book, which include archival photographs of artists and artwork reproductions. 

During the first decades of the 20th century the art scene in Ukraine had seen a great variety of developments. Ukrainian artists experimented and embraced various styles of modernism. Fauvism, Cubo-Futurism and Constructivism were some of the most influential styles. The first avant-garde exhibitions in Ukraine were Lanka (The Link 1908), and Kiltse (The Ring) exhibition of Futurist art in 1914 in Kyiv organised by Bohomazov and Exter. Nova heneratsiia (1927-1930) published in Kharkiv was the most important journal of Ukrainian avant-garde. 

Although many Ukrainian artists were inspired by trends from abroad, they always managed to add their own touch. And then there was a uniquely Ukrainian art of Mykhailo Boichuk (1882-1937) and his fellow Boichukists whose works can be described as a partial revival of Byzantine art with a distinct Ukrainian flavour. 

Aside from being a helpful introduction to Ukrainian art history of the early 20th century, this volume is a must-read for museum professionals who work for institutions holding art of artists from Ukraine. The bare minimum that the international art and cultural organisations can do is to make sure to set the art historical record and context straight in their collections. For too long Ukrainian artists have been obscured and their artistic output appropriated under the term Russian art, or Russian avant-garde in this case. 

As K. Akinsha states the term ‘Russian avant-garde’ was made up by Western art dealers. Its far-reaching influence lasts to this day (p.60). It is because of such generalised terms, the parts of Europe located east of Germany tend to be seen as one homogenous entity – Eastern Europe, which could not be further from the reality. The reality, as always, is much more complex. 

The authors of essays in this book are not just reclaiming the artists for Ukraine. In quite a few cases the artists themselves avoided claiming one national identity. Many were true cosmopolitans. Well-known artists Alexander Archipenko (born in Kyiv 1887, died in New York 1964), and Sonia Delaunay (born Sara Stern in Odesa 1985, died in Paris 1979), both spent most of their lives abroad. It is important to recognize the Ukrainian background of those artists who have been for decades touted as Russian. It is still too common to see an artist’s biography note in a museum or on a museum’s website naming a Ukrainian town as their place of birth followed by Russia, or Russian Empire instead of Ukraine. Correcting museum labels would be a good start. 

Take Vasyl Yermilov (1894-1968), one of Ukraine’s best-know modernist artists, who has been considered Russian by western art establishment for many decades, despite the fact that he spent most of his life in Kharkiv, the city of his birth. Two short trips to Moscow and some inspiration by Russian Constructivism was all it took to claim Yermilov as one of the Russian Constructivists. 

Kazymyr Malevych (1879-1935), famous for his painting Black Square (1915) is widely considered as one of the key figures of Russian Avant-Garde. Malevych was born near Kyiv in an ethnic Polish family, however he grew up in Ukraine and identified as Ukrainian. 

Alexandra Exter (1882-1945) is another example of an artist who cannot be easily attributed to a single country. Born in Białostok, Poland to a Belarusian father and Greek mother, she moved with her family to Kyiv as a child. Exter attended Kyiv Art School and her art was strongly influenced by Ukrainian folk art. Although she moved to Paris early on in her career, she had ties to many Western European and Russian art circles, she also returned to Kyiv often. In 1918 she opened an art studio where she taught her students European modernism in combination with Ukrainian folk art and, in a separate course, also theatre design. Although Exter left Kyiv in 1920 for Moscow and then moved back to Paris 1924, never to return to Kyiv, she left a lasting legacy.

The emigree artists who managed to build successful art careers abroad avoided the fate of many of their compatriots. After a short period of Ukrainian independence (declared in 1917), the Bolshevik army defeated the Ukrainian forces in 1921. As a result Ukraine was no longer an independent nation and was absorbed into the USSR as the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. 

The 1920s saw a renaissance of Ukrainian art and culture initially encouraged by the Soviet policy of Ukrainisation. The storm in the book title refers to the sudden change in this policy in 1931, Socialist Realism (Socrealism) was introduced as the only acceptable art form in all of the Soviet Republics. As a result, many of the avant-garde artists were repressed, their works banned or destroyed. Many paintings from Anatol Petrytskyi’s series Hundred Portraits depicting members of local intelligentsia were destroyed, with only a handful surviving to this day. Many of the figures who sat for Petrytskyi’s portraits were later imprisoned and even executed, like the poet Yakov Savchenko (executed in 1937). Mykhailo Boichuk and his wife the artist Sofiia Nalepynska-Boichuk were also executed in 1937. The Ukrainian artists, writers and intellectuals who died in the purges are now known as the ‘Executed Renaissance’. The years 1932-1933 were marked by the Holodomor – the Terror Famine orchestrated by the Soviet regime in which millions of Ukrainians died. It is worth remembering that destruction of cultural heritage is one of the tools that have been used used to commit genocide and it is sadly happening again. 

In the Eye of the Storm is not only a great introduction to Ukrainian modernism of the early 20th century but also an homage to creativity and resilience of Ukrainians then and now. 

In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900 – 1930s, edited by Konstantin Akinsha, Katia Denysova and Olena Kashuba-Volvach, published in 2022 by Thames and Hudson, London.

Read more:

The exhibition In the Eye of the Storm, Modernism in Ukraine, 1900 – 1930s is at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid 29 November 2022 – 30 April 2023. Link to the exhibition website click here   https://www.museothyssen.org/en/exhibitions/eye-storm-modernism-ukraine-1900-1930s

Note on names and spellings: I have followed the spelling conventions from the book for the purpose of clarity.