By Artist, V. Hulak, Kyiv
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20th Century Ukrainian Comic Postcards By Artist, V. Hulak (Text Based On An Article by Mykhailo Zabochen, Ukrainian Postcard Expert) Picture postcards at the beginning of the 20th Century created an art gallery for common people. Some postcards depicted real life, many real paintings, others real people. Some postcards showed the real interests and culture of people in a sort of folk art humor comic style. |
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HOP, KUM, DON'T GET UPSET, |
| One such artist was
V. Hulak. V. Hulak was an amateur artist who was praised by art critics.
V. Hulak of Kyiv is today almost a forgotten person. Unfortunately
we do not know if Hulak was his real name or not, we do not know the date of his birth, or anything about his family or education. His traces have been lost. |
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This
happened because under the Soviet totalitarian regime research on
Ukrainian graphics which were closely associated with folk culture,
with Ukrainians as a people and nation was prohibited. Almost all
paintings and drawings by artists who used to work for Ukrainian publishing
houses were considered nationalistic, and thus were branded as hostile
to the ruling ideology.
All the works by V. Hulak were devoted to the development of a truely unique Ukrainian style of illustrated postcards. The author of a catalog about V. Hulak postcards states that more than 350 postcards were published from this authors works. Some of them are simple drawings, some are in black and white and most of the postcards were printed in color. The subject of most of the V. Hulak postcards is humor. Especially popular among the people was a large set of postcards about Ukrainians. Also popular were two sets of 10 postcards each entitled, "Ten Commandments For Young Girls" and Ten Commandments for Bachelors". |
| From 1906 to 1908 V. Hulak collaborated with Kyiv periodical publications. His works were published in illustrated attachments to the newspapers: "Kievskaya Zhizn" (Kyiv Life 1906), "Kievskaya Rech" (Kyiv Speech" 1906), "Kievskaya mysl" ("Kyiv Thought" 1907-1908). His drawings were also inserted in the satire magazine "Gvozd" ("Nail"). | |
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V. Hulak
was also an artist who supported democratic causes. During the Revolution
of 1905-1906 he created drawings that criticized the ruling government.
His response to the Czar's Manifest dated October 17, 1905, was to
create a set of postcards called "Basic Rights Of Civil Freedom". Comparing the different editions of this set of postcards it becomes clear that the different editions of the set underwent censorship four times (October 31, November 9, November 15, and November 17, 1905). These postcards were printed on thick paper using different colors such as light grey, olive, creme, yellow or pink. |
| V. Hulak, at the request of the photographer and publisher D. Markiv made 12 silhouette drawings for another set of satirical postcards based on everyday life. | |
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V. Hulak's postcards were published by Kyiv Publishing House "Rassvet" (Dawn) which belonged to Hordiyenko and famous Kyiv publisher and photographer D. Markiv. During World War I more than 150 hurrah!-patriotic postcards were published showing V. Hulak drawings. The majority of them were political cartoons about the enemies of Russia - Germans, Austrians and Turks. The artist was enthusiastic about announcing Ukraine's independence but then all traces of him were lost. Today, postcards by V. Hulak are eagerly sought after and collected. We admire these humorous folk art postcards and the patriotic masterpieces that help show us our history... |
) YOU MUST OBEY YOUR HUSBAND, BECAUSE I AM THE MASTER IN THE HUT! |
| (ArtUkraine is showing over 90 of V.Hulak's comic postcards which show all of the different styles and sets by this artist.) (Private Collection) | |
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