Ukrainian Artists and Institutions.

Today we shall explore some of the great artists and institutions that belong to Ukraine.

How many of these institutions will exist when the battles are over is a question we’d rather not consider – The Museum of Local History in Ivankiv, with a treasured collection of works by folk artist Maria Prymachenko, is one of the first cultural casualties reported.

Ukraine has 940 exhibitions, 559 artists and 94 institutions listed in our database.

Boris Mikhailov, Case History 1997-1998, #333, C-print, 61 x 39,5 cm. Ed. 10

Among the listed artists is the famed photographer Boris Mikhailov (born 1938) with over 400 shows worldwide, a global ranking of 298 and international representation. His well known Case History Series (’97-’98) documented the fall of the soviet union in Ukraine and the disparities that emerged in the rebuilding of the country.

Yevgenia Belorusets
(born 1980) ranked 4,717 globally

Yevgenia Belorusets, “Please don’t take my picture! Or they’ll shoot me tomorrow.”, (Installation view), 2014-2015

Her work is a blend of art, literature, journalism and social activism which has led her to explore the recent conflict in the Donbass region of Ukraine. Her work “Please don’t take my picture! Or they’ll shoot me tomorrow!” was shown in the Ukrainian pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. We’re very interested to see how she will document this moment.

Naum Slutzky
(1894-1965)

Naum Slutzky, Teapot, 1928

A Kyiv born Bauhaus artist, ranked 38,326 globally. He took his work as a goldsmith and an industrial designer to England in 1933 when the Bauhaus school was forced to close by the Nazis. Some historical shows of interest are: the 1938 group show, Bauhaus: 1919-1928 at MoMA in New York and a 1932 self titled solo show at Kunstverein Hamburg, a year before Hitler came to power and he was forced to flee.

Switching our gaze to the institutions, The National Art Museum of Ukraine was established in 1899. The name has changed under various occupations since then, but the dedication to collecting Ukrainian art always remained strong. Artfacts lists 163 exhibitions, including great shows of Cubo-Futurism with both Ukraine and Russian artists.

The PinchukArtCentre was founded in 2006 by the Ukrainian billionaire, oligarch and philanthropist Viktor Pintschuk. It is listed on Artfacts with almost 100 shows of contemporary art. Its international range of artists underlines the approach of modern Ukraine to see itself open to all forms of art. The Future Generation Art Prize highlights this attitude and was initiated by the Pinchuk Foundation in 2009.

Today we ask our readers to send us more information on institutions that we may not have listed. Feel welcomed to send an email to [email protected] (using the Latin alphabet, rather than the Cyrillic) and we will add these missing places to our database.

We hope these dark days are short and that light, peace and freedom return.

Let’s make (a better) history happen.

The Artfacts Team