In their lives and work, Liudmyla and Mykola Mazurs were different and related, bright and lyrical, eloquent and restrained, dramatic and optimistic, with a creative continuity of tradition and a desire for innovation at the same time. This year they would have celebrated their seventy-fifth anniversaries: Liuda in November and Mykola in December. We are celebrating. Unfortunately, they do not. Sincerely and devotedly living their lives through creativity, social activities, and teaching, they passed away prematurely. “No one knows or can say the time of this last flight,” someone might object. We have evidence and arguments in the form of rough piles of sketches of unrealized projects and works.

    Every museum exhibition project is unique. However, “Winged” presents works from different creative periods of the Mazurs, most of which have either been exhibited outside of Khmelnytskyi or are being shown for the first time. The early works of the artists once again convince us of their divine gift and powerful artistic school, which became the basis for further creative upsurges.

Inspired by love, talent, beauty, art, and Ukraine, they were driven by the seemingly impossible. They skillfully and boldly broke mass stereotypes. Stereotypes that vytynanka is a traditional form of exclusively folk decorative and applied art (Liudmyla’s semi-abstract and minimalistly refined vytynanky claim to belong to the language of contemporary art); that scrap metal and welding are brutal and far from art materials and media (Mykola’s incredible constructive solutions in monumental works of the 1980s are still impressive and are markers of the city of Khmelnytskyi and tourist magnets); that the symbolic multidirectional message is closed to the understanding of a wide audience (Mazurs is sincerely respected by the vast majority of Podillia residents and guests of our region, from children to the elderly with or without different artistic backgrounds); that teaching careers are mostly pursued by artists who have not developed a creative career (both artists were prominent figures in Ukrainian art of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and will remain so forever).

    The artistic heritage of Liudmyla and Mykola Mazur is safely preserved both in museums and private collections and thanks to their talented descendants: art historian and artist Oksana Mazur and People’s Artist of Ukraine, sculptor and graphic artist Bohdan Mazur are the custodians of the archive and collection of their parents’ works and worthy bearers of their artistic DNA.

   Liudmyla Mazur (1947-2000) was a Podillia artist, a master of vytynanka, born in the village of Salnytsia in Vinnytsia region. In 1963, she graduated from Khmelnytskyi Secondary School No. 6 and entered the Odesa State Art School named after M. Hrekov. After graduation, in 1968, she returned to Khmelnytskyi, worked as a teacher at a children’s art school, a painter and monumentalist in art workshops, and held the position of chief artist of the city of Khmelnytskyi. Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, laureate of the Tarasevych Brothers Republican Prize, Taras Shevchenko and V. Rozvadovskyi regional prizes, laureate and diploma winner of many international and national exhibitions.

    Mykola Mazur (1948-2015) was a monumentalist, sculptor, still life painter, graphic artist, born in 1948 in Krasnodar Krai to a Ukrainian family with Chernihiv roots. 1963-1968 – a student of the Odesa State Art School named after M. Hrekov, class of V. Puteiko. Since 1968 he taught at the Khmelnytskyi Children’s Art School, in 1973 he became its director; since 1979 – a monumentalist artist of the Khmelnytskyi Art Workshops; 1986-88 – a deputy of the City Council; since 2002 he has been teaching art disciplines at the Khmelnytskyi National University, Department of Design. Among his awards: the Order of Merit, 3rd degree (2007), regional awards named after Taras Shevchenko (1993), V. Rozvadovskyi (1995), Y. Halchevskyi (2003), the First Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the design of a children’s motor park (1982), winner of the International Open Rating of Popularity and Quality “Golden Fortune” (2001). In 2008, he was awarded the title of People’s Artist for creating the first museum in Ukraine to commemorate the victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933. His monumental works that decorate parks and squares, squares and public buildings in Khmelnytskyi and other cities of the region brought him well-deserved fame.