These three pictures posthumously give voice to the pacifist folk artist Mariia Prymachenko (1908-1997). She was born in a peasant family in a village in the Kiev region.
As a young girl her eye was caught by wild flowers in a field, and she started drawing real and imaginary flowers beside of it, in the sand, with a stick.
Soon after, she decorated the walls of her house with paint made of natural pigments and never stopped drawing and painting since.
Prymachenko, May I give this Ukraine bread to all people in this big wide world
Prymachenko, A dove has spread her wings and asks for peace, 1982
Prymachenko, Flowers for Peace, n.d.
Although she was trained in traditional crafts such as embroidery and decorating easter eggs, her paintings remained pure and unaffected by any education.
In her late twenties Prymachenko received acclaim for her art at home and abroad. She was invited to work at the Kiev Museum of Ukrainian Art in 1935;
Her work was praised during a folk art exhibition in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Warsaw in 1936; And upon seeing her work at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937,
Picasso uttered: ”I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.” Prymachenko continued to paint and exhibit worldwide, whilst working on a collective farm in the Soviet period (1917-1991).
The talented artist never lost her awe for nature and was inspired by traditional arts and crafts until the end of her life in 1997.
Prymachenko’s style and subjects are amazingly authentic and powerfully direct and decorative. The flower and animal worlds are processed by the artist in a fairy tale way.
Surely, Ukrainian folk tales must have inspired her in turn, whilst she was able to make up new stories with her imagination.
Unesco recognized the pacifist nature of Prymachenko’s work, as demonstrated in the above three works of art, and declared 2009 as the Prymachenko year.
Recently, on 27 February 2022, local people of the Ivankiv History Museum, saved some of Prymachenko’s works in its collection from a devastating fire, caused by Russian troops.
Prymachenko’s artistic legacy is not lost. Hopefully, a monograph of this remarkable Ukrainian artist, will soon be composed, perhaps by her great granddaughter Anastasiia. In her spirit a relevant plea for peace!