MATERIAL MATTERS. Ukrainian Art Textiles
The Ukrainian House National Centre hosts the exhibition “MATERIAL MATTERS. Ukrainian Art Textiles”. The exhibition features artwork by Ukrainian textile artists: from traditional tapestry techniques to experimental works using textiles.
Textile production is one of the oldest specialised art-craft traditions in the world and at the same time the least studied in the history of art. Other than being of immense practical value, textiles have served as a sign of social status and wealth. The symbols used in textiles are rich in meaning, each carrying a message or a story through generations. Sometimes, these stories are personal but more often they reflect the history and culture of the age. Comprehensive study of textile should go beyond its functional use and practical application in the home and recognise it as longstanding artistic tradition.
The 20th century avantgarde movement has revolutionised the traditional textile industry. The artists inspired by the new art movement created contemporary artworks and launched new textile innovations. As a result, the practical world of textile became a launchpad for new symbolic meanings which reflected the social need of the time.
The last century of Ukrainian textile art is characterised by the input of the Boichukist tradition which has defined the national art movement of the 1910s and 1920s through the tradition of folk art. Later in history, from the 1930s through to the 1950s the communist regime has vigorously and systematically pursued the campaign of bringing to heel the national Ukrainian tradition by suppressing and standardising it, which has ultimately led to its destruction as the Ukrainian tradition was replaced with “the formally ethnic and ideologically socialist art”. In the 1960s-1980s the Ukrainian monumental art tradition starts using textiles in public spaces and the Sixtiers artists are applying the national folk symbols in clothing and interior design. After Ukraine has proclaimed its independence, art textiles are integrated into the international system of meanings and postcolonial culture to reflect the national history, collective trauma, political upheavals, ecological disasters, issues related to gender equality, and identity.
Since the start of the war many Ukrainian artists have sought inspiration in such ethnic crafts like weaving, sewing, and embroidery. Some are seeking the real calming effect these meticulous crafts tend to have in relation to overcoming trauma. Some believe that a true work of art requires extensive physical effort and act on the need to realise their artistic potential through the material and symbolic language of textile. Others try to reinvent the Ukrainian folk tradition by tracing it from the source and reinterpreting it through their art. Today, art textiles are a launching pad for innovative experiments which take the artform well beyond its initial industrial, material, and symbolic application.
The “MATERIAL MATTERS” Exhibition tells the story of meaning imbedded in the Ukrainian art textiles by presenting it in the context of historical change. The exhibition project goes beyond telling the story of Ukrainian textile artists but also brings to surface some of the most important messages which are absolutely vital for the functioning of national culture in the last century – the time marred by upheavals and catastrophic events.
MONUMENTAL TEXTILES
On the territory of modern Ukraine textiles were first used by the Trypillia culture. At the time of the Kyivan Rus the ancestors of today’s Ukrainians had a developed pattern weaving industry and produced embroidered and block printed clothing. After centuries of development textile has become much more than a decorative applied craft and today it has turned into a full-fledged art.
The real paradigm shift in the history of Ukrainian art textiles has occurred in the 1960s. The state regulations “On reducing over-stylisation in architecture and design” (1955) together with the new Soviet liberalisation policy which at least for the time being eased repressions and censorship, promoted the development of innovative approaches in monumental art. The art movement has quickly developed into a powerful framework for some of the most talented and productive artists. In this sense monumental art differed from easel painting which was dominated by the socialist realism tradition and instead applied more liberal and less restrictive approaches which reflected the contemporary global art tradition.
The Ukrainian artists have extensively used textiles in interior design of public buildings, like using large scale storytelling tapestries with complex plots and exquisite techniques. The textile industry is now transformed – the dividing line between decorative applied crafts and fine art is gone and the spectator enjoys a high-quality piece of art.
Also, the Ukrainian textile tradition was significantly shaped by the 1920s modernist art movement. The followers of Mykhailo Boichuk and Vasyl’ Krychevsky, a group of artists who survived Stalin’s purges and served as a bridge between the hiatus of the Executed Renaissance and the Sixtiers artists – both movements have greatly contributed to the development of Ukrainian artistic identity.
In the 1960s Ivan and Maria Lytovchenko, the artists active on the Kyiv art scene worked on promoting innovative approaches in monumental art and art textile. They have pioneered the use of tapestry in public buildings across the country. In the following decades new names pop up on the art scene with groundbreaking signature textile artworks displayed in public space, like Volodymyr Priadka, Olena Volodymyrova, Ivan-Valentyn Zadorozhny, Olexandra Krypiakevych-Tsehelska, Liudmyla Zhohol, and Oleh Mashkevych.
The Family tapestry was created for the Rohiska village community centre which is in the Vinnytsia province. Now the artwork is kept at the Vinnytsia local history museum.
The tapestry scene features a family, thought to be the real-life family of Volodymyr Danyleyko, a Ukrainian philosopher, anthropologist, ethnographer, and a poet. Ivan-Valentyn Zadorozhny was close friends with Danyleyko. Nadia Zadorozhna was a god mother to Danyleyko’s daughter Solomiya, the families remained close and corresponded with each other.
At the start of the 20th century Ukraine experiences a string of catastrophic events like the fall of the Russian Empire, fight for the country’s independence, industrialisation, and the finalisation of the communist occupation of Ukraine. For the artists the birth of the new world order became a call to action and had a significant impact on the development of textile artworks.
The artists continued the tradition of synthesis and did not believe in the distinction between the “lower” and “higher” arts. Subsequently, the professional artists weren’t restricted in exploring fabrics as the new art media and extensively studied the folk traditions of hand-woven rugs – from producing yarn, dyeing it, and making it into a final product.
Ukraine reopens artisan weaving mills previously closed by the Bolsheviks. The country’s universities offer professional education in textiles: the Kyiv Art Institute launches a new study programme in textile design and the Kyiv School of Art Design is running textile and weaving studios. Myroslava Mudrak, an art critic has the following to say about the situation: “the Ukrainian avantgarde abhors destructive nihilism… instead it harnesses the productive forces behind the events and ideas which…identify the hiatus between the art of the present and the past and unites the two under a new artistic framework.”
At the time of tectonic social change, the artists are called to transform the daily reality with art. Their approach is truly revolutionary, the artists work on interior design, architecture, furniture and upholstery design; develop elaborate plots and symbolic language for tapestry designs and carpets. This is how the Ukrainian style was forged and nurtured.
VASYL’ KRYCHEVSKY
In Ukraine the Arts and Crafts Movements inspired Vasyl’ Krychevsky, a leading proponent of the Ukrainian style active at the start of the 20th century and a supporter of the synthesis of arts principle. One of the founding members of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts Krychevsky worked in architecture, design, graphics, and script design, he is credited for developing the coat of arms of the Ukrainian National Republic, the artist also worked as an artistic director and is known for his contribution to the development of Ukrainian cinema. He worked to revive and reinterpret traditional Ukrainian folk symbolism and supported its transition from a rural setting to a more refined one. Krychevsky’s school became a launching pad for the development of new experimental techniques in art which have shaped the Ukrainian artistic identity.
We know from history reports that in 1892 Krychevsky began working in industrial production. From 1913 to 1916 the artist is head of the design department of the carpet weaving and textile artisan factory run by the Khanenko family in the Olenivka township of the Kyiv governance. In 1913 Krychevsky is awarded a gold medal at the St Petersburg All-Russian Artisan Fair for his carpet designs and block print designs and the main award at the Kyiv Artisan Fair. Krychevsky’s designs were completely sold out during the artisan fairs held in Paris and Berlin (1914).
“At the times of troubles during war and revolution he would abandon art and architecture design; but at any time, he was able to get a hold of a pencil and a piece of paper, he immediately began drawing decorative motifs” (Y.M. Krychevska).
Krychevsky dedicated a lot of time and effort to ornamental design. The History Department of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences features a panel – the interior’s focal point. The panel boasts decorative and geometric design in block print on fabric.
“Before starting work on the film The Life and Work of Taras Shevchenko, I promised myself that I will remain true to art, history, and the human condition.
I had to delve deep into the ethnic and economic realities of life in Ukraine as they existed a hundred years ago.
…Just the hard truth about the daily life, no sugarcoating, and methodical attention to detail.”
An excerpt from an article by Krychevsky’s titled “On the production of the Taras Shevchenko film” (1926)
THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT
The Arts and Crafts Movement emerged in England in the mid-1800s and became an international trend. The movement was born as a rebellion against Industrialism and favoured a return to handcrafted work and artistic enterprise. William Morris is credited as the movement’s founder. Morris established Morris, Marshall, Faulkner&Co., later Morris&Co., a furnishings manufacturer which sold unique handcrafted items intended for daily use.
Morris was inspired by the English medieval aesthetics. The movement promoted the widespread revival of handicrafts. Morris is known for his experiment in different crafts and his interior and furniture designs.
The Arts and Crafts Movement took Europe by storm. Artists across the continent followed in the movement’s footsteps and sought inspiration in the folk traditions. The revival of traditional handicrafts promoted by professionally trained artists and architects helped create a new framework of everyday items which reflected the national folk culture.
OLEXANDER SAYENKO
Sayenko studied under Vasyl’ Krychevsky and followed in the tradition of Ukrainian style. Sayenko’s artistic legacy is based on the synthesis of folk tradition and professional art. In the 1920s-1930s the artist worked on interior design projects, designed furniture and decorative block prints, tapestry and carpet sketches.
Sayenko was admired by the community of the Sixtiers artists, like Alla Horska, Opanas Zalyvakha, Halyna Zubchenko, Borys Plaksiy, and Liudmyla Semykina. Sayenko’s work became a talking point after his personal exhibition in 1962. The event took the Kyiv art scene by storm and further cemented the community of artists inspired by the national artistic culture.
Alla Horska believed that Sayenko envisions the Ukrainian cultural legacy through contemporary eyes and his art “reflects the Ukrainian people’s strength, beauty, and courage. Today this type of art is in high demand. Not personalities. The social status does not exist in a vacuum. Like, a party functionary or a milking parlour operator. Character hides in detail. The larger social function lacks character.”
Today, the artist’s daughter Nina Sayenko and his granddaughter Lesya Maidanets work with art textiles and continue Sayenko’s unique legacy.
SERHIY KOLOS
The development of the national school of tapestry weaving is closely linked to the life and work of Serhiy Kolos. In the 1920s Kolos became a textile enthusiast and supported the reopening of such major textile hubs like the one in the Dihtiari township in the Chernihiv province and the Krolevetsky textile mills in the Sumy province. In 1925 the artist joins the Association for Revolutionary Art in Ukraine which proclaims that decorative arts hold equal importance as fine arts. The same year Kolos initiates the establishment of the Textile Design department under the faculty of Arts at the Kyiv Art Institute. Kolos will spend the rest of his life working with textiles.
During the short-lived Khrushchev’s Thaw Kolos shares his experience with the young generation of artists. In the early 1960s he is invited by Les’ Taniuk to host a series of lectures at the Young Artists Club under the club’s fine arts section. But soon after the communist regime initiates more repressive measures against Ukrainian intellectuals and Kolos is forced into retirement.
TAPESTRY
Tapestry is a traditionally handwoven panel with decorative pictorial design. Depending on the type of hanging, tapestry is woven on a horizontal or vertical loom. Design for tapestry – called a cartoon, is a life-size drawing placed under the loom and used as a guide to accurately create the tapestry.
The Gobelin technique has its roots in France. It was developed at the Manufacture des Gobelins, named after a family of dyers and cloth makers, the two brothers Jean and Philibert Gobelin who owned a building in which France’s tapestry industry was established. French tapestries have significantly shaped the textile weaving industry in Europe.
In Ukraine the first tapestry manufacturers have reportedly opened in 1659 in the Brody town in the west of the country. Unlike the original French tapestries the work of Ukrainian weavers boasts much more elaborate motifs, bold designs, and contrasting colours, inspired by the traditional folk weaving culture in the country. In the late 1800s after the abolition of serfdom, many tenants who were highly skilled and gifted craftsmen quit work at the landlord’s textile mills. As a result, the tapestry weaving industry in Ukraine went into decline.
In the early 1900s the tapestry production industry was driven by professionally trained artists who developed sketches, designed tapestry cartoons, and sometimes even performed as weavers. The list includes Olha and Olena Kulchitska, Olexander Sayenko, and Serhiy Kolos.
An excerpt from an article by Zoya Chehusova “Figurative tapestry in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st centuries: artistic development, leading artists, and special trends in art”, Ukrainian History of Art: Materials, Studies, and Reviews. 2016, Issue 16, P. 37-38
“One should look beyond nature and its events. The multitude of events must be synthesised and accumulated (developed) as a result of investigations of several generations of people and be passed on as tradition from the previous generation to the following generation.”
Mykhailo Boichuk
HRYHORIY DOVZHENKO
Hryhoriy Dovzhenko is a muralist and a follower of the Boichukist movement, he survived Stalin’s purges without spending any time in prison. Still, Dovzhenko was forced to abandon his position at the Kyiv Art Institute and many of his works were destroyed. Despite prosecution, the artist remained true to his calling and promoted Ukrainian style in his largescale decorative murals and architecture, which became a wonderful example of the synthesis of arts.
Dovzhenko is well versed in the symbolic language characteristic for such art textiles, like woven carpets and embroidery, and he effectively integrates these components into architecture. The Stone Vyshyvankas is Dovzhenko’s major mural project which covers almost 180 buildings in Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson province. Dovzhenko has meticulously worked on the sketches for the murals as he carefully studied Byzantian, Baroque, and Ukrainian folk decorative motifs and developed a wide range of exclusively unique patterns. The artist designed the cartoons but his medium of choice was stone instead of fabric. Dovzhenko has also developed the plastering technique which includes carving on fresh plaster. He also used his own recipe for plaster.
Today Nova Kakhovka is under Russian occupation. The city was partially flooded as a result of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Dam. The muralled buildings designed by Dovzhenko and his team have survived but there is no information about the state of the murals and if they have survived at all.
“Art is a serious business, especially monumental art, and to be an artist one should be greatly inspired, acquire a sense of grandeur, have deep knowledge, and professional expertise. Without such encouragement the artwork will come out dull, bland, and without any fire; and as a result, the artist perishes and withers away.”
An excerpt from Dovzhenko’s diary
THE INTERIORS
In the 1920s the applied arts education was focused on teaching the skills needed to support change in the new society and improve the daily life of people, at the work place and in the home.
Here’s an excerpt from researcher Olha Yamborko from her article titled “A carpet in the interior as a component of the Soviet way of life”: “In the 1920s the Kyiv Art Institute trained professional artists to “decorate the home”. The institute’s students and professors, like members of Krychevsky’s art studio for example, developed projects which for the most part resonated with a traditional Ukrainian ethnic dwelling, like using the traditional zoning techniques which helped define several functional areas in a relatively spacious room, e.g., the kitchen, living room, and lounge area. The walls also were accented just like in any traditional Ukrainian dwelling. The selection of furniture was vastly different, and included apart from upgraded settees also cupboards, wardrobes, folding screens, book shelves, and arm chairs. Such are the examples of interior design projects, like living quarters for the workers developed by Sayenko in the 1920s and early 1930s.
In such interiors a carpet serves a unifying function, e.g., the stripy hallway runners on the wooden floor symbolically mark the absent corridor space and clearly zone the area; they are also used to complete the style of the room in combination with other floor rugs in separate areas of the room, like the living room and bedroom. And under this framework wall carpets best serve as a focal point of the interior. Sayenko’s design projects include woven wall hangings which depict romanticised aspects of everyday life and folk motifs. Together with other elements of the interior a carpet serves a functional role but it is also used as an ornamental focal point of an interior space.”
ON THE TEXTILE’S TERRAIN
The history of art textile goes back a long way, but today art textile is desperately carving a niche for itself in the Ukrainian artistic tradition which is still dominated by painting and sculpture. Though almost all fine arts stem from handicrafts, the textile artists continue to fight for the support and acceptance of the artistic community. However, the society’s growing interest in textiles and its integration into the art scene is slowly changing that.
This exhibition hall is dedicated to an exciting phenomenon – the way the textile’s terrain is explored by established painters, sculptors, and graphics. At the fringe of arts new questions emerge: what is more important – the choice of medium or the need to create? and does material really matter?
For the majority of artists featured at the exhibition art textile was a short-lived period in their career, a time for experiment which completely revolutionised their art. Such artist like Olexander Dubovyk, Jacques Chapiro, Olexander Roitburd, and Olexander Sukholit use textile as a means to express their unique language, symbolism, and form which provides new meaning through using fabric as an art medium.
The husband-and-wife teams of artists like Ada Rybachyk and Volodymyr Melnichenko, and Liudmyla and Volodymyr Lobodа as well as Maryna Skuhareva are using art textiles to their full potential, and utilise the medium to expand their artistic horizons. Textiles have become an integral part of their art.
Art textiles are slowly making a name for themselves on the art scene and their contribution to the development of art is absolutely immense.
THE UKRAINIAN CARPETS
The first accounts of carpet weaving in Ukraine date back to the 16th century when flat-woven carpets became widespread. Later history of carpet weaving is linked to the production of the so-called nobleman’s carpets. Researcher Zoya Chehusova notes that “in the 17th and 18th centuries some landlords established textile mills which produced highly decorative carpets with floral designs and patterns and also carpets with figurative motifs”, the inspiration first came from Persia and Anatolia and later the weavers were inspired by the French tapestries. The Ukrainian carpet weaving industry is going strong well into the late 1800s, the industry’s creative potential is nurtured by a community of talented serfs who worked at the landlord’s textile mills, they were the ones who introduced the Ukrainian folk symbolism into the manufacturing process.
After the revolution of 1905–1907 a group of enthusiasts try to revive the carpet weaving tradition in the country though establishing textile art studios. Carpets from Reshetylivka, Hlyniany, Dihtiari, and Kosiv are back in fashion; flat-woven wool throws with floral and geometric designs; and shaggy throw blankets.
The Ukrainian carpet weaving traditions continue to live on to this day, all thanks to the dedication of a community of talented artist. The old complicated weaving techniques are revived and improved, the carpets’ symbolic language is reinterpreted and placed in the context of postmodern discourse.
WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES
In Ukraine the periods of rapid development of art textile are linked to cooperation between professional and folk artists who specialised in weaving and embroidery and worked in artisan mills and craft societies. Often, they remain anonymous but their input in textile production and implementation of the artists’ ideas is absolutely massive.
In the early 1900s such collaboration was especially evident in the Verbivka township in the Kyiv governance. In 1914 the workshop’s founder Natalia Davydova names Olexandra Exter the shop’s design director. Later on, the workshop is visited by Kazimierz Malewicz and the members of the Supremus society. Art historian Olena Shestakova notes that the sketches by professional artists were used to make decorative panels “which reflected the contemporary aesthetic at the forefront of artistic exploration, mostly influenced by the avant-garde and modern styles.”
In the 1920s the old artisan workshops are reorganised into production facilities and in the 1930s carpet weaving is revived in all regions of the country where it previously functioned at the start of the 20th century. The teams of artists worked on themed carpets, designed by painters and graphic designers like Mykhailo Derehus, Mykola Rokytsky, Ivan Padalka, and Havrylo Pustovit. Albeit, the avant-garde aesthetic is replaced by socialist realism, a dominant trend of the period.
In 1945 after the end of the Second world war the textile workshops are slowly gaining momentum and in the 1960s they are reorganised into factories under the UkrKhudozhProm, a specialised production company.
Traditionally, in the process of production of large-scale tapestries the Ukrainian monumental artists teamed up with factories in Reshetylivka, Dihtiari, and Hlyniany.
“I will live for my family’s sake”
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fell victim of the soviet totalitarian system due to their political, national, and religious beliefs. The height of repression, persecution, torture, and executions occurred from the 1930s through to the 1950s and was mostly carried out at the Gulag.
Gulag is an acronym for (Glavnoye Upravleniye LAGerey) which is a system of soviet labour camps established in 1929 during Stalin’s reign. The vast network of camps consisted of almost 30,000 individual prison sites. Some of the harshest slave labour camps were located in Siberia, Russian Far East, Central Asia, and in the north of the Soviet Union. Oksana Kis’, a historian estimates that the overall size of the prison population in the Soviet Union in the period from the 1920s till 1953 could be up to 25–30 million people. It included a large proportion of Ukrainian political prisoners. For example, Steplag, another labour camp located in greater Karaganda in Kazakhstan, housed 46.3 % of Ukrainian inmates.
For the Ukrainian inmates embroidery became one of the ways to pass the time, in prison this traditionally female craft became a national identity marker for the inmates. Myroslav Marynovych, a human rights activist, founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and a former inmate himself says: “Inside the labour camps the female inmates from Ukraine worked on small embroidery pieces, it was their protest against efforts to wipe out their national identity and a way to identify with the great Ukrainian nation. The authorities were helpless and no time in the solitary could stop them.”
The prisoners lacked materials and had to become inventive: the thread was made by taring old fabric, the needles were fashioned from fish bone, matches, and pins. Sometimes embroidery was part of the survival technique — expert embroiders took commissions from the wives of prison officers and were compensated in food rations. And for some inmates a piece of embroidery was the only way to communicate with the outside world and leave something behind.
Olha Matseliukh (married name Horyn), 1930–2021
Matseliukh was born in the Lviv province, in her student years she was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in a high security prison for participation in the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, anti-soviet agitation, and propaganda. She was paroled in 1956. In 1963 Matseliukh married Mykhailo Horyn. The couple’s apartment becomes a meeting place for fellow Sixtiers activists, like Levko Lukianenko, Vyacheslav Chornovil, and Zinoviy Krasivsky. The couple is under round-the-clock surveillance – the KGB is constantly on their back.
Olha Horyn was a prominent activist, in 1990 she founded and headed the Ukrainian Christian Women’s Party. Horyn had an active public persona but her true passion was embroidery. The artist usually designed traditional Ukrainian ethnic costume, like overcoats, shawls, and traditional western Ukrainian vests, all decorated with beads and thread. She began exhibiting her work back in 1966. In 1981 Horyn was awarded an honorary title of a merited folk artist.
Franka Humeniuk, 1917-??
Before 1939 Humeniuk was part of the Legion of Ukrainian Halycians, an activist organisation for Ukrainian youth; in 1942–1946 she acts as a liaison with the Ukrainian resistance army. In 1946 Humeniuk is sentenced to eight years of hard labour in Siberia. The rushnyk, traditional Ukrainian towel was created in prison.
Fedir Merezhko, ??–1938
In 1920 Merezhko was drafted into the Red Army. His battalion was stationed in Ukraine. On November 29, 1937 captain Merezhko was arrested in Kharkiv on trumped-up charges of spying for the enemy. Within two months he was executed. During his detention he embroidered a shirt and rushnyk with a secret message in white thread addressed to his wife — both items were smuggled out of prison. In 1959 well after his death Merezhko’s sentence was revoked as groundless.
VOICES
Ukraine’s proclamation of independence liberated the nation and created new possibilities. This new exciting period in the country’s history was destined to become a time for change and systemic reorganisation but instead the spectre of communism continued to haunt the young fledgling state.
The economic downfall of the Perestroika period affected all spheres of production which struggled to adapt to the new commercial realities of the free market. The country is closing down its textile mills. Ukraine’s cultural sphere is in decline and lacking sufficient financial support. Many artists are no longer able to receive commissions from the government. Carpets slowly go out of fashion and are no longer used as interior décor. Once a “deficit” product the carpet’s reputation is totally ruined by association with the soviet regime. And the public outlook is still unfavourable.
The art scene welcomes new players. Graduates of the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts are taking the lead in production of art textiles. Their work is utilising the rich legacy of Karl Zvirinsky, Zenovii Flinta, Ihor Bodnar, and Yuri Skandakov.
The two Ukrainian revolutions and the war have changed the application of textile arts for the artists and their following. The society is going through political and social change and the art textiles are also changing in meaning and application. Genre tapestries, embroidery, textile collage, sculpture, and installation – the list goes on as the contemporary artists are advancing further into the field of art textile to express their political views. The feminist discourse is coming to the forefront and the textile arts are there support the female voices in contemporary society. After the full-scale invasion the Ukrainian nation is carefully rethinking the idea of nationhood, and Ukrainians are rediscovering their own culture in all its diversity and vital vigour.
Since the start of the war more young artists are turning to textiles to explore the therapeutic power of the art medium. The artists are using fabrics as a backdrop for their thoughts about the war and their own vision of the future by creating powerful thought-provoking visual metaphors which resonate with the viewers’ emotions. The new generation of artists use textiles to express their hopes and aspirations which is actively shaping the country’s cultural landscape.
A MAGIC CHANT
Art textile has an profound spiritual meaning which delves deep into the human psyche. The technical side of the process, like spinning the yarn, weaving, shedding and picking which are involved in clothmaking is akin to an ancient ritual when clothmaking went beyond the practical application and was an act of devotion. Fabrics are able to relay history, cultural codes, and deep emotion. In the hands of a talented artist fabric becomes a means of personal expression, meditation, and self-reflection.
Artwork by Volodymyra Hankevych immediately transports the viewer to an atmosphere of warmth – a safe place from a distant past. She works in fibre art. The artist extensively explores the basic material, as she usually creates it from loose thread and saturates with her emotional energy.
For Kostiantyn Zorkin, an artist based in Kharkiv art is the material proof that the soul exists. Artistic language can be used for direct communication with the soul by overcoming the bias of human rationality. Zorkin’s experimental tapestries, presented at the exhibition explore the sacred nature of a lullaby. Magical thinking suggests, that a lullaby is an ancient technology to programme sleep patterns. The artist says that his tapestries are an attempt to lull to sleep the horrific reality we are currently living through.
THE HEALING GARDEN
This part of the exposition is revolved around the notion of paradise, remembering your roots and where you come from, landscapes, and still life. The works are brimming with flowers and floral designs, they open the gates to secret gardens, and the network of tree roots is like a giant map which leads the viewer to a safe place.
This distinctive mille-fleur style (French mille-fleurs, literally thousand flowers) dates back many centuries. It’s a style of European tapestry with a dark backdrop which boasts a multitude of individual flowers creating a rich and vivid landscape. Mille-fleur tapestries tell stories in the flattened perspective of two dimensions. Mille-fleur tapestries are thought to have been made first in the 15th century France but the production also extended to Flanders.
The mille-fleur style evolved and matured. Similar to the way the Renaissance artists inserted daily scenes into religious frescos, the idealised world of a thousand flowers was interrupted by reality.
The mythology of a healing garden goes back many generations into the folk culture where the longing for paradise inspires a person to nurture their own flower garden. Here it’s worth mentioning the signature artists in the history of Ukrainian art of the 20th century, who had a profound influence on the development of modern art textile. It’s the enduring legacy of Hanna Sobachko-Shostak and Maria Prymachenko.
Hanna Sobachko-Shostak was working in a textile workshop in the Skoptsi village which was established by Anastasia Semihradova, a Ukrainian philanthropist. The artist developed carpet designs and embroidery designs. Sobachko-Shostak introduced modernist style into the traditional Ukrainian symbolism by designing elaborate floral compositions, fantastic out of this world floral birds and fish, flowers in action and flowers with a soul.
Folk artist Maria Prymachenko also dedicated her artistic career to creating flowers and fantastic beasts, she also was an expert embroider, and an inspiration for the Sixtiers artists. Prymachenko’s work is expressive and filled with emotion, her artwork overflows with happiness, laughter, and compassion, to which the artist sometimes adds a hint of irony. “I want for the people to thrive like the flowers bloom”, a quote from the artist which best describes her outlook on life.
LIUBOV PANCHENKO
The Sixtiers artists have rediscovered the symbolism of folk culture and used the freedom it gives and the inspiration to lay the solid foundations of modern Ukrainian art. Liubov Panchenko was one of the most active advocates of the national culture, language, and the Ukrainian way of life. Panchenko was a talented artist and fashion designer, a member of the “Contemporary” youth club. The artist worked in watercolour, woodcut, fashion design, embroidery, and designed unique applique art compositions with fabric.
Panchenko was working as a designer at the Republican fashion house. She has creatively reinvented folk art and used floral and geometric designs in clothes décor, like boho overcoats, traditional western Ukrainian vests, and round fur hats. She designed original statement pieces. In 1968 Panchenko exhibited her fashion collection in Donetsk. Her embroidery design patterns, fashion and accessory designs enjoyed nationwide attention through the Soviet Woman magazine. Panchenko was a media darling. But as Khrushchev’s thaw drew to a close, Panchenko’s work became less popular and she slowly fell out of favour.
In February-April 2022 Panchenko survived the Russian occupation of Bucha, her hometown. But she was too frail to fight the damaging effects of starvation and cold. The artist expired at a Kyiv hospital on the last day of April. Right before the Russian invasion she gifted her collection to the Sixtiers museum in Kyiv.
THE FABRIC OF RESISTANCE
There are many stories of resistance woven into the fabric of art, like the Ukrainian resistance movement of the 1960s-1980s. These stories are told by the textile artists through their art.
In the 1960s Liudmyla Semykina, a member of the “Contemporary” artistic youth club begins her work as a fashion designer. Her clientele includes prominent opinion makers and influencers. Semykina, working from her Kyiv studio is making instantly recognisable signature pieces of clothing. For Semykina’s clients it was a way to visually identify themselves with the Ukrainian community.
“Semykina magically transforms grey wool fabric from the Stalin’s period into gorgeous outfits for the Kyiv fashion enthusiasts which resemble characters from the Kyivan Rus. There was something princely and royal about those outfits from the bygone era, it was a time in history when our nation state was thriving in a European family of nations. The artist’s powerful imagination driven by her deep love for her nation lay at the heart of her vision. The capital of Kyivan Rus now a soviet colony on the Dnipro River, has stirred when the ancient Ruthenians from the time of Yaroslav the Wise took to the city streets. Well, just one of small stories from the early sixties….” – writes Ivan Drach.
In the early 1970s Semykina is working on costume designs for the Zakhar Berkut film, the artist is absolutely fascinated by period fashion. Since than she works mainly with costume and her expertise transforms it into an art form.
“Why did I go into fashion design?
First of all, I was inspired by the 1960s poetry. The valiant heroes need to dress the part. I wanted to find harmony between form and substance and get rid of the inappropriate dull clothing. My imagination started generating new images. I did not have to reinvent the ideal. It was already there. Here we have our opinion makers, our spiritual leadership – the valiant knights who protect the spirit of the age. History produces its own heroes and villains. Alla Horska was killed in a mocking fashion; she was a sacrifice for our moral and spiritual ideals. Seeking justice for being wronged, disrespected, and lied to. To right a wrong and create a feeling a safety. It was my challenge. And it was another reason why I went into fashion design.
Liudmyla Semykinа
Stephania Shabatura was a prominent Ukrainian dissident, a human rights activist, and a textile artist. In the 1960’s she joins the “Snowdrop” creative youth club in Lviv, which was the local epicentre of the Sixtier’s movement and a printing and dissemination hub for anti-soviet underground press.
During the Brezhnev’s stagnation a wave of arrests sweeps across the country. In January 1972 KGB launchers the Block operation which resulted in a series of arrests targeting leading Ukrainian opinion makers and cultural influencers, like Vasyl’ Stus, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Evhen Sverstiuk, and Ivan Svitlychny. Shabatura’s apartment was searched. The search has yielded self-published literature, and tapestries Cassandra and Lesya Ukrainka. The items were seized and labelled by the authorities as anti-soviet and nationalistic. Shabatura was accused of acting against the government and sentenced to five years in a high security prison and three years of colony settlement.
The spirit of resistance is woven into the artwork by Olexandra Krypiakevych-Tsehelska, a student at Karl Zvirinsky’s underground art school. In the 1970s her husband, historian Roman Krypiakevych and she are active members of the resistance movement. Their apartment is used as a publication hub and storage facilities for outlawed literature, and a secret meeting place for the dissent movement and former political prisoners. In the 1970s and 1980s the artist develops a series of hangings and tapestries with coded messages which were designed for public viewing and her other works intended for a more private audience delved deep into traditional Ukrainian symbolism.
“All of my designs include a secret time bomb, I could not just make art for the art’s sake, I always strived to make controversial pieces or pieces to mark historic events, which are suppressed in Russia. Like the tapestry I designed to mark 350 years since the establishment of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. For Russia it was a non-event, but historically it was a leading university in Europe. The tapestry was exhibited in Kyiv. A group of students are holding a book which is stamped with Mazepa’s coat of arms. The KGB weren’t aware of the symbolism but for me it was a ticking time bomb which I introduced into my design.”
Olexandra Krypiakevych-Tsehelska
“The Ukrainian art textile movement because of its short history of existence in the region (from the late 1900s to the early 2000s) is more like a child with growing pains, rather than a silver haired old man, which is an image usually associated with the weaving industry. But this is exactly what is so exciting about being a child, it’s a time for exploration, growth, and independent bold moves.”
Tamila Pecheniuk