About the exhibition project
«In the Eye of the Storm. Modernism in Ukraine 1900’s – 1930’s» – the name of the large-scale project that is the comprehensive display of Ukrainian Art from the beginning of the 20th century to be shown in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (Madrid, Spain).
The exhibition "In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s" presents ground-breaking art produced in Ukraine in the first decades of the 20th century, showcasing trends that range from figurative to abstract art. In the most comprehensive survey of Ukrainian modern art to date – with many works on loan from the National Art Museum of Ukraine and the Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema Arts of Ukraine, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum – the exhibition celebrates the dynamism and diversity of the artistic scene in Ukraine, while safeguarding the country’s heritage during the inadmissible, present-day occupation of parts of its territory by Russia.
The Ukrainian Institute presented an extensive film programme focusing on Ukrainian modernist cinematography. In addition, a comprehensive catalog was published in English. The curatorial group includes Dr. Konstantin Akinsha (USA/Italy), art critic and co-founder of the Foundation for the Study of the Avant-Garde, and Kateryna Denysova, PhD Candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
The development of Ukrainian modernism took place against a complicated socio-political backdrop of collapsing empires, the First World War, the revolutions of 1917 with the ensuing Ukrainian War of Independence (1917–21), and the eventual creation of Soviet Ukraine. The ruthless Stalinist repressions against Ukrainian intelligentsia led to the execution of dozens of writers, theater directors and artists, while the Holodomor, the man-made famine of 1932–33, killed millions of Ukrainians.
Despite these tragic circumstances, Ukrainian art of the period lived through a true renaissance of creative experimentation. "In the Eye of the Storm" reclaims this essential – though little-known in the West – chapter of European modernism, displaying around 70 works in a full range of media, from oil paintings and sketches to collages, and theater designs.
Following a chronological order, the show presents works by masters of Ukrainian modernism, such as Oleksandr Bohomazov, Vasyl Yermilov, Vadym Meller, Viktor Palmov, and Anatol Petrytskyi. Exploring the polyphony of styles and identities, the exhibition includes neo-Byzantine paintings by the followers of Mykhailo Boichuk and experimental works by members of the Kultur Lige, who sought to promote their vision of contemporary Ukrainian and Yiddish art, respectively.
It features pieces by Kazymyr Malevych and El Lissitzky, quintessential artists of the international avant-garde who worked in Ukraine and left a significant imprint on the development of the national art scene. The exhibition also showcases artworks of internationally renowned artists who were born and started their careers in Ukraine but became famous abroad, among them Olexandra Exter, Wladimir Baranoff-Rossiné, and Sonia Delaunay.
List of artists in the exhibition
Official opening ceremony
The catalogue of the exhibition
The presentation of the project
The main participants of the presentation
Institutional partners
About Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Ukrainian society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, and social organization which reflected the newly emerging industrial world, including features such as urbanization, architecture, new technologies, and war. Artists attempted to depart from traditional forms of art, which they considered outdated or obsolete.
Modernist innovations included abstract art, the stream-of-consciousness novel, montage cinema, atonal and twelve-tone music, and divisionist painting. Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism and made use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody.
Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists also rejected religious belief. A notable characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness concerning artistic and social traditions, which often led to experimentation with form, along with the use of techniques that drew attention to the processes and materials used in creating works of art.
Speakers of the presentation
Location