National Art Museum of Ukraine

It was founded in Kiev in 1899 as the “City Museum of Antiques and Arts”. Initially, a collection of archaeological finds of Vincent Khvoika was exhibited on the ground floor. The official opening and consecration of the museum took place on December 23, 1904 , it received the name "Kiev Art-Industrial and Scientific Museum of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich" ^[2] . Also unofficially referred to as the "Museum of Antiquities and the Arts." The first director of the museum is the historian Nikolai Bilyashivsky. In the early years, the museum collection was replenished at the expense of Kiev patrons. Many works fell into the museum's collection during the revolutionary years, from nationalized private collections.

On June 23, 1919, the museum was declared state property by a decree of the government of the Ukrainian SSR .

In 1924 received the name "All-Ukrainian Historical Museum. T. Shevchenko. "

In 1936, the museum was renamed the "Kiev State Museum of Ukrainian Art", in 1964 - the "State Museum of Decorative Arts of the Ukrainian SSR".

The funds of the National Art Museum of Ukraine currently number about 40 thousand exhibits, among which are masterpieces of Ukrainian and foreign painting, sculpture and graphics from the time of Kievan Rus to the present day. The museum has one of the richest collections of icon painting in Ukraine ( Volyn Icon of Our Lady , St. George with a Life ). Also presented are classic paintings of the 19th century, the Ukrainian avant-garde, the latest trends in painting from the 20th to 21st centuries.

Ukrainian icon painting of the XII — XIX centuries

The collection of icons of the National Museum of Art is one of the most famous and most significant in Ukraine. It belongs to rare and unique collections that adequately represent Ukrainian icon painting.

The Ukrainian icon is a unique phenomenon in the context of not only national culture, but also world culture. Taking its origins from Byzantine art and experiencing certain Western European influences in the future, the Ukrainian icon crystallized its own, special style, where the image is guessed by its characteristic “Ukrainian origin”.

Ukrainian Painting of the 19th - Early 20th Century

XIX - the beginning of the XX century - the time which in the history of Ukrainian art is indicated by such a variety of high artistic achievements and distinguished names that can rightfully be considered the "golden age".

Ukrainian painting, as Russian and European, is inherent in the correspondence of the time with its political and social shifts, with the achievements of scientific and technological progress and the evolution of aesthetic ideals, which caused such a great polarity between the art of the beginning and the end of the day. The 19th century in Ukraine began with the artists' desire to comprehend the reality of the world around them, and the 20th century with the search for a new figurative speech, which, denying external illusory nature, sought to reveal the deep essence of the universe. And no matter how much Ukrainian classical painting, its style, artistic language is evaluated, the most important thing to note is its humanistic orientation, high spirituality, poetry, and the integrity of worldview. This is the fundamental principle that comes from the origins of the national mentality.

20th century Ukrainian painting

The National Art Museum of Ukraine has about 4000 paintings of the 20th century, which are determined by a high professional level, innovation in the context of world and domestic art and at the same time are symbolic for certain periods of Ukrainian fine art of the last century. This collection accumulates the artistic and life path of the artistic elite of Ukraine of the 20th century, and consequently of Ukrainian culture of that time.

From the first days of its existence, the City Museum of Antiquities and Arts (the name of the museum was in 1899-1904) became the center of culture in which funds were collected, scientific attribution work was carried out, and at the same time intensive exhibition activity. So at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, when, in fact, the museum was not yet completed, exhibition expositions were already unfolding in it, with the support of the Kiev Society of Antiquities and Arts, and became the first significant actions of showing new art. The exhibition halls of the second floor of the museum were rented by the Kiev Society of Art Exhibitions. So the VI exhibition of the company became one of the first, began the exhibition activities of the museum.

The building of the National Art Museum of Ukraine regularly hosts exhibitions of contemporary artists of Ukraine, who have received recognition in the country and abroad. Sergey Zhivotkov , Lyudmila Yastreb , Alexander Gnilitsky , Matvey Vaysberg , Alexander Dubovik , Oleg Golosiy , Vasily Ryabchenko and many others presented their works here.

At the beginning of 2015, the museum presented the staged exhibition “Special Fund. 1937-1939 ”- having revealed to the public and specialists previously unknown names and works from closed foundations, it became the most representative exhibition of Ukrainian modernist art of the 1930s in the history of Ukraine ^[3] .

• Official site of the National Art Museum of Ukraine
• Facebook page of the National Museum of Art
• Page of the National Art Museum of Ukraine on the site "Antique Salon"

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