All lessons

Lesson 10

Art

Ukrainians are a creative nation that has its own recognizable cultural code. We are brave because:

Author: Maria Diachuk

Ukrainians have always been creative people. We painted our houses with patterns to decorate them and believed these paintings would protect us from trouble. We embroidered our clothes with colored threads, putting a deep meaning into each element. Since then, we know that red is love and black is sorrow. And yet, we still sing folk songs, gathering the whole family at the big table to share joy and sorrow.
Ukrainian art is the bravery to be yourself. Do not look for compromises, but bring your own, authentic, unique into the world.

Painting

Ukrainian artists are another example of incredible bravery and loyalty to their work.

Kazimir Malevich, the author of the famous "Black Square," was born in Kyiv. And yet, he is almost the only artist who painted the Holodomor 32-33 years in his work on hidden images.

Another example is Sonia Delaunay, an avant-garde star of Ukrainian-Jewish descent who became the first woman artist to hold a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in her lifetime. In 1975 she was awarded the highest award in France – the Order of the Legion of Honor. And yet, she never forgot her homeland and wrote in a book of memoirs, "I love bright colors. These are the colors of my childhood, the colors of Ukraine. "

The story of Fedir Krychevsky demonstrates the true bravery and steadfastness of the Ukrainian character. The artist, a student of Gustav Klimt in the 1910s, always portrayed Ukrainians as proud and steadfast in his work. In the self-portrait you can see below, Krychevsky painted himself in a white coat. Ukrainian Renaissance traditions influenced the image's composition and manner, particularly the "Sarmatian" portrait of the Polish nobility XVI-XVII.

In the post-war years, Krychevsky was effectively placed under house arrest and under constant government surveillance due to his pro-Ukrainian stance and extended stay abroad. He was offered a pardon if he painted a portrait of J. Stalin. But the artist refused, saying, "You see, my rank does not allow me to paint all sorts of time-favorites, rascals, and scoundrels." Due to his moral patriotic position, Fedir Krychevsky was deprived of his livelihood and died of starvation right behind the easel on July 30, 1947.

Literature

Lesya Ukrainka is a well-known Ukrainian writer, translator, folklorist, and cultural figure, who is certainly an example of bravery and strength of spirit. She is considered one of the first feminists in Ukraine because she believed that a woman has the right to privacy and dispose of her body and money. That's how she lived, and that's why there is a type of a completely new woman in her texts – an individualist woman. The one who decides her destiny. At the beginning of the ХХ century, these were very relevant and controversial issues in the European world, which the writer openly raised in her work.

Read this poem, written in 1890 during an exacerbation of the disease (Lesya Ukrainka was suffering from tuberculosis of the bones and joints). The poem's title, "Contra spem spero!" is an example of an oxymoron – a paradoxical expression with a subtle insight into the specifics of Latin word usage, taken from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans (4:18). From Latin, this expression means "Hope against hope!".

Thoughts away, you heavy clouds of autumn!
For now springtime comes, agleam with gold!
Shall thus in grief and wailing for ill-fortune
All the tale of my young years be told?

No, I want to smile through tears and weeping.,
Sing my songs where evil holds its sway,
Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping,
I want to live! You thoughts of grief, away!

On poor sad fallow land unused to tilling
I'll sow blossoms, brilliant in hue,
I'll sow blossoms where the frost lies, chilling,
I'll pour bitter tears on them as due.

And those burning tears shall melt, dissolving
All that mighty crust of ice away.
Maybe blossoms will come up, unfolding
Singing springtime too for me, some day.

Up the flinty steep and craggy mountain
A weighty ponderous boulder I shall raise,
And bearing this dread burden, a resounding
Song I'll sing, a song of joyous praise.

In the long dark ever-viewless night-time
Not one instant shall I close my eyes,
I'll seek ever for the star to guide me,
She that reigns bright mistress of dark skies.

Yes, I'll smile, indeed, through tears and weeping
Sing my songs where evil holds its sway,
Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping,
I shall live! You thoughts of grief, away!

Architecture

Have you ever heard of the Ukrainian Gaudi? His name was Vladyslav Gorodetsky.

He became famous as the author of "House of Chimaeras" in Kyiv. Polish by origin, he became one of the most exciting architects of the XX century by the call of the heart. There is a legend that the house with Chimaeras appeared due to a dispute between the site owner of Bankova, Gorodetsky, and another architect Alexander Kobelev, who did not believe that something could be built on this place. If you visit Kyiv, you will see that this house stands on a hillside, and it surprises not only with its decoration but also with its shape and location.

He built a building that hangs from the mountain because no one believed it was possible! Isn't this the famous Ukrainian bravery?

Cinema

According to UNESCO, among the five most influential films in history is the 1930 film "Earth." This film is the main work of Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko and the most famous Ukrainian film.

This avant-garde tape was banned nine days after its release. It has spawned perhaps the most controversial interpretations. On the one hand, the film supports the dominant ideology of its time, collectivization, and demonstrates class hostility. But on the other hand, Dovzhenko, from the first shots, shows the incredible landscapes of his native lands. One story combines futurism and traditionalism, utopianism and conservatism. And Dovzhenko, although an ambiguous character in history, loved Ukraine and did not forget about it until the last days. Here is a famous quote in a letter to Stalin: the director boldly speaks of his patriotism. Today his words resonate with particular force:

"Comrade Stalin, even if you were God, I would not believe you even then that I am a nationalist who must be tarnished and kept in a black body ... Is love for one's people really nationalism?"

In 2012, the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center began restoring the film based on the original 1930 version. Musical accompaniment to the movie "Earth" during the winter-spring of 2012 commissioned by the Dovzhenko Center was created by the Ukrainian ethno-chaos band DakhaBrakha.

Folk art

The ceramic rooster became a symbol of the steadfastness of the Ukrainian people during the war. Photographs of the kitchen cabinet that withstood the destruction of a house in the town of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region have spread worldwide. So what kind of rooster is this?

The Rooster of the Vasylkivska Majolica is a replicated work produced by the Vasylkivska Majolica, written by the Protorys (Valeria and Nadiya). The rooster was made at the Vasylkivsky Majolik Factory from the early 1960s to the 1980s. It could be used as a jug or as a decoration for the house.

It was taken to the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity and the kitchen cabinet for the exposition. To make it a reminder that our culture will stand despite all adversity!

How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine?
How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine? How to be brave like Ukraine?

It is not to be afraid of condemnation and to express oneself in creativity, complementing one's identity, not changing it.

Lesson 11

Cuisine

Lesson 11