Ukrainian textile crafts carry a powerful charge of authentic spiritual genetics. Modern panels and tapestries are just as strongly permeated with images from their creators’ spiritual worlds as old works. However, now the set of symbols and ornamental patterns is enriched with social and political context. Among the works presented at the 3rd Ukraine-wide Triennial of Artistic Textile Crafts, taking place in the exhibit rooms of the Kyiv House of Artists are, for instance, The Monument to the Hands That Have Never Stolen and embroidered images of the nation’s leaders:
Viktor Yushchenko, Yulia Tymoshenko, Viktor Yanukovych and… Mickey Mouse.
The tapestry and the panel are in a way respectable, and the ancient arts are becoming more and more timely, due to the new imagery. The presented works show that among the present-day craftsmen there are quite a few heirs to the artistic traditions of Maria Prymachenko and Mykhailo Boichuk.
Ukrainian artistic textile work means first of all renowned masters, whose style merges with European tradition and traditional art (smooth weaving, heddling on the loom, handweaving on a handloom, and embroidery).
“The strongest link is the middle-aged generation who were trained in the 1970s and 1980s,” tells Zoia CHEHUSOVA, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, president of the Ukrainian section of the International Association of Art Critics AICA. “For example, Oksana Rybotytska and Olha Paruta-Vitruk are pupils of Karl Zvirynsky and Roman Selsky, who are famous in Europe. They studied in pre-war Poland, Germany, and Italy. This Lviv school has preserved the European tradition.”
All in all, the 3rd Ukraine-wide Triennial of Artistic Textile gathered 160 pieces by 90 masters from all over Ukraine. Among them are both renowned names (in particular, Zhohol, Borysenko, Pikush, Kyseliova, Hronska, Bazak from Kyiv; Paruta-Vitruk, Shymin, Hankevych, Pecheniuk, Kusko from Lviv; Levadny from Poltava; Huban from Ivano-Frankivsk; Shnaider from Kherson; and Churlu from Simferopol) and young artists, students of Ukrainian colleges and universities.
Yet Ukrainians are barely acquainted with both traditional and modern Ukrainian artistic textile. The works of our masters are displayed only once every three years, thanks to the Ukraine-wide Triennial. There have been talks about creating a separate exposition, and Ukraine undoubtedly has the artistic potential for the creation of an exhibit which might be second to no other, even the one displayed at the world famous London Victoria and Albert Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts.
So you should jump at the chance which presents itself only once in three years. The Ukraine-wide Triennial of Artistic Textile in the exhibit rooms of the Central House of Artists (1-5 Artema Street, Kyiv) will last till January 30.
