“If we lose our culture, we lose our identity,” Lilya Onyshchenko
Ukrainian artist, Maria Pryimachenko work was appropriated as a symbol of hope.
A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace by Maria Pryimachenko
A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace, 1982, Media: gouache, fluorescent paint, paper
[In this painting], which has become a strong symbol against the current war in Ukraine and the destruction and violence perpetrated by Russian forces, a white dove spreads its wings against a yellow background filled with flowers. Calling for an end to the war waged on Ukraine, this image was recently recreated as a street mural in St. Louis, Missouri, and in San Francisco, accompanied by the text “Stop the war on Ukraine”, and projected onto the side of a building in Oakland, California. (artland)
See
The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has come at a price for the country’s beloved art by Maria Prymachenko whose work is tied to Ukraine’s rich cultural history. When a museum housing her work was burned in an attack, reports claim that a brave citizen went in to save them.
"One heroic man managed to take the paintings away from the fire," said lawyer Natalia Gnatiuk, one of the foundation's partners, via phone from western Ukraine, where she has sought refuge. "There are 14 of them, but they are still not safe." (Two ceramic works are believed to have been destroyed, however.) (CNN)
Protesters in San Francisco recreate A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace by the Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA
Notice the similar lines, motifs, and color palette in Prymachenko’s paintings.
“Our Army, Our Protectors” by Maria Pryimachenko, 1978, Naïve Art (Primitivism), Symbolic painting
“Ukrainian Bull, Three Years Old, Went Walking Through the Woods and Garners Strength” by Maria Pryimachenko, 1983, Naïve Art (Primitivism), Animal painting
“A Coward Went A-Hunting” (1983), gouache and paper, 61.2 x 85.7 centimeters
“Red Poppies” (1982), gouache and paper, 85.7 x 61.4 centimeters
Say
In war, culture is a second front. At their most extreme, wars are about eradicating a people’s cultural memory altogether, wiping them from the slate as if they had never been. (Gaurdian)
Do you feel that art conveys cultural memory?
How is your cultural identity defined by visual art, music, dance?
Do you think the protestor’s use of Prymachenko’s, “A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace” sends a powerful message to the world? How? Why?
Do
Imagine taking the time to work with others to create a large-scale reproduction of artwork for peace. How would it feel? Who would you want to work with? Can you think of a cause you would take part in?
Prymachenko’s piece is ‘free use’. Take some time re-creating all or a part of this piece for yourself. Notice the colors, lines, and message. What did you learn of her as an artist from replicating her work?
About Maria Pryimachenko
Mariya Prymachenko, Ukrainian (1909-1987) self-taught artist whose popular work of the naive or primitivism genre portrayed Ukrainian folk art based on animal and plant life. Many of her masterpieces are included in a collection of folk art at the Ukrainian National Museum in Kyiv.
Mysterious and emotionally charged, her phantasmagorical work depicts age-old traditions of Ukrainian master-craftsmen, bringing forth their understanding of good and evil, of ugliness and beauty. Mariya Prymachenko’s art interprets fabulous mythological creatures and takes its roots in folk legends and fairy tales nourished bу the real life and culture of the Ukrainian реорlе. (euromaidanpress)
Picasso once said after visiting a Pryimachenko exhibition in Paris, “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.”
Though Pryimachenko has never studied art, her pictorial flair for bringing to life ideas, feelings and impressions gradually ripened into true mastery. Exhibitions of her works have proved tremendously popular in Moscow, Poland, Bulgaria, France, and Canada. (Shemakesarttoo)
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