There are people who cannot be broken by blows of destiny, but, vice versa, they become even stronger. This absolutely refers to the People’s Artist of Ukraine, a Shevchenko Prize winner Serhii Yakutovych, who is famous not only in Ukraine, but also far beyond it. Loss of dear people and problems with health that have emerged lately haven’t destroyed his desire to paint, pass his rich experience to the students whom he affectionately calls “his children.” Yakutovych has devoted four decades of his life to book illustration. Over this period he has created several thousands of art masterpieces. Another facet of the talent of the contemporary artist with an original imaginative thinking revealed itself in theater and cinema.
Mr. Yakutovych, today the unannounced war with Russia is underway in Ukraine. The Donbas is engulfed in the fire of resistance between the Ukrainian army and illegal formations of the so-called DNR and LNR. How do you perceive the events in the east of the country, where the number of casualties both among the military and among the local population is increasing with each passing day?
“By my inner conviction I am a 100 percent pacifist. It is hard for me to imagine a person who would combine the features of a creator called to bring good to people in his works and a military man who is able to cut short of a human life given by God. At the same time there are limits to any pacifism. When I recently learned from mass media reports that when children were evacuated from the ATO area, a bus with fosterlings of an orphanage located in Luhansk oblast came under fire, I felt hatred to these monsters. And maybe my cousin, well-known TV host Danylo Yanevsky is right when he says that this is the case when evil can be stopped only by a bullet.”
Good is an antithesis to evil. This becomes especially notable from the 10 films, for which you created decorations, especially Prayer for Hetman Mazepa by Yurii Illienko. What memories connected with this film director do you have?
“I have worked with Illienko for 2.5 years, and someone told me in a half-joking manner that I will enter the history as a person who has never had a row with Illienko on the set. He was a director who all the time provoked somebody from the creative team. Later I understood his behavior. In his soul Illienko was fighting himself, trying to find a correct decision, for example, in some stage setting of a film. So, he exploded with energy, charging everyone present at the film studio. He could come up to me and silently watch me drawing sketches for some fragment of the film. And later he would call me and express his amazement not to me, but to my wife.”
A film and a theater production have much in common, but the only disparity is actually the presentation of the work: either live from the stage, or from a cinema or TV screen. What things did you pay attention the most as you were working on designs of plays and films?
“I remember when in 2010 I was invited to create sketches of costumes for the play Urus-Shaitan, which was to be shown on the stage of the National Ivan Franko Theater, I was worried most of all whether the actors would feel comfortable in this attire. And there were 305 people engaged in the performance. When a costume for everyone was sewn based on my sketches, everyone was satisfied. Someone said jokingly that it would be good to walk in this attire on the catwalk.”
Are your illustrations to a book or designs to a film or a play always perceived favorably by their authors or production directors?
“I have illustrated Lina Kostenko’s historical verse novel Berestechko, published by the Lybid Publishing House in 2010. In this book you won’t find a double page without my graphic works. This book has over 200 pages. But there is another important thing. As I took up the illustration of this work, I tried to find an original concept of illustration row. Frankly speaking, Lina Kostenko did not accept it at first. That’s true, the illustrations in Berestechko, when you open the book, are placed not in a traditional horizontal way, but vertically. The idea was to evoke association in a reader who takes the book: it is not just a book, but a towel book with embroidered plots, patterns, and ornaments. Probably, my arguments were convincing for Lina Kostenko, and she approved the publication. Apart from Berestechko, I illustrated her collection of works, River of Heraklit. The historical verse novel for which Lina Kostenko won the Shevchenko Prize, Marusia Churai, is waiting for its turn.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO LINA KOSTENKO’S BOOK BERESTECHKO
You have illustrated nearly 200 books. They include works by Ukrainian classical writers. Have all of your works passed the time test?
“I will start with a paradoxical thought: our literature has many desires, but lacks skills. The number of people who nowadays are really able to create genius works is very scarce. I want to announce: to want and to be able to do something are two different things. For example, today in the milieu of young poets I cannot find anyone who in the near future could become near to the level of, for example, Mykola Zerov, Maksym Rylsky, or Pavlo Tychyna. The latter was somewhat frightened, by the way, as well as the rest, to a greater or lesser extent. This is a consequence of our recent colonial past. However, there were exceptions from the general rule. I think I was lucky to meet wonderful literary critic Roman Korohodsky. He is the author of the unique 18-volume series Ukrainian Modern Literature which I illustrated. I must say those were uncertain times, and the honorarium I received for every volume I illustrated was ridiculous. But this gave me an opportunity to familiarize myself with the best models of literary activity of Ukrainian writers who found themselves in different countries of the world. It was then that I learned about the phenomenon of George Shevelov, who has not been duly appreciated by our readership. One can contemplate for a very long time about the contribution made by each of the litterateurs into the development of Ukrainian culture, it does not matter whether they come from the diaspora, or the former USSR, but there is one thing that is common for all of them. This is the lack of self-irony which is, by the way, typical of men of spirit. So, we are weak only because we felt enslaved for a long time. So, let’s overcome this flaw and overcome ourselves not only in literature and art, but also in interpersonal relations.”
Apart from being an artist, you teach illustration at the printing department of the National University “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.” Reveal the secret how a beginner artist can become a successful book illustrator?
“At the moment the group of students where I lecture includes 38 students aspiring for bachelor’s degree and 14 students aspiring for master’s degree. Most of them so far feel unconfident, because they lack practical experience. But how is it achieved in everyday life, which consists not only of joy, but also of sadness? When my wife was dying of cancer, I sat down and painted simultaneously illustrations for a book and sketches for a film not to go mad because of sorrow and to abstract my mind from the inevitability. I understood that I didn’t have the right to go nuts in spite of the tragic events in my life. By the way, many ideological discussions emerged after the premiere screening of the film Taras Bulba by Volodymyr Bortko, where the main role was performed by wonderful actor Bohdan Stupka. That was a large-scale cinema project. I drew over 2,500 sketches, and the production director used almost all of them during the shooting. It will just suffice to mention the 500-meter-long scenery. Therefore with my hand on my heart I can say that I’m not ashamed for my work in the abovementioned film. To achieve this success, I had to follow a long and thorny, rather than short, path.”
Recently the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the Association Agreement with the EU. The complicated process of integration, not only of the national economy, industry, but also culture, is lying ahead. In your opinion what chances do Ukrainian artists, in particular, painters, stand to captivate the West with their works?
“I had a friend, Spanish artist Carlos Fontzer, who in the time of the Spanish Civil War created the famous poster with a risen hand and words ‘No pasaran!’ Unfortunately, he died at the age of 92 in 2007. He used to visit me, he visited my studio. We discussed with him many interesting topics, in particular, the works of well-known Ukrainian artists he saw in Kyiv. On the whole they produced a positive impression on him. But when I asked him, whether those works fell in line with the all-European artistic context, my Spanish friend started to muse. Maybe, someone will disagree with me, but after the many-time visits to culture capitals of Europe, such as Madrid, London, Paris, and Berlin, I made one conclusion for myself: in the West they like champions in everything, business, sports, and art. There a mediocrity won’t become famous or acquire recognition Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso enjoyed in their lifetime. At the same time let’s look at the coming day with optimism. Ukrainian artists today have much more chances to make themselves known in the cultural space of the European countries, unlike their predecessors who lived and created behind the Iron Curtain.”
