Mykola Hlushchenko became a phenomenon in Ukrainian history. And it was not only due to his outstanding artistic talent. After the KGB archives were declassified, people started to create legends about his activities as an agent. Some of those are false, but others, like friendly relationship with Volodymyr Vynnychenko or an album of landscapes that was given to him by Hitler, are real. If there was a movie made about Hlushchenko, then, according to his contemporaries’ reminiscences, agent Yarema might have surpassed James Bond. At least, it is a known fact that a lot of historical figures crossed Hlushchenko’s path. He knew the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, Wilhelm von Habsburg, Austrian emperor’s nephew and Austria-Hungary archduke, and he was friends with Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Maksym Rylsky, and Henri Barbusse.
But the main fact is that Hlushchenko belonged to the circle of those progressive Ukrainians who connected Ukrainian and European cultures under the absence of statehood. Tamara BOIKO, who kept in contact with the artist for almost 30 years, told The Day what is true and what is myth in Hlushchenko’s biography, what he was like in personal communication, and what art was for him in life.
“I first met Hlushchenko when I was a third-year student at the university and underwent practical training at Kyiv Vechirnii. At that time Hlushchenko was just back from his mission trip – he had been painting the landscapes of what had to be flooded by the ‘Kirovohrad sea,’ and I got a task to interview him. I recall they told me that the artist was waiting for me outside the editorial office, and I would recognize him when I went out. Indeed, when I walked out of the building, I saw a foreigner standing there. He was a person who was very different in his clothing, behavior, facial expression. He had a wonderful posture, he looked more like an athlete. By the way, at 70 he still could swim across the Dnipro. That was the first time that Hlushchenko had impressed me with his extraordinary charisma. He was very gallant with ladies. He knew how to look at a woman and how to talk to her so she would feel like a beauty. He even spoke Ukrainian like a foreigner.
“Landscape was everything to him. Hlushchenko strived to capture Ukrainian nature on canvas the way he thought the descendants wouldn’t see it. He thought that there’s no more beautiful place than the banks of the Dnipro. That’s why he left to the descendants a set of sceneries of those banks of the Dnipro which later were to become the bottom of an artificial sea. This sea was his personal pain. He painted landscapes wherever he went. One time we happened to be on holiday in Palanga at the same time. When everyone went to have breakfast, Hlushchenko was already coming back from his sketch sessions. I don’t know any other person that would work so much and with such inspiration as he did.”
Why did landscape play such a special role in Hlushchenko’s career?
“Because it reflected his essence. However, he told me that when he met Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Germany, he introduced the artist to Volodymyr Vynnychenko, and the latter asked him to paint his summer house. So Hlushchenko decorated it – with portraits of Hetmans! However, landscape was the main genre in his artistic career, especially the Ukrainian landscape. He craved to come back to Ukraine from France because he was part and parcel of this landscape. Every piece of land concealed a theme for him. And at the same time his paintings acquired some philosophic sense. I loved his painting very much.”
You visited his studio in Kyiv. Was it as extraordinary as its owner?
“Hlushchenko’s studio was on the top floor of then the highest building in Kyiv. The ceiling was very high. Under the ceiling there was a maze of pipes. It had its own sense for Hlushchenko. The windows were high above the floor. In the middle of the studio there stood an easel. When the artist wanted to show a painting to a visitor, he would put an ancient frame on the easel, which he had brought from France. He loved his works, but he was very generous and gave them out easily.
“He never failed to treat a visitor to his studio to some coffee. He kept there some wonderful chocolate, as well as exquisite albums on fine arts. There was a ‘Ukrainian nook’ there, too: a sofa, a traditional hand-made rug on the floor, vases from Opishnia and Kosiv [centers of traditional Ukrainian pottery. – Ed.], and lots of dried flowers. He never threw away the flowers he had been given, that is why they were everywhere in his studio.”
He was an aristocrat, wasn’t he?
“Yes, he was. I noticed that particularly when I visited him last, two or three weeks before his death. We were working on the program for the anniversary of the first Soviet exhibit, and Hlushchenko wanted to participate in it. That was the first time I had visited him at home, because we would always meet at the studio. He had been ailing for some time already, and therefore he saw us in his dressing gown, and he apologized for that. But it was this house attire that emphasized his nobleness at that moment. He always remained an aristocrat.”
Few people in Ukraine will know about it – but Hlushchenko met a lot of significant personalities of his time. Did he tell you about his personal acquaintances?
“Despite all bans, he would tell me about Vynnychenko, whom he deeply respected. ‘He is no nationalist; he is just an absolutely European man, very handsome, elegant, decent, and hot-tempered,’ he would say. Neither he nor Vynnychenko understood Picasso, and they threw rotten apples and eggs at the artist and the viewers at Picasso’s first exhibit. It was them who organized the first nude beach in Paris, too. They were very progressive, renowned Europeans. Before moving to Ukraine, Hlushchenko had had 10 personal exhibits in France.”
At a certain moment in time, Hlushchenko also held a Soviet art exhibit in Berlin, and Adolf Hitler presented him with a book of his sketches. Is this a myth or not?
“No, it isn’t. He told me about it, and he showed Hitler’s sketchbook. Before the World War II he was asked to look through the works picked out for the Berlin exhibit. What he saw was collective farms, workers, lathes, and the like. Then he suggested other works, and he was sent to Germany to mastermind the exhibit. Hitler visited the event. He met Hlushchenko for only a few minutes. The fuehrer examined the paintings, took a close look at Hlushchenko, and left. Later a man approached the artist and said, ‘Fuehrer wants to present you with a book of his works. He asks if you want it signed.’ Hlushchenko replied that he needed advice concerning this, but the book was brought to him without an autograph. Hlushchenko would describe Hitler’s work as absolutely professional stuff.”
How come that Stalin got hold of the book?
“Hlushchenko showed the book to Ilia Erenburg. He wrote an article which said that Hitler was destructive even in his art. Stalin read Erenburg’s text and wanted to see the album. After a while, they brought the book back. But when I got to see it, it had already been taken apart. Where the book disappeared after Hlushchenko’s death is shrouded in mystery. However, there are lots of legends.”
Speaking of legends, there is a version that Hlushchenko taught Hitler to paint.
“No, that’s certainly a myth. The only time they met was at the exhibit.”
What about Stalin commissioning Hlushchenko to paint portraits of famous people?
“No, that is a legend, too. Before the war he was commissioned with a series of portraits of Army generals. It was absolutely not his cup of tea, painting all those orders and medals. He was an impressionism artist. But he had to do that.”
Hlushchenko is undoubtedly an outstanding artist of his time. Where do you think this kid from a little town of Novomoskovsk got such potential?
“Hlushchenko was very gifted. Of course, meeting Vynnychenko opened new horizons for him. However, you can trace this inborn nobility in Ukrainians. Besides, he worked hard, and work makes man better. By the way, his significance is growing by the year. Beauty is never out of date, and Hlushchenko was a kind of man who could find and show it in very simple things. This is a unique phenomenon: a spy and an absolutely open artist, integral in his talent.”
