In the Eye of the Storm

This comprehensive exhibition is the first presentation outside Ukraine to explore the development of modern art in the cultural centers of Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv during the first half of the 20th century. Modernism in Ukraine is revealed to be both international and avant-garde. From Jugendstil to Constructivism, the exhibition tells the tempestuous and fascinating history of cultural identity in Ukraine.

The Modernist movement in Ukraine unfolded against a complicated sociopolitical backdrop: the revolution in 1905, World War I, the collapse of the Russion Empire in 1917, the short-lived autonomy as the Ukrainian People’s Republic (1917–21), and the foundation of Soviet Ukraine. Despite the tumult, Ukrainian art, literature, theater, and film flourished. The Boichukists (бойчукісти), followers of the monumentalist Mykhailo Boichuk (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 Kazymyr Malevych (Казимир Малевич). All these developments were brutally halted by Stalinist repression in the 1930s.

Curated by Konstantin Akinsha and Katia Denysova together with Maryna Drobotiuk and Olena Kashuba-Volvach (both from the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv).
Assistant Curator: Miroslav Haľák (Belvedere)

Exhibition organised by Belvedere, Vienna, with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in partnership with the National Art Museum of Ukraine.

Initiated by Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, and supported by Museums for Ukraine, to protect the artworks from the risks of the current Russian invasion.