Decolonization exhibition. The works of Lviv modernist women are now in the collection of the NHMU

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In full-scale war, the collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine is replenished with the works of Lviv modernists – Margit Selska and Lyuna Amalia-Drexler. For NHMU and Ukrainian art in particular, this event is unprecedented, as understudied, unfairly neglected artists who have done a lot for Ukrainian culture to be included in the European context are returning to the Ukrainian context.

Today, when the issue of Ukraine’s membership in Europe is particularly acute, the receipt of works and their exhibition become even more relevant. UP. Culture tells why this event is important and why it should be proud.

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In 1929, young artists, aware of the need for transformations that should be initiated in the city, returned to Lviv after studying at the Fernand Léger Academy in Paris. They create the avant-garde group artes, which operates until 1935 and works with cinematography, photography, photo collages, sculpture, painting.

More than 90 years have passed, and the works of artes artists have entered the collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine. Artist and researcher of Lviv modernism Andriy Boyarov receives works from the archive of the artist, Roman Selsky’s second wife, Agnesa Bachynska-Selska, and becomes the curator of the exhibition “Margit, Yolanta and other Lviv women”.

Presentation of new arrivals to the collection of NHMU. Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

The exhibition primarily presents the feminine optics of Lviv modernism. Most often, it is limited to the names of Romana and Margit Selsky, but no less talented, but less well-known photographers, writers, and sculptors work together with them. “There are many modernists, they are strong, the value of their works is extremely high, but nothing is heard about them“, Boyarov comments.

The works at the exhibition occupy a small hall on the second floor of the National Medical University and are arranged in such a way that they themselves invite viewing. The diverse, unexplored, innovative world of Lviv modernists is revealed by the work of Margit Selska – the collage “No, we don’t want war”. Andriy Boyarov notes: “From the very beginning, I suggested: “Maybe she should be shown alone? Like “Mona Lisa”Filled with red and black inscriptions with an anti-war content, the painting uses images of the Mother of God and a hand holding a cross.

Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

This collage, made by Margit in the 1930s, was a response to the complex sociopolitical situation in Europe, although Selska was not considered a radical artist from the beginning. One of the characteristics of the artists of the artes association is their political activism, readiness to express a position, in particular through artistic works.

The genre of photo collage also becomes a feature of Lviv modernism, and not only in photography or cinema, but also in literature. Deborah Vogel, a Jewish writer, critic, and philosopher, whose works had a significant impact on the development of visual art in Lviv during modernism, writes about the techniques of collage and montage. In her work “Genealogy of Photomontage and Other Possibilities”, the theorist writes that the “objective order of things” is laid down in montage, and its use is a “symptom of the tendency towards realism in art”.

The portrait of Deborah Vogel, made by the contemporary Lviv artist Vlodko Kostyrk, appears to be just as realistic at the exhibition at the NHMU. The portrait itself is written in the German style of the new language (Neue Sachlichkeit), noticeable in the documentaryness of the depicted face, the light and shadows that fall on it. Deborah’s signature in Yiddish is in the lower right corner of the portrait.

“Deborah does not occupy the place in art that she should occupy“, Andriy Boyarov says. In the literary arena, her name is often put in the same row as Bruno Schulz, despite the fact that it was the latter who was largely influenced by Vogel’s practice. This adds importance to the exhibition, which focuses specifically on female figures in Lviv modernism.

Deborah Vogel managed to describe the principles of collage and simultaneity, which Margit Reich-Selska and artes photographers Jerzy Janisz and Henrik Strang will use in their work. Another photomontage, which we see at the exhibition, belongs to Alexander Krzyvoblotski, co-founder of artes, a photographer and architect who studied with the famous Lviv artist Henrik Mykolyash. For the first time, this work of Krzyvoblotskyi was shown in the spring of 1931 in the Industrial Museum of Lviv.

Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

Despite the fact that many Lviv modernists studied in foreign educational institutions (Vienna, Krakow, Paris), Lviv itself was a distinctly Western European city, which contributed to the formation of an avant-garde environment. “In the 20s, exhibitions were held in Lviv, and the library of the Industrial Museum was active. The museum in Krakow even published a book with illustrations by Fernand Léger in Lviv“, confirms curator Andriy Boyarov.

Another unique object in the exhibition hall is the plaster sculpture “Yolanta” by Luna-Amalia Drexler from 1910. According to the Selskys’ family tradition, the artist recreated the image of the black girl Yolanta, the daughter of Roman Selskyi’s uncle. Lyuna lived next door to the Selskys and studied in Paris, Rome, and Munich before returning to Lviv.

Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

Next to the above-mentioned works in the hall is a showcase with photos from the Selskyi archive. Here are photos of Lviv photographer Vanda Diamand, who at one time photographed artists from artes and organized a studio-salon where artists who professed leftist ideology gathered. Her authorship is attributed to two portraits of Margit Reich-Selsky and one of Roman Selsky. In these photos, Wanda plays with light: in one of the portraits, a stream of light is directed at Margit’s profile, in the other, her face is completely turned to the sun.

Alongside Wanda’s photographs are photographs by Alexander Krzyvoblotsky, including “Nude” (1930s) and a previously unknown portrait of the artist Maria Tesser (1932). Alexander illuminates the objects in his photographs and often uses staging – he uses a mirror or a frame as props or dresses the models in shiny dresses.

After the exhibition at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Andriy Boyarov is preparing to show his works in Krakow, adding to their list the works of Yaroslava Muzika, head of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists in Lviv (ANUM).

Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

Despite their significant contribution to Ukrainian art, the work of Lviv modernist women is on the periphery of research interest. Little is known about them, their practice and achievements are not discussed during artistic discussions or scientific seminars. Therefore, the screening of the short film “Water” by the photographer and chemist Witold Romer and the lecture by Andriy Boyarov on new media in Lviv modernism became a logical continuation of the direct exposition at the NHMU.

“Water” (1936) is a six-minute tape found in the Romers’ family archive in Wroclaw. In this film, the camera seems to fly in order to capture the dynamics of human bodies, water and Lviv pools from above.

Because of the Soviet optics, which was used to positioning visual arts, graphics and sculpture as the only possible forms of art, photography and cinema were not in the focus of attention of both viewers and cultural professionals for a long time. Despite this, the representatives of Lviv modernism made a lot of discoveries in the fields of film and photography, experimenting with montage, light and equipment.

Andrii Boyarov says that to a large extent the lack of representation of Lviv modernists is due to the fact that they lived in times of political repression and their words were lost or lost to Ukrainian art for a long time: “artes is mostly Roman Selskyi and Margit Selska – and all the rest? Half were killed, half were evicted, and, of course, their works were taken away. But this does not mean that we should delete these figures. In Soviet times, they were not allowed to be mentioned, but independent Ukraine has been 32 years old, and it is our duty to remember them“.

Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

In addition to artes, in the 1920s in Lviv there were associations of GDUM (Group of Artists of Ukrainian Art), ANUM (Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists), “Rub”, Krakow Group and many others. For modern cultural communities in Ukraine, the acquisition of groups from the 20s could become an interesting experience for their own interaction and work with art. However, how can you inherit something without knowing anything about its existence?

“Someone accused the “Union of artists artes” (Piotr Lukashevich’s work on the artists of the group, translated by Andrii Boyarov – UP. Culture), that it is too historiographical work. I’m sorry, but we don’t have these facts. And first of all, you need to enter these facts, and then work them out. All the artists of that time were political activists, in the 1930s they responded to the social situation. If we take a closer look at their activities, we will understand our place in all this. We understand how powerful our repressions were, and no one could speak freely until the end of the 80s. How free speech is now is also a big question“, Boyarov adds.

Andriy calls the Lviv modernists “his friends”, and he refers to the curated exhibition as “his responsibility”: “I have to show it and pass it on“.

Photo: Yevhen Gensyurovskyi

After all, we will never be able to build our own cultural strength until we have someone and something to rely on. “The main message of the exhibition is that everything is ours, and all these objects are ours. They are simply not known to anyone. These objects are located in Central Europe, and we still do not see ourselves in the European context. We have something to be proud of, because all these Lviv modernists saw themselves in the world“.

Talking about yours and yours in the public space will make it possible not to lose what is being created now: “There are modern artists who are also not seen, because we do not have old artists in circulation“, Andrii explains. The study of art and its popularization flow into the issue of memory and the possibility of preserving one’s culture.

In the hall behind the works of Lviv modernists hang the signatures of paintings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries – Tymofii Boychuk, Fedor Krychevskyi, Vasyl Sedlyar. These works from the NHMU collection are now in storage, protected from potential Russian attacks. But these signatures are like endurance, like art that passes from generation to generation, and, despite enemy repression and our temporary blindness, hope that Ukrainian culture will always exist, because it has something to lean on.

Read also: February of a cultured person: where to go and what to see in Ukraine

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