While it is probably true that one just cannot fully grasp the artist’s legacy in its entirety, we can still see about 300 works from the collection of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art. This massive retrospective, called “Maria Prymachenko: Boundless,” is being held at the Mystetsky Arsenal in Kyiv. What discoveries await us at the exhibition?
“It is possible that even Prymachenko fans have never seen so many early works of the artist before,” maintained Natalia Zabolotna, director general of the Mystetsky Arsenal.
There is a paradox in the fact that Prymachenko often participated in Soviet government-supported exhibitions, including foreign ones, but her paintings in fact challenged the authoritarian system. “Nowadays, when looking closely at Prymachenko’s paintings of animals and seeing dates beneath them, we ponder what the artist actually meant, what her subconscious dictated to her,” reflectes Olha Melnyk, who serves as museum development director at the Mystetsky Arsenal. “For example, Litigating Beasts was created in 1937. It was the time of the Great Terror and NKVD troikas. Maybe it was not by accident that the picture shows three beasts, and the very choice of the story to tell was intentional as well.”
“The great artist’s world has impressed me, even though it would seem that I saw it all too many times... But there is a whole cosmos here. And look at her humor: juicy, folksy, flavored with word as well,” head of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine Serhii Trymbach posted on Facebook. “The public there is of the highest mark as well. I felt as if I am with my own family, among people with similar values. This feeling is experienced by Ukrainians in our land (which is not truly ours) so rarely that my heart sank.”
THE SECRET OF THE PAINTINGS’ TITLES
Titles of Prymachenko’s works deserve a separate study. Mr. Reagan, Look at This Picture and Think Hard How Heavy, Bulky, and Unreasonable This A-Bomb Is – it is the title chosen by the artist for the painting depicting the atomic bomb as a hairy beast sticking out a very long tongue. Meanwhile, Long-Eared Beast Caught a Crayfish, but the Crayfish Is Not Fool and Has a Strong Bite – it is a veritable story about strange animals that can be compared with space aliens as well as with pagan idols.
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“Most titles were invented in the museum, but based on the inscriptions which Prymachenko left on the backs of her works,” we heard from Adriana Vialets, director of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art. “These inscriptions are extremely interesting. For example, Forest Entukhanka Licks Her Baby or Oh, It Is the Market Where Wives Sold Their Husbands, or Crying Mother Curses the War. Prymachenko’s spelling was very poor, but her characteristics of her paintings are so apt that it all is perceived organically.”
“FANTASTIC BEASTS PROTECTED HER”
The exhibition at the Mystetsky Arsenal is co-sponsored by the Institute of Ukrainian History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In particular, famous historian and Den’s contributor Professor Stanislav Kulchytsky authored the research paper “Prymachenko’s Legacy against the Backdrop of Historical Eras.”
“I got carried away by Prymachenko’s talent, completely unexpected and unknown,” Kulchytsky told us. “Prymachenko was not divorced from reality. I tried to align some of the subjects of her paintings with historical events. For example, Nikita Khrushchev was fond of corn, and she had a few corn-themed pictures painted, but only one of them dates to Khrushchev’s time in power. And later on, at the time of Leonid Brezhnev’s ‘stagnation,’ when all forgot about the corn craze, she still pictured it. So, I realized that for her as a peasant, corn had intrinsic value in itself, not just as a political phenomenon. Or look at the space theme. At the time of Khrushchev, she had only one picture painted on the subject, followed by more later on. Still, I think that journalist Hryhorii Miestiechkin who worked with her prompted her to add some signatures to make her works look more relevant. Some titles of Prymachenko’s works were definitely prompted by outsiders, but these are very few. In fact, the artist’s life was miserable, but the authorities never persecuted her. Prymachenko’s fantastic animals reliably protected her from any KGB censors.”
“SHE DEPICTED MINERS AND DOCTORS”
The collection of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art holds 651 Prymachenko’s works, and it is still a relatively small part of the artist’s legacy, despite being the largest collection of her works. The museum started collecting her works back in the 1930s, and has held about 90 exhibitions presenting the master’s works.
“Prymachenko used together colors which no professional artist would combine. But she selected shades so that they are perceived in a different manner. Also, her skills in line drawing were incredible,” leading research fellow of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art Olena Shestakova reflected. “Prymachenko portrayed neither Stalin nor any other political figure. She was not politicized. Still, she did care about global human problems, like war, peace, the Chornobyl disaster. She depicted miners and doctors. Prymachenko’s beasts are human-like, have human characters, they are good, evil, cunning. Through them, the artist showed her perception of the world.”
Heroes of epics, historical figures or even a family member – who will you recognize in the unique artist’s works? The exhibition “Maria Prymachenko: Boundless” will run at the National Art and Culture Museum Complex Mystetsky Arsenal until March 13.
