On 10 September, an exhibition of modern and contemporary art from Ukraine, entitled "Kaleidoscope of Stories. Ukrainian Art 1912-2023,‘ which features one work from our collection, namely ’Maria" by David Chichkan. We promised to tell you more about it, and we will do so right now, but first, let's talk about the exhibition project itself.
In early May, the Albertinum Museum of the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) presented an exhibition featuring works by around 50 Ukrainian artists from a wide variety of artistic fields, including painting, sculpture, photography, video installation, graphic art, and personal archives. Alongside new works by contemporary artists, some historical pieces are travelling abroad for the first time.
This is the first project of its kind in Germany: the exhibition has been assembled from private collections and museums such as the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Odessa Art Museum, the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art, the Stedley Art Foundation, the Maria Pryimachenko Family Foundation, the Dovzhenko Centre and the Museum of Contemporary Art NGO. The exhibition is also complemented by exhibits from the Art Collection Telekom and the Art Library of the German Bundestag.
The works on display give an insight into Ukraine's turbulent past and present. Among them is David Chichkan's ‘Maria’ from the series ‘During the War’ (2016), from the Artsvit Gallery collection.
This work was created during his residency at Artsvit in March 2016. David worked for a month within the walls of the gallery, which was closed to visitors during this period. The author himself, David Chichkan, will tell us what the painting is about and who this Maria is:
"Maria Nikiforova is a Ukrainian anarchist, revolutionary, partisan, and ataman, whose life was oversaturated with enemies and events. Maria went from being a Socialist Revolutionary to an anarchist, escaped from prison, travelled to Japan, the United States, England, France, Switzerland, and almost everywhere else, participating in left-wing socialist and anarchist movements. She fought on the side of France in World War I, studied sculpture very successfully under Rodin, returned to Ukraine and, after a brief collaboration with the Bolsheviks, realised that they were red fascists and became their opponent: She collaborated with Nestor Makhno, organised an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Lenin and Denikin, travelled with her husband to the White Guard Crimea to organise an uprising against the White Imperialists, and was captured and hanged along with her husband. Before her death, she said, as was fashionable among executed anarchists at the time, ‘Glory to Anarchy.’ Maria is depicted surrounded by the men she killed — Austrian-German imperialists, as well as White and Red Russian imperialists.
However, like many other works, it is better to see ‘Maria’ with your own eyes, so if you happen to be in Dresden right now, we urge you to visit this exhibition. The closing date is 10 September, so hurry up!
Curators of the project ‘Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023’: Tetiana Kochubinska and Maria Isserlis
Photos: Iona Dutz, Copyright © SKD, Igor Tyshenko ©
Courtesy National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU)
