Kyiv’s Museum of Hetmanship has opened an exhibition of the Kosiv Institute of Decorative and Applied Art graduates’ and teachers’ works. It includes traditional tapestry, woven clothing, leather accessories: tobivka (leather shoulder bag) and cheres (wide belt, often incrusted), metal and wooden goods, and finally the renowned Kosiv ceramics. The latter takes the form of bowls, wall plates, pitchers, candlesticks, mugs, decorative vases and toys made by Maria Hryniuk. The artist is a pro-rector for research, and her works are found in both national museums and private collections in Ukraine, Europe and North America.
The Dad’s Apples composition is made of many clay apples. They are randomly scattered as if they just fell on the dewy grass, they remind one of a wet-on-wet watercolor. “Once I had a prophetic dream,” Hryniuk says, “The collective farmers were picking big nice apples in our garden. And my father (he passed away early) came up and started taking the apples away from them. The whole morning I was thinking about what that could mean. As I figured out later, it was the last day when I could submit the documents for the privatization of the land that belonged to our ancestors — my dad had sent me a hint from heaven so that I would take what was mine. I was just in time.”
There is a large plate with a boar on it. A hunter runs away from the boar. “I do not like hunting,” she continues. “That is why I wanted to show how small a person can be in the woods — the local animals are the rulers there.”
The artist continues to be very authentic. But even her small works are spacious. There is freedom in them, and the plot is “inspiring.” The image is not overloaded with details. But at the same time the works are chimerical on an energetic level. “Kosiv ceramics are beautiful and capricious like a Hutsul girl,” Hryniuk explains.
“Kyiv is now celebrating the Kosiv days,” Oleksandr Fedoruk, art critic, notes, “Kosiv, as a part of Ukraine, has treasures inconceivable for our current politicians, just like other regions: Polissia, Bukovyna, Tavria, Slobozhanshchyna… Actually, national art and culture unite us. I invite Kyivite to visit the exhibit. Unfortunately, the mass media is not very helpful for communication within the country.” “During their thesis presentations our students talked about designs for Japanese, Chinese and Italian restaurants,” Renat Salimoc, rector of the Boichuk Kyiv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Art and Design, continues, “I reminded them that there are only five Ukrainian restaurants in Kyiv. It would be good if each region had its restaurant here as they would represent a variety of traditions, especially culinary ones. What is my point? The launch of the Kosiv exhibit is an important event. Kyiv is being transformed into a metropolitan city with strange guidelines, and people forget that it is the capital of Ukraine.”
“When we were building our house, I was ‘projecting’ the kitchen for… Kosiv ceramics,” Larysa Ponomarenko, employee of the State Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, sums up. “Now we have a long bench there, like in old Ukrainian houses, a lot of shelves for bowls and platters, pitchers and mugs, candlesticks and vases, bought from the teachers and students of the Kosiv Institute of Decorative and Applied Art, mostly from Maria Hryniuk. So now the guests cannot be made to leave the kitchen. They say they are warm and comfortable there. The earthenware has such an aura. It preserves human thoughts and spiritual emotions gather. It happens that I wake up in the morning, come up to some dish and admire it, touch it. It is so sunny! In general, lively and bright colors dominate in the Kosiv ceramics!”
I once heard that the presence of Kosiv ceramics in one’s house is a sign of sophisticated taste. There seems to be some truth to this. For example, in the 19th century only rich people could afford a tiled oven. Others had whitewashed and ornamented brick or stone ovens. Nowadays it is different — rich people usually do not realize the value of Ukrainian decorative and applied art. Otherwise, the country would support those who create it, and the art trade could make a significant contribution to the Ukrainian economy.
