The artist’s works are currently presented at the Palace of Arts, and this is Karaffa-Korbut’s first post-mortem retrospective exhibition. It features a wide range of art, from that made in her early period, as far back as 1947, to linocuts of the early 1980s. All exhibits, 122 (!) in total, come from the private collection of Bohdan Horyn: journalist and art historian, political scientist and public figure, and also the author of the two-volume book Love and Art of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut.
“This is the first such exhibition since the artist’s death,” told Horyn in an interview to The Day. “Nobody knew the beginnings and the end of her art. I have a large collection of hers, which I had started gathering from the first days of being acquainted to her. I met her in 1959, and she immediately began to give me her works – ceramic, graphic, oil... And I got my collection accumulated at a very fast pace. Circumstances of life later forced me to move to Kyiv. In Kyiv I exhibited a part of the collection at the Vernadsky National Library, those were the works of Sophia Karaffa-Korbut based on Shevchenko. Then it was a large exhibition dedicated to her 80th birth anniversary at the Union of Artists, and also a display at the National Museum of Literature in Kyiv. And finally, I thought that citizens of Lviv should know about their outstanding artist too. It is my firm opinion, that the second half of the 20th century had not seen an artist more endowed with such a powerful energy, more versatile and gifted than Sofia Karaffa-Korbut, whose legacy is composed of ceramic works, book graphics, easel graphics, stained-glass projects, and 60 illustrated books, which circulated the world in 7 million copies and which brought up many young generations. And it seemed to me that it was necessary to make the final decision on what to do with that collection. And I have decided to donate all the works that are now on display at this retrospective exhibition to Lviv National Gallery of Art.”
Bohdan Horyn admits that all the works of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut are dear to him as memory. However... “The dearest to me is one autographed work from January 1, 1963. She painted it in one fiercely cold night and brought me in the morning. The work is signed as follows: “Danko, be my conscience to the end, in everything.” When I read this, I thought that I should do everything by my conscience. This was a moral commitment, I did not feel I had the right to sell her works. And I kept them, I kept everything...”
On the exhibition’s opening day, the main hall of the Palace of Arts looked like a bee-hive – so many came to see the works of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut. Among the participants were Mykola Petrenko, 91-year-old poet; Andrii Sodomora, translator, writer, and researcher; public figures Mykola Horyn and Mykhailo Kosiv, as well as the professors of the Academy of Arts and the Lviv Polytechnic University, museum workers, publishers, Maria Zankovetska Theater actors and directors.
“Until today, the career of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut has been perceived from an official portrait; it was about the intellectual depth and dramatic interpretation of Ukrainian literature and, indirectly, history (through the poetry of Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko), that were distant from her character, personal experiences, dreams, and hopes,” says Roman Yatsiv, art historian, vice-rector of the Lviv Academy of Arts. “Now, one can observe the outstanding, conflicted, and detailed personality of the artist closer to reality; one can see the stages of the ‘fight within,’ a powerful spiritual work that brought to life these genuine, durable imagery and plasticity in a unique fusion of modernism and ethno-cultural elements. Modern Ukrainians have much to think about, as they themselves seek self-identity in the new historical reality, often in spite of the circumstances, overcoming pain and frustration.”
The exhibition of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut, organized by the initiative of Taras Shevchenko People’s Museum at the Lviv Palace of Arts, will be opened till the Independence Day. August 23 is the birthday of Sofia Karaffa-Korbut, so, probably, this exhibition will present a background for the artist’s anniversary celebration.
Sofia Karaffa-Korbut, the acknowledged master of easel and book graphic, was born in 1924 in Lviv. The widely acclaimed graphic masterpieces of Karaffa-Korbut include her interpretations of Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar, of Ivan Franko’s Ivan Vyshensky, and of Lesia Ukrainka’s drama Forest Song. The legacy of the artist-illustrator includes art to accompany the works of Ostap Vyshnia, Pavlo Hrabovsky, Leonid Hlibov, Andrii Voloshak, Mykola Lysych, Mykola Petrenko, and Maria Pryhara. Notable illustrated works are the poem Prometheus by Andrii Malyshko; the historical novel by Mykhailo Starytsky The Last Eagles; Lesia Ukrainka’s poems “Merry Summer Passed,” “Pre-Dawn Fires,” and a collection of poems Fiery Gems; Ivan Franko’s Little Myron, Mykyta the Fox, Boryslav Is Laughing.
Sophia Karaffa-Korbut died on November 29, 1996. She was buried at the cemetery of the village Kutkir, which is in the Busk raion of the Lviv oblast. The marble tombstone depicts Mavka stretching her hands to the sky. There are also the artist’s words engraved: “Those worthless things I have long reassessed, and I know: the main things in life are only faith, labor, honor, and good memory for you, which also doesn’t live long...”
By the way, the village’s library is going to open a museum of the artist, as The Day was told by Vasyl Valko, manager of Karaffa-Korbut’s artistic heritage. At the moment, the premises are being renovated – the room has been repaired and the showcases have been bought to exhibit the artist’s original pictures, reproductions, books, and ceramics.
