Ukrainian modernism shines at the Belvedere

From 23 February 2024 to 2 June 2024, the Lower Belvedere in Vienna presents the exhibition “In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine”

Source: Belvedere · Image: Oleksandr Bohomazov (Олександра Екстер), Three Female Figures, 1909-10 © National Art Museum of Ukraine

This exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of Ukrainian art from the first half of the twentieth century to be shown outside Ukraine. It relates this tempestuous chapter of Ukrainian cultural history and tells of how modern artists tried to reinforce Ukrainian sovereignty and independence and establish a recognizable national style. The Belvedere is placing a focus on art from around 1900 to highlight connections to the development of Jugendstil.

The Modernist movement in Ukraine unfolded against a complicated sociopolitical backdrop: World War I, the 1917 Revolution, subsequent short-lived autonomy as the Ukrainian People’s Republic (1917–20), and the foundation of Soviet Ukraine. Despite the tumult, Ukrainian art, literature, theater, and film flourished. The Boychukists, followers of the monumentalist Mykhailo Boychuk (Михайло Бойчук), created their own national school of mural painting inspired by the Byzantine tradition and Ukrainian folk art. In Kharkiv, Vasyl Yermilov (Василь Єрмілов) became the foremost exponent of the Ukrainian version of Constructivism. Meanwhile in Kyiv, Oleksandr Bohomazov (Олександр Богомазов), the country’s preeminent Futurist, developed the style known as Spectralism. Then in the late 1920s, the Kyiv Art Institute became a last refuge for pioneers of modern art such as Kazimir Malevich (Казимир Малевич) and Vladimir Tatlin (Володи́мир Євгра́фович Та́тлін). All these developments were brutally halted by Stalinist repression in the 1930s.