Women Artists at the Schools of the Ukrainian Modernist Mykhailo Boichuk

This book tells the dramatic life stories of thirteen women artists who studied at the schools of the Ukrainian modernist Mykhailo Boichuk (1882-1937). Together, these stories provide insight into Ukraine’s only and important modern art movement “Boichukism”.

Boichuk implemented a national style of painting in Ukraine. His modern art movement became a central phenomenon of the Ukrainian cultural revival of the 1920s. It flourished when Ukraine was fighting for its independence (1917-1921) and the Soviet government promoted the Ukrainian language and culture with a “policy of Ukrainisation” (1922-1931), but failed tragically during Stalin’s regime of terror.

Boichuk and his students were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured or murdered because of their “formalist” style. Their art was destroyed and murals were painted over or scraped off.

Now that Ukraine is again fighting to preserve its cultural identity, it is once more vital, in the spirit of Boichuk, to give the country back its art, to honour it and to be proud of it.

This book aims to achieve this.

Karina Groot is a Slavist. She writes about modern artists.