There is Still Beauty: Ukrainian Art
"Sketch for Mosaique" (1960), by Ukranian artist Alla Horska
Alfred North Whitehead wrote about beauty in Adventure of Ideas. Art is a human creation sometimes aiming at beauty and intended to communicate by provoking feeling. The best art expresses both truth and beauty. Beauty comes from harmony but the subjectivity of our feelings towards beauty is part of the experience.
As the Ukraine is struggling to maintain it's sovereignty, many are lifting up Ukrainian art. Below we are sharing Ukrainian art, in hopes that it evokes feelings for you.
Something creative will grow out of the struggle of the Ukrainian people. There will be art inspired by tragedy that evokes feelings and tells stories. Not all beautiful things are comfortable or pleasing. Sometimes what we recognize in the patterns are painful yet familiar as part of this human experience. That is what Whitehead understood about beauty. One can imagine that the more recent art coming out of the Ukraine will be tragically beautiful.
“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.”
—Alfred North Whitehead
Maria Prymachenko (1909 – 1997)
“Our Army, Our Protectors” (1978)
Invading Russian forces destroyed a museum in Ivankiv, a city northwest of the capital Kyiv, that was home to dozens of works by the Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko on February 26, 2022.
Appearance is beautiful when the qualitative objects which compose it are interwoven in patterned contrasts, so that the prehensions of the whole of its parts produces the fullest harmony of mutual support. ~ Alred North Whitehead
Mikhail Dejak (b. 1984)
Denis Sarazhin (b. 1982)
Olesya Hudyma (b. 1980)
"Birth of the Flowers" (2015)
In researching this artist, we found that she sells her paintings Etsy. Here "Angel of Peace" is for sale, but she has temporarily paused her sales. Many Ukrainian artists are unable to ship their art due to the Russian invasion.
"Angel of Peace for Ukraine" (2015)
Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861)
"Portrait of Vasiliy Zhukovskiy" (1837)
"Bust of a Woman" (1830)
