Born in France, Impressionism was officially launched at an art exhibit in 1874. It has since acquired distinct characteristics in each country. Impressionism has not evolved as a separate school of art in Ukraine, but domestic artists (Kiriak Kostandi, Petro Nilus, Petro Levchenko, Maria Tkachenko, Mykhailo Berkos, Oleksandr Murashko, Abraham Manevich, Mykola Burachek, Ivan Trush, Oleksa Novakivsky, Olena Kulchytska, etc.) have come up with their version or model of Impressionism that incorporates classical achievements and national traditions.
The art exhibit Impressionism and Ukraine at the National Art Museum displays 150 selected works created at the turn of the 20th century and borrowed from museum collections all over Ukraine and from private collections in Kyiv.
The exhibit’s curator, Olha Zhbankova, says that Ukrainian artists did not even have to borrow certain trends of classical European Impressionism, because they were innately, genetically aware of them. This pertains, above all, to the poetic approach as the defining form of the worldview. This approach underpins the aesthetics of Impressionism and is simultaneously the essence of the Ukrainian national character. Ukrainian artists received it as a gift from Ukraine’s scenic environs and folk creative tradition.
Impressionism and Ukraine will be open at the National Art Museum until February 28.
of the National Art Museum of Ukraine
