The publication accompanying the exhibition currently at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, has toured Europe, In the Eye of the Storm, Modernism in Ukraine 1900-1930s. As a book, it will live longer and have a wider, deeper reach for its reader than the exhibition. Here is documented the burst of creativity that erupted in the early 20th Century in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. But that creativity was to die a death brought about by government suppression. Today, the subject clearly has political pro-Ukrainian aims, not least because much of the art comes from the National Art Museum of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema. Following the Russian invasion in February 2022, works of art from these institutions left Ukraine under armed military guard. Around 65 paintings entered Poland to become the core exhibits in these shows. The war’s destruction and Putin’s statements that ‘Ukraine’s identity and culture doesn’t exist’ indicate this act saved the evidence of Ukrainian modernist culture.
The exhibitions show paintings and theatre design, and altered subtly at each venue, supplemented by works from the host collections, and private collections, the publication is not specific to one venue. It records more and goes further, including essays on Ukraine’s contributions to cinema, literature and arts education. Structured in four sections, it discusses artists and cultural life connected to Ukraine’s three major cities, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, sometimes tangentially, in short, focused, readable essays. It is chronological and done with academic rigour tracing what is documented. Some of the artists are familiar, although thought of as Russian: Alexandra Exter, Alexander Archipenko, Kazimir Malevich, and David Burliuk. But all were born or raised in Ukraine of ethnically diverse parents. The shifting nature of Russia’s Empire led to a fusion of ethnicities, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Jewish, which gave a distinct cultural profile. As with its ethnic diversity, artistic stylistic diversity was also prominent. Many styles followed one another or co-existed. There were Ukrainian versions of Futurism and Cubo-Futurism.
With Stalin’s suppression of modernism and his promotion of Socialist Realism, what happened to the modernist art Party ideologists thought ‘threatened the new society’? Paintings by artists whose names would for years be expunged from history were gathered into the Spetsfond, a ‘special secret holding’, at the State Ukrainian Museum, now the National Art Museum of Ukraine. This act made this exhibition and publication possible, feast your eyes on a culture long-hidden.
In the Eye of the Storm, Modernism in Ukraine 1900-1930s, Edited by Konstantin Akinsha, Katia Denysova, Olena Kashuba-Volvach, Thames & Hudson, London, 2022.
The exhibition has been seen across Europe in Museo National Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid (29 November 2022 – 2 May 2023), Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels (19 October 2023 – 28 January 2024), The Belvedere, Vienna (23 February—2 June 2024), and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. It is hoped to travel to New York, although that leg of its journey is still in negotiation.