Ancient Hutsul art is so far a terra incognita for Ukraine. At least, this is what one thinks after visiting the Kobrynsky Folk Art National Museum of the Hutsul and Pokuttia Region, situated in Kolomyia. Though the average Ukrainian might have heard about the local pysanky, rugs and embroidered shirts, contemporary Ukrainian painting is nearly unknown in Ukraine.
The folk art museum recently held an exhibit of works by the painter Myroslav Yasynsky called “The Echo of Hutsul Baroque.” The name itself is intriguing, as Ukrainian art critics hardly ever mention Hutsul baroque art and especially painting. The Day’s journalist, who was lucky enough to attend the exhibit, asked Myroslav YASINSKY about Hutsul baroque.
“The term ‘Hutsul baroque’ is my own invention to some extent, for which I have my explanation. Have you ever seen old Hutsul candlesticks? Any respectable Hutsul had to have an icon and a candlestick at home. Bronze candlesticks were expensive, which is why the Hutsuls curved them from wood themselves. I have a candlestick made by my grandfather. If you examine the Hutsul candlesticks attentively, it’s obvious that they are made in a baroque style with inherent wavy lines, circles, ovals, faces of angels and saints. Where did those elements come from? I think it didn’t happen by accident. When the Hutsul region was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the locals represented their region in the sejm [local parliament – Ed.] or were ambassadors in Vienna. For example, the chief of my native village of Kovalivka went to the sejm as an ambassador and wore an embroidered shirt and keptar (short sleeveless furcoat). This way the Hutsul culture and the European culture of the time intermixed.
“My works are based on folk art, as I grew up in that environment. My mother is a skillful embroiderer and my aunts not only embroidered, but also painted eggs. Hutsul folk artists didn’t follow any art canons, they were guided by their feelings. They created their world, seen somewhere and memorized by them, internally reconsidered and recreated in their own way. I called this phenomenon ‘Hutsul baroque,’ as baroque elements abound in Hutsul art. I have a triptych, associated work, painted based on the candlesticks; it’s called accordingly ‘The Echo of the Hutsul Baroque.’”
The first thing that comes to mind in connection with your paintings are women’s faces… Why?
“As for the faces, they are folk primitive art. However such faces are very convincing and interesting. I quit realism when I studied at the Lviv State Institute of Arts and Crafts (now Lviv National Art Academy) as I lost interest for this trend. Why is folk art unique? Because of primitivism, because those artists didn’t belong to any school. It’s sheer spirituality! When an uneducated person paints an egg, he puts everything he has seen and experienced on the emotional level. Have you seen Kosmatsky painted eggs? They are of the same orange color as a Kosmatsky autumn. In the severe Verkhovyna they paint eggs using blue and violet tones. The same folk styles can be found in the Hutsul ceramics. The ceramist Oleksa Bakhmatiuk is unsurpassable. I also try to delve into this folk perception and sometimes I’d like to forget that I can paint. By the way, the Europeans value the works of Ukrainian artists because they differ by their special spiritual filling. At European artists’ exhibits formal abstract things are often found. I put a certain idea into each piece, and at the same time I leave the room for imagination.
“The women’s image, not vulgar but enigmatic and beautiful, is one of the themes in my paintings. I worked on a joint project with the French: each side had to transmit their impressions from the partner country through art. I created a painting called The Black Parisian because the most attractive woman I saw in France was of African origin.
“At the same time I pay a lot of attention to spiritual and sacral themes. I don’t paint the canonical icons as I believe that it has to be done by monks who study painting icons. However, I have my own vision of religious topics. For example I started painting The Annunciation, Let’s Be Attentive and The Way of the Cross on Holy Week. One of my works, called The Mystery of the Mystery is my interpretation of the Last Supper. By the way, this work also has baroque elements.”
At first the Hutsuls were pagans. This is reflected in their art and folk traditions. Do you address the pagan sources of the Hutsul culture in your works?
“In the mountains there’s a village called Kryvorivnia. I once visited it on Epiphany. The Hutsuls celebrate this holiday very vividly — everyone wears national dresses, they play trumpets and trembitas, however their carols have a pagan rhythm. Pagan symbols are present in my works; there are a lot of painted eggs elements which are not Christian. In general, the region of Pokuttia and the Hutsul region, near Kolomyia, where I come from, is much less tied to ancient beliefs. I do not only work on canvases, but also on glass, and my works on glass are based on Pokuttia folk icons. At the same time I improved this popular technique and I paint on two plates on the reverse side. This makes the picture look more voluminous. I also use the gesso technique (mixing alabaster and chalk. – Author). The gesso technique is very old and was formerly used for painting icons on boards. I’ve been using this technique for ten years now and I invented my own techniques. I paint only on old boards. My friends bring me old Austrian doors and cupboards, and my gesso is voluminous. In my works I also use carving and gilding, sometimes metal and even ceramics. I’ve even experimented with pieces of painted eggs.”
Over the previous centuries powerful iconographic schools operated in Ukraine. How would you asses contemporary Ukrainian sacral art?
“I like that at the Lviv National Art Academy they opened a sacral art department. At the beginning of the 1990s they opened a lot of churches in western Ukraine, and they needed to be painted. As a result they were painted by random people. It was awful. Now corresponding schools have been created. The Lviv Art Academy pays more attention to Byzantine iconographic traditions. A lot of Mykola Storozhenko’s pupils work in Kyiv. The schools in Lviv and Kyiv have always competed in the finest sense of the word.”
Talented Hutsuls are mostly simple uneducated peasants, but at the same time they are aesthetes and artistic geniuses. Whence their thirst for beauty?
“Those people are indisputably geniuses. Many things come from our genesis. For example, the famous Museum of Painted Eggs in Kolomyia opened the exhibit of Olha Shulepa’s leather works. So, the elements, coming from the Trypillia culture, abound in those works. If a child grows up in the atmosphere of folk art, and sees corresponding things (nearly every Hutsul house has works by ancient carvers. – Author), this child doesn’t need any special education. Furthermore, Hutsul culture was influenced by a long period as part of a European country.”
However, despite the great art traditions, the Hutsul youth, influenced by television of poor quality, stray from their origins. How can this process be stopped? In your opinion, how can we draw attention to Hutsul art, which unjustly remains unknown to most Ukrainians?
“Even in Hutsul shops in Kolomyia I see Russian dolls, and I ask the shop assistant why she sells Russian dolls in the Hutsul region. She replies that she has to survive. There would not be such things if everyone were a patriot. In Kyiv there’s the famous Pinchuk Art Center. Are any Ukrainian artists exhibited there? Everything’s cosmopolitan…
“It doesn’t mean that we have to wear wide trousers. We have great modern artists that could be presented to the world. However, they aren’t allowed to go abroad. The art exhibited at the Pinchuk Art Center can be seen anywhere. It’s clear that we can’t blame the others. We have to be self-sufficient and develop.”
The Day’s Fact File
Myroslav Yasinsky graduated from Kosiv School of Applied Arts and Lviv State Institute of Arts and Crafts. His art style was mainly influenced by the Ukrainian painters Liubomyr Medvid, Oleh Minko and Zenovii Flinta. He has held exhibits in Austria, Italy, France, Canada, Germany, Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Latvia. His first European solo exhibition was held in 2005 in Berlin. He developed the interior at the Museum of Painted Eggs in Kolomyia. He gives lectures in the Kolomyia Institute of the Prykarpatsky National University, at the design department and at the Kolomyia Teachers’ Training College.
