On the 8th of every month throughout the year, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Ukrainian artist Viktor Zaretskyi, a Sixties painter, teacher, and winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, our museum will present to art lovers an updated exhibition of one painting from the artist’s family collection.

“Life was supposed to either break me or make me an artist, but it made me an artist. Some forces came in and gave me energy. I STOOD AND ENDURED AND WAS ABLE TO CHANNEL MY PAIN INTO CREATIVITY. Something was revealed at the level of the subconscious, and then the consciousness.”

Viktor Ivanovych Zaretskyi (February 8, 1925, Bilopillia, Sumy region – August 23, 1990, Koncha-Ozerna, Kyiv region) was a Ukrainian artist and teacher; husband of the artist Alla Horska (since 1952) and the artist Maya Hryhorieva (since 1978). Father of the philologist and art historian Oleksii Zaretskyi. Olena Zaretska (daughter of Oleksii Zaretskyi, granddaughter of Alla Horska and Viktor Zaretskyi) is an artist, art historian, designer, and curator of exhibition projects.
1947 – 1953 – Studied at the Kyiv State Art Institute, in particular with Kostiantyn Yeleva and Hennadii Tytov. In 1951, he received a scholarship named after I. Ripyn for his academic achievements, and the following year – a state scholarship.
1953 – 1957 – Taught at the Kyiv State Art Institute (now the National Academy of Arts).
1955 – Participated in the International Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw.
Since 1956 – Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
1963 – 1964 – Headed the Club of Creative Youth “Contemporary”. One of the leaders of the Sixties movement.
1970 – Under unclear circumstances, the artist’s wife Alla Horska and father die. This tragic event stunned the artist, causing him to become isolated and depressed for a long time.
1970s – Collaborates with children’s magazines Maliatko and Barvinok, designs a number of books.
Since 1978, he has been working in his own art studio, had more than 200 students, including Arsen Savadov, Olesia Avramenko, Larysa Pisha, Taras Loboda, and Olha Kravchenko. He developed an original pedagogical system – “Reflections at the Canvas”, the text of which was first published by his son Oleksii Zaretskyi (magazine “Fine Arts”, 1993, No. 1-2).
Laureate of the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine in 1994 (posthumously).

“ART IS WHERE THE MIND, THOUGHT, (and not the “stomach” – “like” and “dislike”), where there is a firm concept, specificity of thinking, defense of one’s positions. Art – new, unseen – is something that is on its own land, something that is reasonable, comes from the intellect, not the stomach, it is a school. Patriotism exists when there is responsibility to the people, when there is a spiritual aesthetic face. Patriotism is a keen sense of what is ours, its protection, rise to a higher level, and development.”