Since Maria Bashkirtsev, Oleksandr /Alexander/ Murashko, and after them Alexander Archipenko, Sonia Delaunay, Alexis Gritchenko, the art and bohemian life of Paris of the 19th and 20th centuries had penetrated the heart and mind of Ukraine. Although it is located in the East of Europe, its historical roots were imported to France already in the Middle Ages with the marriage of Anne of Kyiv and King Henry I.

The Ukrainian ethnic cultural heritage – songs, embroidery, folk icons or Epinal images – is marked by sophisticated creative reflections and at the same time a pure, almost naive worldview.

But when the freedom-loving country was brutally attacked by its neighbors, this worldview changed. From now on, Ukrainian art began to gain expressiveness and independence while joining the values already advocated by Ukrainian classical works. Namely, those of freedom, courage and love of the motherland, which are the DNA of Kobzar, the collection of poems by Taras Shevchenko, as well as folk epics and legends.

It can be said that these circumstances revealed in Ukrainian artists a characteristic trait of psycho-emotional identity with the heart as the center of the model. The legacy of the past was strengthened by the catharsis of the present.

The exhibition of works by contemporary Ukrainian artists placed under the triad “Spirit – Freedom – Emotion” takes on its full meaning by investing themes related to the Russian military aggression in Ukraine. The key markers of the exhibition project will be the concepts of Spirit and Freedom, integrated into the emotional states of the authors. The latter thus develop formalist concepts in dialogue with the global cultural process.

The exhibitors will be well-known and recognized Ukrainian painters and graphic artists, each of whom, through their current artistic expression, unfolds a facet of the national identity.

The exhibition project aims to affirm the universal cultural values that are defended by the artists of our two countries in a long historical and cultural dialogue. It also reveals guidelines and new perspectives for the integration of Ukrainian creative genius into the world cultural reality.

Roman YATSIV
Art historian
Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts