Ukraine's 2005 Europa issue wins Narbut Prize
by Ingert Kuzych
The greatest number of voters this year for the Narbut Prize - reflecting Ukraine's best-designed stamp(s) of the previous year - chose their favorite not only with their eyes, but also with their stomachs. The winner was last year's Europa theme of gastronomy, and Ukraine's se-tenant depiction of its delicious beet soup - borshch.
The design on the two-stamp set depicts a colorful table spread: a bowl of the beet soup on the left (2.61 hrv value) and a covered, decorated serving dish on the right (3.52 hrv value). Spread before both dishes are the myriad ingredients that go into creating borsch. Helping to unite both stamps is the red-embroidered tablecloth, which underlies the entire scene (Figure 1).
In addition to the 200,000 se-tenant pairs of stamps that were printed, 15,000 booklets (each with two pairs of stamps) were also prepared. It is on the selvage of the booklets that the ingredients for a typical Ukrainian borsch are listed. They are: pork, red beets, cabbage, haricot (kidney beans), potatoes, carrots, parsley, onion, lard, garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, spices, dill, salt and sour cream.
In reality, there are dozens of ways that borshch can be prepared, and meat or meat broth is not even a requirement (although it can add considerably to the flavor). The ingredient that is common to all recipes, and which imparts the characteristic color, is the red beets. Once cooked, borshch can be served hot or cold.
The designer of the gastronomy stamps is Svitlana Bondar, who based her work on a photograph by Oleksander Kostiuchenko. They will receive Narbut Prize awards and share the $250 honorarium with a third person, Maria Heiko, who also participated in this issue by designing the Europa booklet.
Other major vote-getters
Once again this year, a record number of votes was received in the Narbut Prize balloting. The borshch stamps were preferred by almost 12 percent of the participants in the voting. The next three issues selected were very closely bunched.
Finishing in second place with 8 percent of the vote was a release from the ongoing "Treasures of Ukrainian Museums" series. This issue featured two of the priceless paintings from the National Museum in Lviv, flanking a label showing the façade of the museum (Figure 2). The left stamp depicts an early 14th century icon of the Archangel Michael by an unknown artist, while the portrait on the right is that of a "Dalmatian Woman" painted by Teophil Kopystynski in 1872.
In third place, garnering just under 8 percent of the ballots, was Ukraine's first commemorative stamp of 2005, which honored the Orange Revolution of November-December 2004 (Figure 3). This stamp was quickly prepared and released in January 2005 upon the inauguration of President Viktor Yushchenko.
Originally, I believed this stamp might take the Narbut Prize, but disillusionment with the president, one of the heroes of the Orange Revolution, has set in over the past year or so and likely a fair number of voters deliberately chose to overlook this issue.
Fourth place was claimed by another "Treasures of Ukrainian Museums" se-tenant set of stamps, this time honoring the National Landscape Gallery of Ivan Aivazovsky in Crimea. Aivazovsky specialized in seascapes, and two of his paintings on stamps flank a photo label showing the front of the gallery and a statue of the artist (Figure 4). The left painting from 1853 is titled "Sea at Koktebel"; the other, "The Tower on the Rock Near the Bosporus," dates from 1859. This release claimed 7.5 percent of the ballots.
A notable issue ignored
While most of the stamp issues of 2005 received some votes in the Narbut Prize balloting, one prominent issue was distinguished by its complete lack of votes; this was the "60th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War" issue.
The stamp-with-label (Figure 5) and souvenir sheet (Figure 6) that made up this release hearkened back to the old Soviet-style stamps issued in such abundance during the existence of the USSR. This issue was created as a sop to some of the octogenarians in Ukraine who still fondly recall their Soviet background and have difficulty adjusting to the current reality of a dissolved Soviet Union.
Perhaps present-day citizens have just had enough of hearing about the Great Patriotic War. This is the title the Communists pinned on World War II in order to create the pretense of a united struggle "against the Fascist invaders." In reality, many guerrilla organizations in the former Soviet republics fought against their Communist occupiers. Prominent among them was the UPA, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought on against the Red Army well into the 1950s.
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The Narbut Prize is sponsored by the U.S.-based Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society (UPNS); it continues to be recognized as the premier philatelic art award in Ukraine. Past winning designs and their artist creators have all been prominently featured in Filatelia Ukrainy, Ukraine's leading philatelic periodical.
The Heorhiy Narbut Prize honors Ukraine's outstanding graphic artist of the early 20th century. Mr. Narbut prepared the three high-value stamps (30, 40, and 50 shahy) from Ukraine's first postage stamp issue of 1918. He also designed about a dozen of Ukraine's first banknotes.
Readers wishing to examine all of last year's stamps (or the issues from any year) in full color, may do so online at the Ukrainian Electronic Stamp Album (www.ukrainian-philately.info). Click on 2005 or on any other year's issues you may wish to check out. Past Narbut Prize winners as well as runners-up may be viewed on the website of the UPNS: www.upns.org.
A list of past winners
The Narbut Prize has been awarded annually since 1993 for the best-designed stamp of the previous year (Ukraine resumed stamp production only in 1992). The award was established by Dr. Ingert Kuzych, well-known philatelic author, editor, and exhibitor who currently serves as the society's president. Below are the winners of the Narbut Prize since its inception.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 15, 2006, No. 42, Vol. LXXIV
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