How traditions of boichukism were embodied in ceramics and book graphics
Vasyl SEDLIAR was born on April 12, 1899 in the village of Zhorzhivka (Khrystynivka) in Poltava region. Later the family moved to the city of Liubech in Chernihiv region. The love of art led the boy to the Kyiv Art College, where he studied during the tempestuous time from 1916 through 1919. In February of 1919 he was appointed to the studio of professor Mykhailo Boichuk in Ukrainian Academy of Arts. In the first year of studies Sedliar participated in painting of Lutsk barracks in Kyiv. The themes of the paintings made with the use of glue paints were “motives of labor and life of workers and peasants,” in which artists used artistic techniques typical for Ukrainian Baroque painting, often imitating compositions of folk paintings and icons of the 17th and 18th centuries. The artist also participated in experimental paintings on the walls in classrooms at the Institute of Plastic Arts. “He was a young, bold, and tenacious man and he painted easily and quickly,” this is how Oksana Pavlenko, Sedliar’s classmate, characterized him. As a student, he was recommended for teaching. “In January of 1921 he was appointed by the Council of the Academy an instructor of demonstration courses in art for workers, adults, and children,” Sedliar wrote in his autobiography dated 1923.
After completing his studies, in the period from 1923 to 1930 Sedliar was appointed director of the Mezhyhiria Ceramic College, where fellow boichukists Oksana Pavlenko and Ivan Padalka were teaching at that time. Here they continued to develop the traditions of the school of monumental painting, creating frescoes on the walls of the school’s hall. However, unlike other boichukists, who worked with monumental and easel painting, easel and book graphics, Sedliar focused on the art of ceramics “embodying the principles of boichukism in preparing students of ceramics art.” Works of students from Mezhyhiria – “propaganda porcelain” was presented at European exhibitions, where it was noted that “the decorating technique was at the level of Western modern art, still having some local features.”
“Sedliar once was lucky to go on a business trip abroad.” With the assistance of Ivan Vrona, who was at that time the rector of Kyiv Art Institute (KAI), from the late 1926 until early 1927 he had a chance together with fellow artists Mykhailo Boichuk and Ivan Padalka to visit museums and art galleries in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, spending entire days in the Louvre and other world’s museums. The impressions from this trip resulted in a series of drawings “Europe,” which had a great success at the exhibition held by ARMU (Association of Revolutionary Art of Ukraine) in Kyiv in 1928 and at the exhibition of Ukrainian prints and drawings in Moscow in 1929. However, there were certain people who did not like his art works and soon first critical articles about Sedliar with remarks about turning to French style and manner appeared in Ukrainian press. Perhaps, even then the party leadership wanted to gather all the “dissident” artists in one place and, therefore, in 1930 Sedliar was sent from Mezhyhiria back to Kyiv for a teaching job in KAI.
In 1931 Kobzar by Taras Shevchenko fully illustrated by Sedliar was printed. In those black-and-white drawings the artist retains the flatness of a sheet of paper, just like boichukists retained the flatness of the wall in their murals. The dynamism of the composition and expressive sharpness of images with spatial constraints of a sheet give the illustrated book a special emotional significance.
However, the artist was aware of that his work will receive not only positive reviews: “There are different reactions to my Kobzar here in Kharkiv: some are impressed and others are strongly hostile.” Then the artist together with his publisher decided to prepare another edition, this one with color illustrations. “These Kobzars will be sold abroad.”
However, after the suicide of Mykola Skrypnyk, when Pavlo Postyshev was appointed the head of the Ukrainian government, there began cynical and brutal destruction of Ukrainian culture. The book, which was reprinted in 1933 in ten thousand copies, was banned and destroyed in a printing house. The publishers of the rebellious Kobzar were repressed by the “critics in civil clothes”: editor Oleksandr Her (pseudonym of the art critic Volodymyr Vaisblat) and compiler Mykhailo Novytsky were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, the author of the foreword Andrii Richytsky (pseudonym of the literary critic Anatolii Pisotsky) and the author of the French epilogue Ivan Myronets were executed by NKVD. Kobzar published in 1931 was also repressed: censors confiscated it from libraries and book stores and tore it into pieces during searches and arrests. Thus, the editions of Kobzar published in 1931 and 1933 with illustrations by Sedliar became dangerous rarity. (Since then, three generations of Ukrainians were not even aware of the existence of this rare edition – the two-volume Shevchenko’s Dictionary, which was published in 1976, did not mention a word about it.)
Political campaign “to identify the enemies of the people” resulted in that the artist, who could not withstand ideological pressure, began to change his style, enhancing the features of easel painting and images of social realism. However, this did not save the artist from execution. He was arrested in Kharkiv House of Writers “Slovo” on November 26, 1936 – the same day that Boichuk was arrested. Sedliar was accused of “involvement in national-fascist organization” and was put in the NKVD prison.
Ivan PADALKA was born on October 27, 1894 in the village of Zhornokliovy in Cherkasy region. When he was thirteen he entered the Nekhaikivsk Two-year College. There he showed his talent for painting and in 1910 he was recommended by landlord-patron Lisanevych for training in Mykola Hohol Art and Industrial School in Myrhorod. Later he was expelled from there for “revolutionary activities.” In fall of 1913 he moved to Kyiv, where he continued his artistic education at the Art School, which was noted for its “academic principles.” His teacher was professor Ihor Selezniov. Oksana Pavlenko told: “We became friends with Ivan Padalka in art school. He was a year ahead of me and tried to be really helpful. Padalka was also a nice-looking young man: he had long light hair, and always had a flower stuck behind his ear. He also had the same flower on his sandals. In such outfit he would walk along the streets of Kyiv and made the city residents angry.”
After graduating from the Art School in December of 1917 Padalka entered the newly established Academy of Art and became one of the earliest and most devoted students of Professor Boichuk. The brilliant erudition of the master, knowledge of old and forgotten techniques of tempera painting, the ability to comprehensively analyze and disclose the “secrets” of masterpieces from different countries and different areas – all of that impressed the students of the “icons and frescoes” studio, and later the studio of “monumental art.” Padalka was engaged in painting Lutsk barracks in Kyiv in 1919, where he created the image of peasant family returning from mowing. The painting, saturated with fine lyrical feeling, was distinguished for balanced proportions, obvious knowledge of anatomy and laws of composition.
In October 1922 Padalka among the first and the only graduation class of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts received a diploma and was sent to Myrhorod and then to Mezhyhiria Ceramic Technical College, where fellow boichukists had already been working. There the artist created a series of works of agitation porcelain called I am a Proletarian Mamai (1925), which was distinguished for high graphic culture.
In January 1925 following the order of People’s Commissar of Education Padalka was transferred to Kharkiv Art College. This was the place where Padalka implemented the principles of boichukism in teaching students easel and book graphics. After becoming a member of ARMU in 1925 he took part in the All-Ukrainian Exhibition of ARMU and All-Ukrainian Anniversary Exhibition (1927-28), where art critics noted his graphic sheets Bearing Comrade, Apple, Partisans, Makhno Soldiers (1927). The success, that Padalka’s works had at the exhibition, resulted in recognition of his outstanding creative personality. However, it did not last for very long.
In late 1933 Plenum of the Organizing Bureau of the USSR Union of Artists and Sculptors took place, where Boichuk and his school were subjected to severe criticism and the artistic method of boichukism was denounces as equal to formalism and nationalism.
At that time grand monumental and decorative design works began in the newly built Chervonozavodsk Theater designed by the architect Valentyn Pushkariov (1933-35). Students of Professor Boichuk, recognized masters of monumental painting Sedliar, Padalka, Pavlenko, Hvozdyk, Yunak, and others took an active part in this work. While working on sketches of frescoes, Padalka had to move to Kyiv because party leadership decided to enlarge professorial staff of Kyiv Art Institute with teachers from Kharkiv and Odesa. The move had a negative impact of the work of the artist, labels of “boichukism” and “formalism,” which at that time in Kyiv were identified with “nationalism” and were considered to be “the greatest evil that hinders the development of the Ukrainian Soviet art,” created great obstacles. “Political compromise” in the compositions of the paintings on Chervonozavodsk Theater did not help. Later, all the frescoes “were brushed away with carborundum.”
Padalka, first of all the boichukist artists, was arrested as an “active member of nationalist, fascist and terrorist organization that had a goal of excluding Ukraine from the Soviet Union and restoring of capitalism” in September of 1936.
