Delighted to have several of artworks from our collection to be features in the exhibition of modernist works from Ukraine, currently in Madrid, is an important act of cultural salvage. This exhibition of early-20th-century art from Ukraine was organised with unusual speed. Many of the works now at the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, for In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s, are from Kyiv museums and were in obvious danger. Plans for a project of this kind, however, had been maturing for a long time; Russia’s escalation of the war was only a catalyst. Konstantin Akinsha, one of the curators, had compiled most of the catalogue before finding a location for the exhibition; in his words, he “put the cart before the horse”.
