A new exhibition will be launched online on Saturday showcasing art by famous Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko.
A separate exhibition of the same art will be on display at Perth City Hall on Saturday 24 August for one day only as the Scottish celebrations of the Ukraine Day of Independence are taking place in the city this weekend.
Prymachenko is an important Ukrainian painter, and there will be an exhibition of 20 prints of her works in Perth. This physical exhibition is part of the project by two Ukrainians living in Edinburgh, Juliette Lichman and Zhenya Dove, to set up an online cultural heritage museum. It may also be the beginning of organising travelling exhibitions to travel around Scotland bringing Ukrainian culture to the people.
The website which you will be able to find here www.muccs.org from the early hours of Saturday morning is the first iteration in the new online Museum of Ukrainian Craft and Culture Scotland (MUCCS).
LOST CULTURE
In a war zone cultural works can be among the first to become lost. Juliette and Zhenya have become determined to set up an online presence to keep the heritage of their country alive. They are concerned that there is “news fatigue” about Ukraine and its struggle to repel the latest Russian invasion. They hope that the museum will be one way to keep Ukraine firmly in the frame.
The pair have complementary skills, as Juliette, who is a cultural heritage photographer with the University of Edinburgh, will work on the website and production as well as the cultural heritage, and Zhenya will look after the networking and community-based work. They are both members of The Scottish Parliamentary Cross Party Group for promoting Ukrainian Culture in Scotland.
The focus of the museum will be to educate and engage members of the public and keep culture alive.
The collection will include for example textiles, ceramics, pottery, woodwork, painted objects, and photographic prints. These objects will be used to tell the cultural story of Ukraine, its folklore and religion.
It will take funds to establish a museum such as this, and Juliette and Zhenya have run a Crowdfunder to help. The link is here, and although the initial fundraising target has now been met, more donations would be welcomed for their ongoing work.
BIOGRAPHY of Maria Prymachenko (contributed).
Maria Prymachenko was born on January 12, 1909 into a peasant family in the Kyiv region. As a child, the outstanding artist contracted polio and remained disabled for the rest of her life. Despite this, she ceaselessly amazes art and beauty connoisseurs with her ingenious originality in creating new and new images.
Prymachenko occupies one of the most honorable places among prominent figures of the 20th century’s artistic culture, having achieved recognition among masters of “naive” art. Her originality of ideas, immediacy of self-expression, impeccable execution, lively expression, and vibrant colors captivate the viewer forever.
Creating for people, creating for all-encompassing beauty – this is what the artist saw as the purpose of her life.
THE BEGINNINGS
Maria Prymachenko had a talent for embroidery, which she learned from her mother. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, she started working in the embroidery workshop, where she not only added her special interpretation of elements to traditional ornaments but also created her own compositions.
In 1935, Kyiv artist Tetyana Flora saw Maria Prymachenko’s embroidery and invited the artist to Kyiv to the Central Experimental Workshop at the Kyiv Museum of Ukrainian Art. While working in the workshops, Maria Prymachenko immediately proved herself as an artist with a unique worldview that has no analogues in either Ukrainian or world art.
In 1937, 10 drawings and several ceramic products painted by the artist were exhibited at the International Exhibition in Paris.
THE MAGIC OF COLORS AND IMAGINATION
In the early 1960s, Prymachenko organized a small children’s art studio in her native village.
In the 1960s and 1980s, a colored background replaced the white one of Prymachenko’s works from the 1930s. She passed from the transparent watercolor with graphically clear contours of her early works, to a thick, saturated gouache, which gave birth to a full-bodied, magical sound of colors. However, the world of images and the virtuosic combination of lines’ plasticity and colors remained unchanged.
In the 1970s, another significant innovation in Maria Prymachenko’s work appeared – on the back of her drawings, she started writing texts – signatures, peculiar explanations, organically connected with the images.
Maria Prymachenko worked until the last days of her life and left us an invaluable legacy, which evokes special associations and reflections, immersing the viewer in a fairy tale world with deep poetry, secrets, revelations, and riddles.
Prymachenko’s works are represented in museum and private collections throughout Ukraine and have become an integral part of numerous folk art exhibitions in Ukraine and around the world.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
