"Young Women"

2001-2002, canvas, oil90 x 170 cm

Vira works in the field of easel painting. Having inherited the realistic traditions of the national school of fine arts as the main fundamentals of her creative work, she developed an original manner of artistic expression, vividly marked by cultural and psychological features of the Ukrainian mentality. The main theme of her artwork is the peasant life in its various manifestations, the works are imbued with the idea of the invincible genetic memory of the people.

About the artist

Vira Barynova-Kuleba (b. 1938) – Ukrainian painter, Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1967), Honoured Artist (since 1989), Chevalier of the Order of Princess Olga of the III degree (2008), People's Artist of Ukraine (2009), and a Member of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine (since 2006).
The ability to notice beauty in everyday things she inherited from her mother. The first ‘workshop’ for Vira was drawing with chalk on the stove chimneys in the village. The real pencil she received only when she started school, in those times it was a precious treasure.
“I had a chance to travel around the world. I was fond of the art of the USA, France, Germany, Italy. But the more you see foreign art, the more you appreciate your own. No matter how much I study the works of genius artists Rembrandt and Titian, I will always remain myself, with what is inherent in me from our nature, our land, our parents.” – Vira Barynova-Kuleba
Her works are kept in the permanent collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, as well as in numerous museums, galleries and private collections in Ukraine, the USA, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, the UK and other countries. As early, as 1989, the artist’s works were represented at the “Christie’s” and “Sotheby’s” auctions in London, UK.