X. Artistic traditions in ukraine

When speaking about the development of art of painting in Ukraine one should remember that the early period referred to icon-painting, that began to develop in Kyivan Rus in the 10^th century.

Byzantine traditions were a model. Mosaic and frescos of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv is one of the most distinguished among the memorials of that period.

Portrait painting as a separate genre appeared during the Renaissance (16th century) and was strongly influenced by the icon tradition.

Many Ukrainian painters were attracted to the new Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1757), such as D. Levytskyi, K. Holovachevskyi, V. Borovykovskyi. Ukrainian art of the middle of the 19th century was closely connected with the name of T. Shevchenko, who devoted most of his painting to Ukrainian interests. Shevchenko painted numerous portraits, self-portraits and landscapes with many architectural monuments of Ukraine. Inspired by romanticism, I. Sochenko, A. Kuindzhi, I. Aivazovskyi, S. Vasylkivskyi and I. Pokhytonov devoted their efforts to depicting rural scenery at it most beautiful. At that time Ukraine was called East European Italy, artists from Russia and European countries visited Ukraine to enrich themselves with new themes and images.

Odesa art school and Kyiv drawing school occupied an important place at the beginning of the 20th, such artists as Mykola Murashku and Mykola Pymonenko, Mikhail Vrubel, Vasilii Vasnitsov and Illia Repin were prominent representatives of that time.

Ukrainian art of the turn of the 20th century could not avoid the influence of the leading European art trends — impressionism, avant-garde, constructivism, cubiform, futurism, abstraction, baroque.

Ukrainian art of Soviet period is represented by many talented painters as T. Yablonska, Y. Bokchai, O. Shovkunenko, R. Selskyi, S. Shyshko, V. Zaretstskyi and M. Pryimachenko, who became a unique phenomenon having no analogues in world art.

XI. Sport (Unit 8. Check Your Skills, p. 150)

Perhaps it is football (soccer) which can be considered as the most popular game in Ukraine. The lion's share of success in this kind of sports belongs to the club 'Dynamo' Kyiv that started its history in 1924. However, while speaking of Ukrainian football it would not be correct to mention only one team — there are a number of serious representatives on football arena. It is first of all 'Shakhtar' Donetsk and 'Dnipro' Dnipropetrovsk.

In 1994 Independent Ukraine sent its national team to the Olympic Games for the first time.

Many Ukrainian athletes are well known throughout the world now. Lilia Podkopaieva, Kateryna Serebrianska proved themselves as winners at world and European championships in calisthenics. Andrii Shevchenko, a Ukrainian soccer player, started his football career at Dynamo Kyiv and after his playing for several foreign teams came back to Dynamo again.

The Gold Fish of Ukraine is Yana Klochkova, the Olympic champion and four-time world champion Gymnast Valery Honcharov won the gold medal at the Olympics in Athens and a silver medal in Sydney in 2000. Yurii Bilonoh, a Ukrainian athlete showed excellent results in the shot-putting event at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, winning the gold medal. Vasyl Virastiuk holds the title of the Strongest Man on Earth. He has won several Strong Man world championships. One cannot help mentioning the legendary Klychko brothers, Vitalii and Volodymyr, heavy weight world champions, whose achievements have made them an example of courage and the will to win. The Olympic victories of Ukrainian athletes are quite impressive: 400 trophies, including 180 gold medals. These results say in favour of Ukraine — the country, which ranks with the world's 20 leading Olympic countries.