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By Daniel MacIsaac, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, May 22, 2003
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Half a century after his death, Vasyl Krychevsky is coming home.
Or, to be more precise, the work of the multi-talented artist and academic
who left the Soviet Union for France and then Venezuela, who made a new life
for himself and his family in Caracas and who died there at the age of 81 in
1952, is being returned to Ukraine.
“We are confident that now these works, which have been a treasure for us,
will at last be studied by experts who understand how these can help
strengthen the identity of the Ukrainian people and help construct a bridge
between the past and the future,” Krychevsky’s granddaughter Oksana Linde de
Ochoa read in halting Ukrainian at a presentation at Ukraine House on May
12. The ceremony marked the return of the collection to Kyiv.
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Oksana Linde de Ochoa, granddaughter of Ukrainian artist Vasyl Krychevsky, far right, waits her turn to speak as Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk opens the May 12 presentation marking the return of Krychevsky’s collection to Ukraine from Venezuela
Andry Porokhnenko
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The collection is comprised of some 300 Krychevsky pieces from the family
archive, including oil paintings and watercolors, sketch-designs for such
buildings as the City Council in Poltava and the Shevchenko Memorial Museum
in Kaniv as well as graphics, patterns and drawings. Many examples graced
the walls and display cases of Ukraine House, showing soft, romantic
landscapes of Crimea painted by the artist in the 1920s, and river scenes of
the Dnipro from the 1930s and ‘40s, rendered in pastel blues, greens and
pinks.
A dream come true
In making her first trip to Ukraine, Linde de Ochoa was fulfilling the wish
of her mother, Halyna Krychevska Linde, who was Krychevsky’s daughter, an
artist herself, and a woman who dreamt of returning her father’s works to
his native Ukraine.
Following the one-day exhibition in Kyiv, attended by such cultural and
political luminaries as Culture Fund director Borys Olynik and Deputy Prime
Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, Linde de Ochoa went on to co-host presentations
in Poltava and Kharkiv – cities also connected with Krychevsky.
“I’m looking forward to visiting all the places in Kyiv where my grandfather
lived and worked,” she said. “Then I want to go to Crimea, because looking
at his paintings, I know I would like that place, too.”
‘From Caracas to Ukraine’
Both Linde de Ochoa’s trip and the return of the Krychevsky collection was
made possible through the patronage of several parties, including Michael
Bleyzer, an American citizen originally from Kharkiv and president and CEO
of SigmaBleyzer financial management, and his wife Natasha. After meeting in
the United States in the winter of 2001, the three helped initiate plans to
bring the collection to Ukraine. And once everything was finalized earlier
this month, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington also hosted an exhibition
called “From Caracas to Ukraine” before the party and the collection made
the trip to Ukraine.
“I feel wonderful,” Bleyzer said following the May 12 presentation. “I think
it’s an incredible accomplishment and I hope it’s the start of something
bigger than this event; the beginning of the return of Ukrainian history and
Ukrainian culture to Ukraine – all those things without which this country
has no future.”
How the Krychevsky collection will be divided up among the museums of
central and northeastern Ukraine remains to be seen, however. The family has
requested that the collection be distributed among institutions in the
cities and towns in which he worked, and a Culture Ministry commission is
currently studying the problem. An unofficial plan would see the collection
of 298 pieces quite evenly divided among the Kharkiv Art Museum, the
Shevchenko National Reserve in Kaniv, the State Museum of Books and Book
Publishing of Ukraine, the State Museum of Theater, Music and Cinematic Arts
of Ukraine, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Poltava Local Lore
Museum (the former City Council), the Museum of Cultural Heritage in Kyiv
and the Art Museum in Lebedina.
Mission accomplished
Bleyzer stressed that it’s an accomplishment that there’s even a Krychevsky
collection to return to Ukraine at all. He referred to the artist having
lost most of his collection first in a house fire in Kyiv toward the end of
World War I and then later having much of it confiscated by the Soviet
authorities and customs officials when the family left Ukraine in 1943.
The artist had to recreate it and expand on it each time.
“And so Krychevsky started again in Paris and he started again in Caracas,”
Bleyzer said. “A lot of the artwork you see is Ukrainian but was portrayed
in Venezuela, and so for many specialists this is an incredible event
because his collection is a blend of South American culture and South
American art with Ukrainian memories; an incredible phenomenon.”
The experts agree.
“Critics already value Krychevsky’s work highly,” said Anatoly Melnyk,
director of the National Art Museum of Ukraine. “It’s really very good and
very important for Ukraine that Ukrainian art be in our country.”
As for now, Melnyk just has to wait and see what part of the collection NAMU
will receive, and enjoy.
[Editor: Oksana Linde de Ochoa contacted Morgan Williams, publisher of
the www.ArtUkraine.com website, in the fall of 2000 about the interest of
her family in donating some historic items to Ukraine. ArtUkraine.com
worked with Oksana and developed some material which was posted on
our site.
Oksana then made a trip to Washington, D.C. to discuss further the interest
of her family. During that trip Morgan Williams introduced Oksana to
Natasha Bleyzer of Huston, Texas, who is originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Oksana and Natasha then continued to work together to develop and
implement the extensive plans where were carried out in May of 2003,
including a showing at the Ukraine Embassy in Washington, completion
of all the necessary documents and then three showing in Ukraine, at
Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv. The plans were carried out with the
support of Natasha's husband, Michael, and their investment company,
SigmaBleyzer.]
For personal and academic use only.
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