Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art of the LNMA opens an exhibition of Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko

The Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art opens an exhibition I Give You Sunlit Art by one of the most famous Ukrainian artists, Maria Prymachenko (1909–1997). On display is a collection of the artwork evacuated from the Zaporizhzhya Regional Art Museum. The exhibition is organized under the auspices of Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania Simonas Kairys and the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Strategic Communication Mykola Tochytsky. The exhibition will be on in Vilnius through 2 March 2025. In May 2025, expanded by the art pieces currently under restauration, it will open at Pranas Domšaitis Gallery of the LNMA in Klaipėda. 

“Our collaboration with the museums in Ukraine started immediately after the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. During these years, the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, with its partners, collected support for the Ukrainian museums. The LNMA organized safe transportation of the Ukrainian museums’ treasures to Lithuania, proceeding with the examination, restoration, digitization of these works and their presentation to the public. The exhibition by Maria Prymachenko is tenth of such events and very symbolical: this collection opens the door into a peaceful, sunlit and lovely artist’s world as if inviting us to contribute to the continued protection of it in the future,” Dr Arūnas Gelūnas, director general of the LNMA, provides the context of the landmark event. 

From 2022, the works by Prymachenko, having become symbols of the war-devasted Ukrainian culture, have been showcased by the museums and galleries in Dresden, Kyiv, London, New York, Warsaw and other cities. Prymachenko’s work My Home, My Truth (1989) sold for 110,000 euros at the April 2022 charity auction in support of Ukraine. The images of the painting The Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace (1982) have been shared worldwide on the web, in posters and support messages. 

The national legend of Ukraine  

In the words of one of the compilers of the album of Prymachenko’s art, Oleksij Danilov, former secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, “[t]he art by Maria Prymachenko is a story about Ukraine, the Ukrainian world, where all things alive, good and beautiful thrive. Her art stands in witness to the Ukrainian identity on the global level. People intuitively feel the uniqueness of her work.” 

“Maria Prymachenko’s visionary art has become a legend and an easily recognizable icon of Ukrainian culture. The self-taught creator of folk art is among the most beloved artists of the country. Her likeness has appeared on the country’s coinage and stamps, her works decorate fairy-tale books, and are featured in animation films. Sixteen Ukrainian memory institutions hold collections of Prymachenko’s art, which is exhibited worldwide,” Dr Ilona Mažeikienė, co-curator of the exhibition and director of the Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art of the LNMA, speaks about the artist. 

The exhibition opening in Vilnius is the first event of this scale by the Ukrainian artist in Lithuania. On display are sixty artworks from the collection of a hundred evacuated from the Zaporizhzhya Regional Art Museum to Lithuania. 

Maria Prymacheno was born in 1909 in the village of Bolotnya, in the Polesia region. As a child she suffered from polio, an illness that left her confined within the walls of her home, yet did not shut the door to her professional pursuits. In 1930, she already was a well-established embroiderer and painter, in 1937, her work exhibited at the Ukrainian Folk Art Exhibition was awarded the gold medal. 

“Living a secluded life, she created for herself a spacious world of imagination, populated by the real and phantastic creatures, by plants and humans. This world reconciles the rustic mundanity with the artist’s visionary aesthetics, links the dramatic 20th-century events with the phantasies disengaged from reality. Prymachenko’s paintings abound in metaphors and symbols, of creatures of the ancient Polesian folklore, of legends and mythology, arranged in a kind of ornamental patterns,” Ilona Mažeikienė says.  

The artist spent six decades of her life in her native village of Bolotnya where she survived the Holodomor, the Second World War, the loss of her family members and the Chernobyl disaster, living to see Ukrainian Independence.

In 1922, the invading Russian forces burned down the Museum of Local History in Ivankiv housing the artwork by Maria Prymachenko. Part of the works were lost; the rest were rescued from the flames by local people.  

The poetry of dedications 

The backside of the painting created in 1968 on the occasion of her 60th birthday carries the artist’s first ever dedication. Since then, similar texts, explanations, rhymed lines or proverbs often found place on the verso of her paintings. These captions were translated into Lithuanian by poet Jurgita Jasponytė. 

One of them is a greeting to Kyiv: “Kyiv, I bring to you /flowers from Polesia /the bright sunshine and peaceful skies/a ripened wheat field and flowers (1982). 

Another tells a story of a sweet tooth: “I was eyeing those dumplings/ that's on the shelf/ the girls shut down the light and went to bed/ I grabbed the dumplings and dashed out of the house/ I got cross three fenced fields/ yet tripped over pumpkins 

and did real damage” (1979).  

One of the dedications written by the artist’s hand, lent the exhibition its title: “Dear friends/ I bring you the sun and my sunlit art as a present/ to all those who write me letters/ and who love art dearly/ I thank you / I present to you my flower bouquet / and wish you eternal sunshine/ to you and all the people on Earth/ wishing for peace to all Earth” (1979).  

War wounds of the sunlit world 

A collection of a hundred works arrived in Lithuania, yet the exhibition opening 15 October features only sixty of the gouache compositions by the artist. A part of the evacuated paintings was badly damaged, therefore the specialists of the Pranas Gudynas Restoration Centre of the LNMA straightaway decided to restore and conserve these paintings, thus contributing to the preservation of Ukrainian and the world’s cultural heritage. 

“The Ukrainian museums, and the culture of Ukraine and the world are under a constant threat of destruction,” says Skaistis Mikulionis, co-curator of the exhibition. 

When in 2022, the artworks were transported to a safe place in Ukraine, their protective glass broke and scratched the surface of the paintings. 

An accompanying programme of events and educational activities in Lithuanian and Ukrainian 

The exhibition I Give You Sunlit Art. Maria Prymachenkoʼs Art Collection Evacuated from the Zaporizhzhya Regional Art Museum is expanded by animation films, educational activities and exhibition tours organized in cooperation with Ukrainians Svitlana Matvieienko and Iryna Bila. The activities are designed for different age groups of visitors: pre-school children, school pupils, families, retirees, and adjusted to individuals with disability. 

The art historian Iryna Bila will deliver a series of tour-lectures The World of Maria Prymachenko in Ukrainian at: 1 pm 26 October; 1 pm 9 November; 11 am 30 November; 5 pm 13 December; 11 am 21 December. 

Educational activities can be booked by phone: +370 5 261 6764, +370 659 57 530 and by e-mail: [email protected].

The programme of events and activities at: https://www.lndm.lt/edukaciniu-uzsiemimu-ir-ekskursiju-programa-parodoje-dovanoju-jums-sauleta-mena-marijos-prymacenko-kuriniu-kolekcija-evakuota-is-zaporizios-srities-dailes-muziejaus/?lang=en

Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of the LNMA in Vilnius: 15 October 2024 – 2 March 2025 

Pranas Domšaitis Gallery of the LNMA in Klaipėda: 8 May 2025 – 28 September 2025 

Exhibition patrons:

The Minister of Culture the Republic of Lithuania Simonas Kairys

Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Strategic Communication Mykola Tochytsky 

Project leaders: 

Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art Dr Arūnas Gelūnas,  

Director of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Art Museum Inga Jankovych

Director General of the Lviv National Borys Voznytsky Art Gallery Taras Vozniak

Exhibition curators: Ilona Mažeikienė, Birutė Pankūnaitė, Skaistė Marčienė, Skaistis Mikulionis

Exhibition designer Marius Žalneravičius

Exhibition architect Austė Kuliešiūtė-Šemetė

Restorers: Eglė Piščikaitė, Paulius Zovė, Rytė Šimaitė, Jurga Blažytė-Denapienė, Janita Petrauskienė, Dalia Jonynaitė

Translators: Jurgita Jasponytė, Irena Jomantienė, Džiulija Elena Fedirkienė, Ruslanas Skrobačas  

Language editor Ieva Puluikienė

Exhibition educational programme designers: Rima Povilionytė, Svitlana Matvijenko and Iryna Bila

Exhibition organizers: The Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Zaporizhzhya Regional Art Museum, Lviv National Borys Voznytsky Art Gallery

Institutional partners of the exhibition: Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in the Republic of Poland, Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Lithuania, Lithuanian Armed Forces, Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, Ukrainian Patrol Police, Ukrainian State Boarder Guard Service, Ukrainian State Customs Service, Customs of the Republic of Lithuania  

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Prymanchenko Family Foundation  

General Supporter BTA Baltic Insurance Company

Supporters: UAB AD REM, UAB Bunasta, Customs logistic service, UAB Nova Post Lithuania, Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius Charity and Support Fund  

The Lithuanian National Museum extends gratitude to the contributors: Andrey Chernenko, Volodymyr Chornohor, Oleksiy Danilov, Lyubomyr Demianchuk, Valdas Dovydėnas, Robertas Gabulas, Tadas Gečauskas, Rita Grochovskienė, Tomas Ivanauskas, Renata Kanarskaja, Mirijana Kozak, Svitlana Naumenko, Valdemaras Sarapinas, Narimantas Savickas, Elvyra Vasiliauskienė and Agata Voleiko