Завдання № 1

Read and translate orally the chapters of the book on Ukraine: “Artistic Traditions of Ukraine”. Write out the meanings of the following words from the dictionary and memorize them:

to survive

to render

to emerge

to deprive

to depict

to suppress

to aspire

to flourish

noble

trend

scenery

impact

successor

failure

restraint

mural

medieval

turbulent

rural

brief

Завдання № 2

Match the years with the events, as shown below, and translate each sentence in a written form:

1899 – The world came to know about the Tripillya culture.

1870 –

1917-1922 –

1920s –

1930 –

20th century –

Завдання № 3

Put the verbs in brackets into Past Simple, Present Perfect or Past Perfect (Active or Passive):

1. During the relatively liberal period of the 1920s V. Yermilov in Kharkiv (to produce) cubo-futurist paintings.

2. Changes brought by glasnost and perestroika (to result) in greater creative freedom.

3. A good number of Ukrainian painters (to immigrate) to the West still before the Second World War and after it.

4. The classical type of painting (to cultivate) by the Academy of Arts.

5. Frescoes of the 11^th c. (to find) in Kyiv and Chernihiv.

Завдання № 4

Answer the following questions on the text:

1. What are the oldest surviving paintings in Ukraine?

2. Where have the frescoes from the medieval Rus been found?

3. What style of painting began to develop in the 17th c.?

4. What did T. Shevchenko paint?

5. Who were landscape painters of the 19th century?

6. What artistic society were Ukrainian painters influenced in the last decades of the 19th century?

7. Who of Ukrainian artists represented impressionism?

8. What styles emerged and flourished in Ukraine in the 20th century?

9. When was the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts established?

10. What changes have last years brought to Ukrainian art and its representatives?

Завдання № 5

Translate in written form marked in the text passages:

ARTISTIC TRADITIONS OF UKRAINE

In Ukraine the oldest surviving paintings are the frescoes and mural found at archeological sites of ancient Hellenic colonies on the northern Black Sea coast, where they were preserved on the walls of tombs.

Fragments of frescoes from the medieval Rus period have been found in the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv (late 10^th century), the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Chernihiv (11^th century), and the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv (early 11^th century). In style these 11^th-century frescoes are similar to those of the middle period of Byzantine art. The frescoes in the Church of Cyril’s Monastery in Kyiv (mid-12^th century) are more realistic and display Balkan influences.

According to the Primary Chronicle portable icons were already being painted in the 10^th and 11^th centuries, but none so old have survived to our time. The oldest extant icon from Kyiv, The Vyshhorod (Vladimir) Mother of God (12^th century), which was of Greek origin, is now in the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow. Examples of medieval Ukrainian painting can also be found in illuminated manuscripts.

Only a few paintings (mostly in Western Ukraine) survived the turbulent years of the 13^th century Mongol invasion – the frescoes in the rotunda chapel in Horiany, in Transcarpathia, and in the Armenian Cathedral in Lviv, built in 1363. Two of the better-known surviving icons are St. George from Stanylia and the Mother of God from Lutsk (late 13^th to early 14^th century), both rendered in the Byzantine-Ukrainian tradition of icon painting.

In Ukraine portrait painting as a separate genre emerged during the Renaissance (16^th century) and was strongly influenced by the icon tradition. The first portraits were those of benefactors which were hung in churches. Portraits not used for religious purposes did not emerge until the 17^th century. They included official portrayals of nobles and Cossack hetmans and officers, as well as more intimate portraits of nobles and burghers.

Many Ukrainian painters were attracted to the newly established Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (1757), which cultivated the classicist style of painting then popular in Europe. Better-known Ukrainian artists who pursued their careers at the academy and contributed significantly to the development of art in Russia were A. L

osenko, K. Holovachevsky, I. Sablukov, D. Levytsky and V. Borovykovsky.

The emigration of the Ukrainian artists to St. Petersburg deprived Ukrainian painting of its most creative talents. The exception was Shevchenko, who devoted most of his painting (like his writing) to Ukrainian interests and has been considered the father of modern Ukrainian painting. Shevchenko painted numerous portraits, self- portraits, and landscapes which recorded the architectural monuments of Ukraine.

During the 19^th century landscape painting appeared as a separate genre, and not only in the work of Shevchenko. Inspired by romanticism, I. Soshenko recorded the pastoral settings of rural scenery, and A. Kuindzhi, I. Aivazovsky, S. Vasylkivsky, I. Pokhytonov, and S. Svotoslavsky devoted their efforts to depiciting rural scenery at its most beautiful.

In the last few decades of the 19^th century Ukrainian painters studying art in Russia were influenced by the Peredvizhniki society, formed in 1870 in St. Petersburg by artists who were opposed to the classicist traditions of the Academy of Arts. Artists of Ukrainian origin who became active in the society were I. Repin, N. Ge, I. Kramskoi, A. Kuindzhi, I. Murashko, P. Nilus, L. Pozen, M. Pymonenko, and S. Svitoslavsky. Many other artists were influenced by its ideas to paint realistic genre pictures.

Impressionism made itself felt in the work of several Kyiv artists who had worked in Paris, including Shevchenko, A. Manevich, M. Burachek, O. Murashko, and the exceptionally versatile V. Krychevsky.

The early 20^th-century avant-garde movement had a direct impact on Ukrainian painting. Artists born in Ukraine, as well as those who considered themselves Ukrainian by nationality were in its vanguard. The most prominent of them were K. Malevich, D. and V. Burliuk, A. Ekster, L. Baranoff-Rossine, and V. Tatlin. Ekster introduced futurism to Kyiv and helped bring avant-garde exhibitions to Ukraine.

During the brief period of Ukrainian independence the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts (1917-22) was established in Kyiv. It and its successor, the Kyiv State Art Institute, made it possible for Ukrainian painters to pursue advanced art training in their homeland. V. Krychevsky was its first rector, and one of the most influential teachers was M. Boichuk, who revived fresco painting and aspired to develop an art for the masses based on a combination of Ukrainian traditions and Western models instead of the Peredvizhniki. Subsequently Boichuk and his followers (the ‘Boichukists’) were victims of the Stalinist terror of the 1930s.

During the relatively liberal period of the 1920s in Soviet Ukraine, a variety of styles flourished. Cubo-futurist paintings were produced by V. Yermilov in Kharkiv and O. Bohomazov, V. Palmov, and A. Petrytsky in Kyiv. V. Meller and K. Sikorsky experimented with abstraction; Yu. Mykhailiv, who was fascinated with mythology, continued the traditions of the symbolists.

In the 1930s all avant-garde activities in Soviet Ukraine came to a halt with the introduction of socialist realism as the only literary and artistic method permitted by the communist regime. Painting was limited to thematic canvases of the Bolshevik Revolution and its champions, glorification of the Soviet State and its leaders, portraits and genre scenes of happy workers and peasants, and romanticized depictions of war and its heroes. Landscapes and still-life compositions were discouraged.

The narrow confines of socialist realism were widened somewhat after the death of I. Stalin, particularly during N. Khrushchev’s cultural thaw. Artists such as R. Selsky, M. Selska, V. Manastyrsky, T. Yablonska, and V. Zaretsky turned to Ukrainian folk themes.

Changes brought about by glasnost and perestroika resulted in greater creative freedom and a proliferation of styles and manners of depiction. Artists whose work had been suppressed (O. Zalyvakha, A. Antoniuk, O. Dubovyk, I. Marchuk, F. Humeniuk) had solo exhibitions. Many painters showed great inventiveness, including P. Hulyn from Uzhhorod, R. Romanyshyn and R. Zhuk from Lviv, M. Popov from Kharkiv, O. Tkachenko from Dnipropetrovsk, O. Nedoshytko and L. Diulfan from Odessa, and F. Tetianych, T. Silvashi, V. Budnykov, Ye. Hordiits, M. Heiko, B. Plaksii, and O. Babak from Kyiv. After decades of restraint and isolation artists in Ukraine are now free to continue the development of various artistic traditions and have prospects of rejoining the international artistic mainstream.