Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Romanticism
The first break from religious art occurred during the Cossack Hetmanate. A secular, ro-
mantic trend of folk painting slowly developed, common themes being the Kozak Mamay
(a Cossack playing a bandura or kobza ), country life and folk traditions. Most of these
paintings remained unknown, but Ukrainian-born Ilya Repin gained international fame.
His famous Zaporizhsky Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan and other Ro-
mantic paintings are found in the Kharkiv Art Museum.
Ivan Ayvazovsky is regarded as one of the world's best seascape painters. Ethnically
Armenian, he was born and lived in Feodosiya, Crimea, where hundreds of his works
populate the Ayvazovsky Gallery.
Soviet Era & Beyond
Socialist realism propagated Soviet ideals - the industrialised peasant, the muscular
worker and the heroic soldier. Take, as an example, the sculptural reliefs near Kyiv's Mu-
seum of the Great Patriotic War. Ukrainian nationalism asserted itself through the age-old
tradition of folk art, leading the Soviet authorities to ban folk embroidery.
After independence, Ukrainian art enjoyed a reawakening, with art schools in Kyiv
producing new stars, like painter Maxim Mamsikov (b 1968), sculptor Zhana Khadyrova
(b 1981) and multimedia artist Kyril Protsenko (b 1967). One of the most important
artists to emerge at this time was the Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov (b 1938).
Since 2006 art lovers in Kyiv have been making a beeline for the PinchukArtCentre.
This gallery not only has major international exhibitions and pieces by the likes of Dami-
en Hirst, Anthony Gormley and Andreas Gursky, it's also a good place to see works by
leading local artists.
Ukraine's most celebrated sculptor is Oleksandr Arkhipenko (1887-1964), who was born
in Kyiv but spent most of his life abroad. His works are scattered across many galleries,
mostly in the US.
Architecture
Church design has wrought a vast influence on Ukrainian architecture. Byzantine layout
has at various times been merged with traditional wooden Hutsul churches (colonnaded
porches and freestanding belfries) and 17th-century baroque to produce unique styles.
'Ukrainian baroque', with its trademark green, helmet-shaped dome, is typified by St
Andrew's Church in Kyiv.
 
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