Traveling in the Boichukists’ footsteps

The “Boichukist Pleiad” exhibition presents documents, letters, and sketches done by Mykhailo Boichuk and his students. It marks the first time that this heritage is represented in such an all-encompassing manner, for only little data on the artists are available, and what there is, remains very scattered. It is a result of the Boichukism falling into disgrace of the Soviet regime in the late 1920s, which saw some artists, including the school’s founder, shot, and their works destroyed.

“We cannot discuss Boichuk apart from his school. He worked with his students, and some of their works are even signed ‘The Boichuk Workshop,’” Central State Archives Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine (TsDAMLM) research fellow Oksana Oliinyk told us. It was Boichuk’s students who preserved some of his heritage, especially sketches. The Soviets destroyed three landmark works of Boichuk: interior paintings in the Lutsk Barracks in Kyiv, frescoes in the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee Sanatorium in Odesa, and interior paintings of the Chervonozavodsky Theater in Kharkiv. Sketches and black-and-white photos of the frescoes are on display at the TsDAMLM.

The Boichukists’ characters are “Soviet people,” especially farmers. However, the artists faced accusations that they portrayed Red Army soldiers “wrongly,” making them look like apostles. “Contemporaries wrote that sanatoriums painted by the Boichukists were ‘as beautiful as churches.’ Therefore, the artists created some sort of sacred spaces,” Oliinyk remarked.

GIRLS BY ANTONINA IVANOVA / Photo illustration  by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day

Some members of the school escaped repression by fleeing to Moscow, as happened with artist Oksana Pavlenko. She talked to researchers in the 1960s and 1970s, becoming the main source of information about the Boichukists. Pavlenko’s letters which contain her memories of the school are of interest to researchers and have gone on display at the TsDAMLM. For instance, the artist wrote that Boichuk had been reluctant to take women students, due to his belief that eventually, they would marry and leave the art profession.

The Boichukists’ works are still in danger. As the TsDAMLM was preparing the exhibition, they got contacted by the Nova Kakhovka branch of the Cultural Heritage Protection Society. The activists sent photos of houses that were decorated by Boichuk’s follower Hryhorii Dovzhenko in the 1950s. Oliinyk told us that “developers want to demolish the old Dovzhenko-decorated buildings in the center of the town to make place for new construction. Representatives of the Society for the Protection of Cultural Heritage’s local branch seek to preserve these artworks and attract the community’s attention to the problem.”

The Boichukists impressed Europe at their time, as it called their style neo-Byzantine. Boichuk himself studied and worked in Poland, Germany, France, and some of his works and documents are kept there. The Boichukists were also an enormous influence on the Ukrainian art. Artworks by Boichuk and his students Vasyl Sedliar and Onufrii Biziukov are exhibited at the National Art Museum of Ukraine. The school’s ideas were echoed by the Sixtier artists, and they inspire students of Boichuk Kyiv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Art and Design today.

“We initially wanted to present works by Boichuk Institute students at the exhibition as well, but that idea did not come to fruition. These young artists are well-versed in the Boichukist heritage as they explore rhythms of monumental painting. Art critics are also interested in the Boichukists, but the personalities of these artists have not been promoted enough yet. We need to talk about the Boichukists, to promote their heritage. It was an original Ukrainian school with rich European traditions,” Oliinyk believes.

The “Boichukist Pleiad” exhibition will run until February 6.