Destruction & Solidarity. Kuindzhi Museum, Mariupol

Join a workshop by Ukrainian artists on 2 April 2022, W139, Amsterdam

Twelve years ago, the Kuindzhi Art Museum opened in Mariupol, Ukraine, in 2010. It was named after the famous landscape painter Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (1841-1910), but also preserves works of other well-known landscapists such as his short lived teacher Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900), Ivan Shiskin (1832-1898) and Vasily Vereshchagin (1842-1904). The museum housed three studies (Elbrus, Sunset and Autumn) copies of his oil paintings, photographs and even a baptismal font of the Mariupol born artist, Kuindzhi. The quality of Kuindzhi’s art is extraordinary. His style and landscapes are original, powerful and poetic.

According to the Ukrainian newspaper magazine Local History, the Kuindzhi Museum of Art in Mariupol was destroyed by airstrike by Russian troops on March 21, 2022. How many art works survived its collection, is unknown yet. It is said, the Kuindzhi works did. But it housed 2050 modern and contemporary art works in addition. We sympathise with the staff members of the Kuindzhi Museum of Art and contemporary Ukrainian artists such as Vasyl Korenchuk, Oleksandr Bondarenko, Lyudmyla Masalska, Oleg Kovalyov, Volodymyr Kharakoz, Serhiy Barannyk whose works the museum had in stock. The exquisite museum building, constructed in art nouveau style in 1902, deserves reconstruction!

Overcome by the terror of the war and the loss of numerous art works, Ukrainian artists in the Netherlands initiated the following event, which will take place tomorrow! See programme below.