2007年VOA标准英语-NY Museum Reclaims 'Russian' Artists, Including

By Carolyn Weaver¹
New York City
19 February 2007
 
watch Ukrainian Art report

Some of modern art's great innovators, including Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Archipenko and Alexander Rodchenko, are usually described as Russian artists. But these painters and sculptors² were actually born or raised in Ukraine, and thought of themselves as Ukrainian. Their mislabeling is a lingering result of decades of Soviet³ repression⁴ of Ukrainian culture. Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930, on view at The Ukrainian Museum in New York City, is one attempt to correct the record.

When you think of Ukrainian art, works of folk religious art may come to mind: naïve paintings and rough-hewn sculptures of Christian⁵ saints and angels, of Christ and the Madonna. A roomful of such works, many of them from the private collection of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushenko, is one of two exhibits now on display at The Ukrainian Museum in New York.

 
Maria Shust, director of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City
The Museum’s other current exhibit, of Ukrainian modernist art from 1910-1930, is at first glance, radically⁶ different. But as museum director Maria Shust says, a closer look shows the imprint⁷ of Ukrainian folk art on the modernists.

"You can see how that [folk] work influenced this,” she said in a recent interview. “The strong sense of colors, the flatness of the surfaces, but also the deepness of the spirituality."

 
A Composition in Suprematism, 1920s, Kazimir Malevich
The show recovers the overlooked Ukrainian heritage of some modernist masters, including Kazimir Malevich, a pioneer of abstract painting. He’s represented by two works in the show. Shust said that Malevich was the one of the first painters to use geometric shapes alone in his work – shapes that aren’t meant to represent particular objects in the natural world. 

Those images may have been partly inspired, she said, by the geometric abstractions of Ukrainian folk embroidery⁸, and by the simple shapes of village life: a church cross, white-washed houses, the square black opening of a stove.

 
Dairy-maid, 1920s, Mykhailo (Mikhail) Boichuk
Like Malevich, Alexandra Exter, Alexander Archipenko and other Ukrainian-born or bred artists are often lumped in with Russian artists of the time. Yet they were born or raised in Ukraine, where early in the 20th century, Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities were centers of innovation in painting, theater, sculpture and other arts. Ukrainian artists were at the forefront of international modernist art movements such as Cubism and Futurism.

That ended with Stalin. In the 1930s, Ukrainian nationalism and language were forbidden. Only "heroic realism," propagandistic art in service to the Soviet state, was permitted. All else, including abstract art, was considered decadent⁹, subversive¹⁰.

 
Time, 1910, David Burliuk
"Most of the intelligentsia during this period was eliminated,” Shust said. “They were sent to gulags, they were executed. Others were stopped. Others were just forced to change the way they created."

Some artists fled to Paris and other cities in the West. The Soviet government confiscated¹¹ 2,000 modernist works in Ukraine. Only about 300 survive today. Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930, features more than 70 such works, including many not previously¹² seen outside Ukraine. It opened last year at the Chicago Cultural Center and is on view in New York at The Ukrainian Museum until April 29.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 sculptors   

雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座

参考例句：

• He is one of Britain's best-known sculptors. 他是英国最有名的雕塑家之一。
• Painters and sculptors are indexed separately. 画家和雕刻家被分开，分别做了索引。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

7 imprint   

n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记

参考例句：

• That dictionary is published under the Longman imprint.那本词典以朗曼公司的名义出版。
• Her speech left its imprint on me.她的演讲给我留下了深刻印象。

8 embroidery   

n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品

参考例句：

• This exquisite embroidery won people's great admiration.这件精美的绣品，使人惊叹不已。
• This is Jane's first attempt at embroidery.这是简第一次试着绣花。

9 decadent   

adj.颓废的，衰落的，堕落的

参考例句：

• Don't let decadent ideas eat into yourselves.别让颓废的思想侵蚀你们。
• This song was once banned, because it was regarded as decadent.这首歌曾经被认定为是靡靡之音而被禁止播放。

10 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

11 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

12 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。