El Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza) will present from November 29, 2022 to April 30, 2023 In the eye of the storm. Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930, a comprehensive overview of avant-garde Ukrainian art in the first decades of the XNUMXth century.
The exhibition presents innovative art produced in Ukraine, showing trends ranging from figurative art until Futurism and Constructivism.
It is worth mentioning that the development of Ukrainian modernism took place in a complicated sociopolitical context of collapsing empires, the First World War, and the revolutions of 1917 with the subsequent War of Independence of Ukraine that took place from 1917 to 1921), as well as the eventual creation of the Ukraine Soviet.
example of Cube-Futurism de Ukraine. Source: Odessa Journal
The ruthless Stalinist repressions against the Ukrainian intelligentsia led to the execution of dozens of writers, theater directors and artists, while the Holodomor, the man-made famine of 1932-1933, killed millions of Ukrainians.
Despite these tragic circumstances that the country experienced, the art of the time experienced a true renaissance of creative experimentation, and that is why In the Eye of the Storm attempts to remember this essential chapter, although little known in the West. , and to rescue the European modernism that remained alive despite the complications.
Thus, with around 70 works in a wide range of media, from oil paintings and sketches to collages and theatrical designs, the National Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza opens its doors to celebrate the artistic legacy of a country that continues to fight for its art.
Following a strict chronological order, the exhibition presents works by masters of Ukrainian modernism such as Oleksandr Bohomazov, Vasyl Yermilov, Viktor Palmov y Anatol Petrytskyi, among several others.
Exploring the polyphony of styles and identities, the exhibition includes neo-Byzantine paintings by followers of Mykhailo Boichuk y experimental works of members of the Light Culture, who sought to promote their vision of Ukrainian and Yiddish contemporary artrespectively.
Additionally, pieces of Kazymyr Malevych y The Lissitzky, artists par excellence of the international avant-garde who worked in Ukraine and left an important mark on the development of the national art scene.
The exhibition also displays works by internationally renowned artists who were born and began their careers in Ukraine but they became famous abroad, as is the case with Alexandra Exter, Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine y Sonia Delaunay.
In the most comprehensive survey of Ukrainian modern art to date, with many works on loan from the National Art Museum of Ukraine and State Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema of Ukraine, National Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza celebrates the dynamism and diversity of the art scene in Ukraine while safeguarding the country's heritage during the inadmissible current occupation of its territory by Russia.
