Folk art exhibit at The Ukrainian Museum continues the celebration of its new home (11/20/05)

Folk art exhibit at The Ukrainian Museum continues the celebration of its new home

by Marta Baczynsky

NEW YORK - The Ukrainian Museum will open its second inaugural exhibition "The Tree of Life, the Sun, the Goddess: Symbolic Motifs in Ukrainian Folk Art" on November 23. The exhibition continues the celebration marking the opening of the museum on East Sixth Street in New York City.

Drawn from the museum's extensive folk art collection, over 100 artifacts are included in the exhibition, which will be on view through September 2006. The curator of the show is Lubow Wolynetz, curator of the Museum's Folk Art collection.

The museum inaugurated its new facility in April this year with an exhibition of the works of Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Archipenko. The new museum building, funded by donations from the Ukrainian community nationwide, was designed by George Sawicki of SawickyTarella Architecture+Design, a New York-based architectural firm. The building includes spacious galleries, a state-of-the-art collections storage facility, a gallery/auditorium, a library and a gift shop.

The exhibition "The Tree of Life, the Sun, the Goddess: Symbolic Motifs in Ukrainian Folk Art" is designed by Natalie Fizer and Glenn Forley of Fizer Forley, a research and design office, located in New York City. Their work involves the exploration of the production of both architectural and cultural artifacts, which has resulted in numerous exhibitions throughout the country. In the exhibition at The Ukrainian Museum the design team has placed "the tree of life, the sun, and the goddess motifs found in the artifacts of everyday use within the larger temporal cycle of the agrarian calendar and the life span of birth to death."

The three motifs - the tree of life, the sun and the goddess - are most prevalent in various expressions of Ukrainian folk art. They can be found in the designs of embroidered and woven textiles, on ceramics, woodwork, metalwork, on pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) and in decorating holiday and ritual breads.

The curator of the exhibition Lubow Wolynetz, explained: "Although such designs are considered ornaments in our day, in ancient times, when they were conceived, they had deep cosmic, religious, magical and ritualistic significance. Each symbol represented something sacred and carried a message, transmitted information, revealed and communicated a mystery, or evoked and influenced man's actions."

The aim of the exhibition is not only to identify these motifs, but to explain their meaning, to examine why, how and where they were preserved through the ages, how their appearance was modified or changed, and their role in the contemporary Ukrainian experience. The exhibition will include discussions about the rituals and traditions in the folk culture where the imagery of these motifs was prominent and interpret their significance to the ceremonies and customs in which they played an important role.

The exhibition presented in the museum's spacious first-floor galleries features folk costumes, men's and women's embroidered shirts, kylyms, ritual cloths, woven belts, ceramic utensils, such as bowls and pitchers, leather belts, tools with metal decorations, carved wooden boxes and plates and pysanky. The artifacts on display are from various regions of Ukraine and date from the 19th to the early 20th century. A variety of holiday and ritual breads, such as the Easter "paska" and the "korovai" (wedding bread), incorporating the motifs, are shown as well.

The curator of the exhibition was assisted in this project by two consultants, Dr. Natalia Kononenko, professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Virginia, and Dr. Ludmyla Bulhakova, a folklorist and chief curator at the Museum of Ethnography in Lviv. Each contributed an essay to the bilingual (English and Ukrainian) illustrated catalogue that accompanies the exhibition. Each essay explores the subject of one motif.

According to Mrs. Wolynetz, the tree is a universal and ancient symbol in many cultures of the world, where it was venerated and identified by a specific name given by that culture. Ukrainians call their symbol of the tree - the tree of life.

"The image of the tree of life in Ukraine has been in continuous use since the Neolithic period, the age of Trypillian culture (5400-2700 B.C.)," explained the curator. "The ancient symbolic motif of the tree of life can be found in almost all aspects of Ukrainian folk art, especially in objects that still have ritual significance during seasonal holidays - like the "pysanka" (Easter egg), or in personal lives - the "rushnyk" (ritual cloth) and ritual breads, for example."

Dr. Bulhakova says that the meaning of the circle motif is solar, however, she explains that it was easy to trace a circle on wood, metal, stone and egg, but that in weaving and embroidery it is represented in "very precise geometric figures."

"In the textile arts, it is believed that the square/rhombus is the equivalent of the circle." She explains that such geometric ornamentation is well-known throughout areas that are distanced from each other. "The presence of identical motifs in the ornamentation of Asian, African and European nations and in Ukraine is not a coincidence, but rather the result of Ukraine's position along the path of the cultural migration that took place between Asia and Europe during prehistoric times."

Dr. Kononenko's essay is on the topic of the goddess figure in Ukrainian folk culture and her representation in the expressions of folk art. Dr. Kononenko explains that the role of women in Ukrainian culture has always been of great importance, both as mothers or creators of life, and in rituals that ensure its preservation and perpetuation. According to Dr. Kononenko, "Modern representations of the ancient goddesses are many and varied. In addition to the numerous contemporary rituals in which women serve as facilitators of birth and protectors of human, plant and animal fecundity, many folk art objects contain goddess images that draw on ancient Neolithic imagery."

As part of the exhibition, Yara Arts Group, a resident company at the world-renowned La MaMa Experimental Theater, will present a "frozen performance" by the Yara Arts Group that echoes the theme of the exhibition. Conceived by Virlana Tkacz and Watoku Ueno, with filmmaker Andrea Odezynska, photographer Alexander Khantaev and poet-translator Wanda Phipps, the art performance creates a glimpse into the "Koliada," traditional winter rituals in a Carpathian village. This art performance will open to the public on December 11 and will be on view through January 31, 2006. Short performances, vocal workshops and concerts of folk music will accompany this project.

The museum has published a bilingual (English and Ukrainian), illustrated exhibition catalogue to accompany the exhibition. The publication of the catalogue has been funded by Self Reliance (NY) Federal Credit Union.

The exhibition is sponsored by financial institutions, organizations and individuals in the Ukrainian community. This generous support ensures the museum's ability to fulfill its mission: to collect, preserve and exhibit objects of artistic, cultural or historic merit pertaining to Ukrainian life and culture.

In conjunction with the exhibition the museum offers guided and gallery tours for adults and children. Educational components associated with this exhibition and available to schoolchildren, students and families are supported, in part, by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The Ukrainian Museum is located at 222 E. Sixth Street (between Second and Third avenues, New York, NY 10003; telephone, (212) 228-0110; e-mail, [email protected]; fax, (212) 228-1947; web address, www.ukrainianmuseum.org. Museum hours are: Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults; $6 for seniors and students; free for children under 12. The museum's facilities are wheelchair accessible.

| Home Page |