Treasures of Ukraine in photos by Lohvyn to be exhibited at The Ukrainian Museum (09/26/99)

Treasures of Ukraine in photos by Lohvyn to be exhibited at The Ukrainian Museum

by Marta Baczynsky

NEW YORK - The photographic exhibition titled "Guardian of the Past Hryhorii Lohvyn: Architectural Monuments of Ukraine in Photographs by H. N. Lohvyn," will open with a reception on Sunday, October 3, at 2 p.m. at The Ukrainian Museum. The photographs depict architectural landmarks, including examples of Ukrainian Baroque and wooden churches. The exhibition will be on view through November 21.

"Guardian of the Past" is a fitting description for Hryhorii Lohvyn, Ukraine's noted scholar and art historian, whose life has been devoted to studying, documenting and popularizing Ukrainian art and architecture. This commitment itself is a large undertaking, but to have done it successfully in impossible conditions, within the confines of the severely hostile environment of the Soviet system, is a remarkably impressive achievement.

V.V. Vechersky, an architect, writing in 1990 in the magazine Stroyitelstvo i Arkhytektura (Building and Architecture) about Lohvyn, said that his interests and scholarly work, as well as the goals he set for himself seemed not only "impractical, but had no future within the framework of 'social realism.'"

The writer says that "for decades, with the stubbornness of Sisyphus, and almost singlehandedly, Lohvyn attempted to close the 'black hole' in the Ukrainian culture. His aim was to at least safeguard a remembrance for future generations of the fact that in our history we also had world-class architecture, which was original and uniquely ours."

Lohvyn was born in 1910, in Kosivka, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. He graduated from the Kharkiv and Moscow art institutes and received his doctorate in 1968.

Right from the start, his opposition to the totalitarian ideology and to what he saw as the "policy of socialistic vandalism" as practiced on Ukraine's historical and cultural monuments and on its art, took on the form of preservation. In numerous published scholarly studies, Lohvyn relentlessly and consistently brought to light the cultural achievements of Ukraine's past. He wrote extensively on the medieval Renaissance, on Ukrainian Baroque architecture, painting, sculpture, book miniatures and decorative art. A prolific writer, he authored many books both in Ukrainian and Russian, among them "Sofia Kyivska" (Kyiv's Cathedral of St. Sophia, 1971), which was translated into English.

Lohvyn's best-known book is "Po Ukraini" (Throughout Ukraine, 1968). The publication documents the country's many treasures: churches (timber and stone), church interiors, icons, iconostasis, paintings, public buildings and castles, built between the 10th and the 18th centuries.

For the reader the book is a journey through the many historical regions of the country, whose specificity and variants in art and architecture have contributed to the treasury of Ukrainian culture as a whole.

The exhibition is a similar journey - with the assistance of 122 photographs - which begins in Kyiv and the surrounding Dnipro River regions, then on to the Northern Left Bank, Sloboda Region, Volyn, Halychyna, Podillia Bukovyna, the Carpathian Mountain region and Transcarpathia.

As is stated in the introduction to the exhibition: "the photographic exhibition does not attempt to present a comprehensive pictorial review of Ukrainian architecture, rather it introduces the renowned scholar's personal selection of his own photographs with special emphasis on the vernacular timber architecture of the Ukrainian countryside, Ukrainian Baroque and the architectural landmarks of the capital city of Kyiv."

The exhibition will also offer brief background information on the development of Ukrainian architecture, which initially was influenced by the block-work timber building heritage of ancient Slavs. Later, with the strengthening of ties to Constantinople, the influence of Byzantium prevailed upon its development. In the 12th century, Romanesque architectural trends began to appear, with the construction of stone church buildings.

In later years the Renaissance and Baroque influences stemming from Central Europe exhibited themselves in such areas of Ukraine as Halychyna, Volyn and Podillia. In the 17th and 18th centuries, during the years of national autonomy, Baroque gained great popularity on Ukraine's Left Bank, evolving under the influence of Ukraine's millennium-old timber construction tradition, into the unique Ukrainian Baroque style.

The Ukrainian Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission is $3; $2 for students and seniors. For information call (212) 228-0110 or visit the museum's website at www.brama.com/ukrainian_museum.

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