On Saturday, 25 May, the PinchukArtCentre’s Research Platform will present book “Why There are Great Female Artists in Ukrainian Art”. The publication is one of the first attempts to tell the history of Ukrainian art through the gender optics, starting from late 19th to artistic explorations of the early 21st century. This history comprises hidden pages of biographies of Ukrainian art female figures where, along with prominent personalities, may be seen the names of those who were forgotten or little known to the larger public.
The book reveals how over time, possibilities for artistic manifestation of female and male artists have been changing, how obstacles on the path to the professional recognition were overcome and in what way the realization of the corporal experience in their work has been transforming. Especially valuable are the collected archival materials on the woman’s role and place in art.
The book comprises texts on Kateryna Bilokur, Oksana Chepelyk, Oleksandra Ekster, Ksenia Hnylytska, Tetyana Iliakhova, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alevtyna Kakhidze, Lesya Khomenko, Alina Kleytman, Marta Kuzma, Lada Nakonechna, Maria Prymachenko, Oksana Pavlenko, Vlada Ralko, Larysa Rezun-Zvezdochetova, Ada Rybachuk, Valeria Trubina, Yulia Ukader, Tetyana Yablonska, Anna Zvyagintseva and other.
Bjorn Geldhof, artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre: “This publication illustrates the path of female artists towards recognition, but it is not merely reduced to gender history. The subject of research in this book is examined through the prism of conceptualizing the corporal experience. The authors have attempted to embrace various facets of the experience of Ukrainian female artists of the last century. They have given the floor to those who have been made keep silent, and introduced in the due context practices of female artists who are speaking up now”.
The book has been shortlisted in this year’s competition for the best book design initiated by the Goethe-Institut Ukraine jointly with the International Book Arsenal Festival and the Chytomo culture and publication project.
