Several artworks from our collection will be featured at the new exhibition “In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s” which opens at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum on 29 November 2022 and will run till 30 April 2023.

Borys Kosarev. Suprematist composition, 1921. Collage on cardboard, 22 x 21 cm

The exhibition presents the ground-breaking art produced in Ukraine in the first decades of the 20th century, showcasing trends that range from figurative art to futurism and constructivism. It reclaims this essential – though little-known in the West – chapter of European modernism, displaying around 70 works in a full range of media, from oil paintings and sketches to collages and theatre designs. Following a strict chronological order, the show presents works by masters of Ukrainian modernism, such as Oleksandr Bohomazov, Vasyl Yermilov, Viktor Palmov, and Anatol Petrytskyi.

Alexander Bogomazov, Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter, Yaroslava, 1928, oil on board, 59 x 59 cm

Exploring the polyphony of styles and identities, the exhibition includes neo-Byzantine paintings by the followers of Mykhailo Boichuk and experimental works by members of the Kultur Lige, who sought to promote their vision of contemporary Ukrainian and Yiddish art, respectively. It features pieces by Kazymyr Malevych and El Lissitzky, quintessential artists of the international avant-garde who worked in Ukraine and left a significant imprint on the development of the national art scene. The exhibition also showcases artworks of internationally renowned artists who were born and started their careers in Ukraine but became famous abroad, among them Alexandra Exter, Wladimir Baranoff-Rossiné, and Sonia Delaunay.