Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2024
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
IN THE TEMPLE OF IVAN HONCHAR’S ART “I wish that everything I collected and created became the only, permanent, active museum, where present and future generations would learn.” (from a letter by I. Honchar to Borys Olijnyk, President of the Culture Fund, July 18, 1988) This article was translated into English. (H.K.) Photos from Lidia Orel's collection of Ivan Honchar’s works. Artist: Ivan Honchar. I have known Ivan Makarovych Honchar for almost 30 years. I often visited him in his home-museum, listened to his fascinating tales about Ukrainian folk art, his travels throughout our land, I rejoiced at every discovery he made, and felt the pain of suffering he experienced under the Communist rule. Artists such as Ivan Honchar who propagated Ukrainian culture were persecuted by that regime. There were not too many such devoted artists during those times — Mykola Lysenko, Porfyrij Demuckyj, Mykola Leontovych, Oleksander Koshyc, Dmytro Ja- vornyckyj, Mykola Bilashivskyj, Ivan Honchar, Mychajlo Sikorskyj. Sooner or later they will be duly honored and their names will forever be remembered by our people. Ivan Honchar’s museum, with its valuable collec tion, can compete with any other government museum of its kind. All this was collected by one person, who is not only a talented sculptor, painter, art expert and eth nographer. Of course, in his monumental plan to create By Lidia Orel Curator of The Museum of Folk Architecture and Art of Ukraine a museum he was not alone: he had assistants-correspon- dents in different parts of Ukraine, who understood the value of his work and collected artifacts to be exhibited in the museum. Sometimes even those enthusiasts who visited his museum became assistants-correspondents in his work. I also wanted to find similar artifacts as did Hon char. He suggested I visit his village Lypianka, Shpo- lanskyj rayon, in Cherckashchyna, and also Shevchen ko’s villages. Wherever I traveled in his footsteps, people always had a good word about him and asked me to give him their greetings. Ivan Honchar’s museum quickly became a center of national rebirth. Visitors came in large groups, from var ious organizations and academic institutions of Kyyiv and other cities of Ukraine, as well as from other coun tries. It is hard to estimate how many of them visited the museum, maybe thousands. Honchar felt his mission was to open his treasures to the people, and in this way to revive their national awareness and feeling of pride in their culture. I also put in a lot of effort so that his museum could be seen and known by more people. I brought many of them — relatives, friends, students, including the Presi dent of the Association to Safeguard Treasures of His tory and Culture. More and more, I was convinced that the museum left an impact and no one left the museum indifferent. One person started to embroider shirts and towels, another painted, others became pioneers of the use of Ukrainian language in russified cities. Others joined the ethnographic choir ’’Homin” that was founded by Ivan Honchar himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of his friends and followers, and Ivan Honchar himself, were labeled "nationalists.” As he himself said, and we also knew, in the 1970’s he was constantly guarded by KGB agents, who watched his every move and who visited his museum. They also tried to convince some visitors of the museum to help them in their dirty work, by spying on the activities of the museum, checking who the vis itors are, etc. One such employee of the KGB was Borys Kovhar, formerly in charge of the Funds Department of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Art of Ukraine. He was assigned to watch Ivan Honchar in the beginning of the 1970’s. When Borys Kovhar got to know Ivan Hon char better, he realized the value and importance of ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 1993 17
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
