Zelenskyys attend opening of exhibition of Ukrainian avant-garde artist in US – photos

The Ukrainian Museum in New York unveiled an exhibition of Ukrainian avant-garde artist Oleksadra Ekster on Tuesday 24 September. The official opening ceremony was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska.

Source: Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, on Facebook

Details: This is the artist's first solo exhibition in North America. Visitors from around the world are invited to become acquainted with Oleksandra Ekster's renowned works painted between 1913 and 1934. Among them are 30 paintings and works on paper, including early abstractions and sketches for theatre. A separate art catalogue has been produced for the exhibition.

All of the exhibits were curated in collaboration with American and Ukrainian museums, as well as private collectors.

In addition, together with the exhibition Oleksandra Ekster: The Stage is the World, another exhibition was opened, Volia: Ukrainian Modernism, showcasing works by her contemporaries and other Ukrainian artists. The latter featured works by Oleksandr Arkhypenko, Davyd Burliuk, Oleksandr Bohomazov, Mariia Syniakova, Vasyl Yermylov and others.

"All these people created new art that influenced their country, the whole world and us, the descendants, even if we don’t notice it. This is the ‘soft power’ of creativity – to become part of entire communities and peoples for centuries," writes Olena Zelenska.

Both exhibitions are open from 27 September to 19 January 2025.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also met with the Ukrainian community in New York. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, facilitated the conversation.

"We are grateful for their visit and their championing of Ukrainian art and culture. Together, we preserve our history, celebrate our identity, and look toward a brighter future," the official page of the museum stated.

Decolonisation of Ukraine in the world

Many Ukrainian artists were once subject to appropriation by Russia. The works of Davyd Burliuk, Oleksandra Ekster, Vasyl Yermilov, Kazymyr Malevych, and many other Ukrainian artists began to gain international recognition as part of the Russian avant-garde. As a result, the primary goal of Ukrainian cultural institutions was to reclaim their Ukrainian identity and representation in the Ukrainian context. For decades, Russian imperialism oppressed and appropriated their works.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the world's leading institutions have begun to rethink and correctly label the legacy of Ukrainian artists. For example, thanks to research performed by UP.Culture journalist and author Anna Lodyhina, the Ateneum, Finland's largest art museum, changed the nationality signature under the name of the artist Ilya Repin from Russian to Ukrainian.

In the spring of 2023, the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie Museum revised material about Oleksandra Ekster, a representative of the Ukrainian avant-garde, and removed the signature calling her a "Russian artist". Other museums have begun to identify the works of Aivazovskyi, Kuindzhi, and Malevych as Ukrainian artists.

In 2023, an exhibition of Ukrainian modernists In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine and an exhibition of avant-garde artists Futuromarennia: Ukraine and Avant-Garde toured Europe.

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