Ukrainian Artists Showcased at the National Art Museum
The National Art Museum of Ukraine, or as it was once called, the City Museum of Antiques and Art, is located in the capital city of Kiev. It was established in 1897 after Bohdan Khanenko, a patron of art, began collecting money and pieces of art in an attempt to start the first museum in the country. Interestingly when the Museum was first opened it collected National Ethnographical applied art based on different races and cultures of mankind. At that point professional art that we see today was something almost unheard of in Ukraine.
Today the National Art Museum has been officially running for over one hundred years and has seen much change in the different art forms and styles over this time period. Now when you go visit the museum you will see a number of collections focused on fine artwork from artists who were born and who worked in Ukraine, as well as those who were born in Ukraine but have continued their art careers elsewhere. An example of some of these Ukrainians, which the Art Museum exhibits, includes Taras Shevchenko, N. Pimonenko, G. Narbut and V. Tropinin.
There are other art collections that go back as far as medieval times and others that include work from the Cossacks times, like portraits of leaders from the church and military who were prominent then. There were periods of time when the process of searching for masterpieces was stopped due to unrest, like the Stalin oppression, which also meant that much of the artwork already completed had to be removed and hidden for safety.
The standard of the National Art Museum and the art pieces that it collected stepped up to international level in the 1990’s where it saw a lot of its collection displayed around the world in countries like Canada and France. Not only did the museum become more recognized world wide, but the artists who had contributed to the collections became better known, some moving up to the elite international art class. Today the museum continues to keep up with art world, collecting new art collections all the time and introducing the world to new, up and coming Ukrainian artists.