Save and show: Ukrainian art in Madrid

Unique in many respects, the exhibition “In the Eye of the Storm” (“At the epicenter of the storm”) with the subtitle “Modernism in Ukraine 1900-1930.” runs until April 30 at one of the main museums in Madrid - Thyssen-Bornemisza. The word modernism in the subtitle is a collective one. Before us is a rich range of styles in which Ukrainian artists worked, experimented and amazed in the first decades of the 20th century, a time of revolutions, wars, the collapse of empires, newly and briefly gained independence and the birth of the Stalinist regime: figurative art, cubo-futurism, suprematism, constructivism.. .

Most of the 70 exhibits in the exhibition are from the collections of the National Art Museum and the State Museum of Theater, Music and Film Arts of Ukraine. Early in the morning of November 15, carefully packed and loaded onto trucks, paintings, drawings, and collages began their multi-day journey from Kyiv to Madrid, interrupted by art shelling, border inspections and diplomatic negotiations.

The famous art critic Konstantin Akinsha has long been engaged in the topic of Ukrainian modernism - exceptionally generous in talents and discoveries, but in general still waiting for world recognition. The war made organizing the exhibition an urgent necessity. Together with Katya Denisova and Olena Kashuba-Volvach, they collected and presented to the world such a multi-layered, detailed and impressive portrait of Ukrainian fine art of the early 20th century, which the world has never seen: from the neo-Byzantine paintings of Mykhailo Boychuk and his followers to the experiments of participants in the Jewish The cultural league that existed in the days of Ukrainian independence (El Lissitzky was its member), from the projects of Vasily Ermilov, combining the influence of the Bauhaus with folklore motifs, to the works of those whom the world knows as the “stars of the Russian avant-garde,” but who were born, grew up, and were formed in Ukraine - Alexandra Exter, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Baranov-Rossine, as well as Sarah Stern, known to the world as Sonia Delaunay. All this is complemented by several treasures from the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. After closing in Madrid, the exhibition will move to Cologne, to the Ludwig Museum.

Posted by Maya Pritzker