Beast of War. Naive Art from Ukraine | Natalka Husar, Janice Kulik Kiefer

"Beast of War. Naive Art from Ukraine" is a catalog for an exhibition currently on display at the open art museum in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

The discovery of Ukrainian naive art
Petro Honchar, director of the National Center for Contemporary Art "Ivan Honchar Museum", in the preface to the catalog expresses his joy that Switzerland has the opportunity to get acquainted with the most prominent names of Ukrainian "classical" naive art of the 20th century. Among them: Maria Prymachenko, Hryhoriy Ksyonz, Panas and Yakylyna Yarmolenko, Oleksandra and Hanna Shabatury, Kateryna Bilokur (her portrait by Oli Bilokur), Yakiv Yushchenko, Ivan Lysenko, Tetyana Pata and others. He hopes that the exhibition will reveal the main sources from which many Ukrainian naive artists grew, who often came from folk traditions - embroidery, wall painting, drawings on paper. Honchar especially appreciates and admires the charming anonymous works of masters from Poltava, Cherkasy, Sumy, Kharkiv, who did not sign their works, putting all their talent and soul into them.

Cultural heritage in times of war
Monika Jagfeld, director of the open art museum and co-curator of the exhibition (curator from RODOVID-Gallery is Lidiya Lykhach), in her opening remarks reflects on the importance of preserving artistic heritage and the destruction of museums during war. She emphasizes the duty of the international community to protect and preserve cultural heritage for future generations. Jagfeld calls Maria Prymachenko a current icon of Ukrainian art and notes that although Western Europe is increasingly discovering Ukrainian art, naive and brute remain terra incognita for it.

The exhibition "Beast of War. Naive Art from Ukraine" in St. Gallen aims to fill this gap in cultural awareness. It is the first exhibition of Ukrainian naive art in Switzerland, responding to the need for a better understanding of Ukrainian culture and society. Thanks to the temporary relocation of these artistic and cultural treasures from Ukraine, they will become visible, drawing public attention to the need to preserve and protect movable cultural heritage, especially Ukrainian. Although war is a catalyst for the preservation of values, the main focus of the exhibition is on the cultural identity and rootedness associated with these works of art. In the context of war, the exhibition "Beast of War" emphasizes the relevance and existential need for art that shapes identity.