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ART EXHIBIT: "UKRAINIAN ART THROUGH AMERICAN EYES"
Art Collection of Grace Kennan Warnecke and Carlos Pascual on view in New York through April 25, 2004
  

The Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA), New York, NY, March, 2004

The Ukrainian Institute of America is pleased to present "Ukrainian Art through American Eyes", an exhibit featuring art from the collections of Grace Kennan Warnecke and former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pascual. The exhibition will be on view through April 25, 2004.

The exhibit feature work of 22 painters, ranging by style from realistic, impressionistic to abstract and naif. Among others the exhibit features art of such well-known Ukrainian artists as Tatyana Yablonska (Yablonskaya) and Mikola Hlushchenko. Paintings from both of the collections were acquired between 1998 and 2003.

Mykola Hlustschenko
"Still Life with Wood Grouse", 1974
oil, canvas
(Click on images to enlarge them)

The idea for the present exhibition came from Ms. Warnecke. The first paintings she purchased in Kyiv were in response to the blank walls of her apartment and office. "One day I realized that I was building a collection," she recalls. After that, the idea of having a show of Ukrainian Art in the USA for the American viewer became more and more important to her. When she approached the Ukrainian Institute with the proposition to organize this show, the institute immediately agreed to host the exhibit.

The Ukrainian Institute of America Inc. is a nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to showcase and support Ukrainian culture with an emphasis on visual arts and music. The Institute was founded more than fifty years ago by William Dzus, a prominent Ukrainian inventor, industrialist and philanthropist.

"We are thrilled by the opportunity to present this exhibit to the general public, says, Walter Hoydysh, the director of Ukrainian programs at the Ukrainian institute as well as the curator of the exhibit. "It is a wonderful opportunity to showcase Ukrainian paintings that were chosen by an American collector."

The work on exhibit includes social realism "Night shift at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant", 1973, by Mamsikov, depicting the glory of construction of the plant that opened in September, 1977, and brought to the world the worst lesson on nuclear reactor safety. We also see the wonderfully colored, compositionally elegant still life and landscape paintings by Mikola Hlushchenko, a legend of Ukrainian art who also became a chief designer of the USSR exhibits at international expos.

There is a touch of authenticity of Ukrainian spirit in primitive painting of Anastasia Rak, who after surviving great oppressions of Stalin's Famine of 1932 -1933 and Nazi labor camps of World War II was able to return to her native village where she brings optimism to everyday life with her joyous villagescapes reverse painting on glass. But above all the exhibit presents a great academic level of art.

 

A. S. Derbenev
"Vydubichi"
oil, panel

Vladyslav Mamsikov
"Installation Crane on Main Frame", 1973
tempera, cardboard

 

Anastasia Rak
"Harvest", 1998
reversed painting on glass

Olga Kryvenko
"Winter of Dreams No3", 1992
oil, canvas

 

Tatyana Yablonska
"By the Pier", 1947
oil, cardboard

Olga Krylova
"Winter Motif", 1973
oil, canvas

 

A total of 37 works are on view. A fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibit is available as well as a full preview on the UIA website  www.ukrainianinstitute.org/grace.html

UIA Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 2 to 6 pm; Address, 2 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021; Telephone: (212) 288-8660 Fax: (212) 288-2918.


NOTE: The  www.ArtUkraine.com  Information Service (ARTUIS) is pleased to have had the opportunity to know and work with Grace Kennan Warnecke while she lived in Kyiv and was assembling her art collection. We introduced her to the art of Anastasia Rak and Olga Krylova. It is super Grace's collection is now on exhibit in NYC. Morgan Williams, Publisher, ARTUIS.
 
 

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