Our museum continues the project “CHEERS!”, which was launched last year and is dedicated to artists whose works are kept in our collection.
The KhRMA collection is a unique and integral part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. Its research, preservation and popularization is our strategically important mission, especially in times of war for our freedom and identity.
Viktor Poltavets learned about the origin of his surname in the 1930s when he came to the Zaporizhzhia Art School to visit his friend. It was then that the famous historian Dmytro Yavornytskyi gave a lecture to the students. While talking to the audience, the scholar answered questions about the origin of the names of those present in the hall. It was then that Viktor learned that the Poltavets surname originated from a Poltava Cossack kurin’ that appeared in the Zaporizhzhia steppes after the Zaporizhzhia Sich was destroyed by order of Catherine II in 1775. According to legend, the founder of the Poltavets family was a military clerk named Tymish Poltavets.
At the school, the world of art was opened to the students by their art teacher Heinrich Tsekhanovsky, a disgraced political exile of the 1930s, a former student of the Repin Art Institute in Petrograd. The teacher paid special attention to Viktor Poltavets, who skillfully made oil paint copies of reproductions of famous works. Perhaps this was the decisive factor in choosing his future profession. So the young man entered the Kharkiv Art Institute, where he was admitted on preferential terms as a participant of the Second World War.
The dissertation of Oksana Poltavets-Huida, the artist’s daughter, states: “The formation of Viktor Poltavets as a painter of the historical and battle genre took place within the academic traditions of the Kharkiv art school, in particular, during his studies at the Kharkiv Art Institute, which developed realistic painting. The artist’s creative style was formed under the influence of such masters as O. Kokel, M. Samokysh, and M. Derehus, who introduced the best methods of realistic art into art education. V. Poltavets perfectly mastered the basic principles of compositional skill and the artistic style of battlefield artists, which later allowed him to repeatedly demonstrate his high professionalism in painting. At the same time, despite the introduction of the total principles of socialist realism in the art of that time, there was still an appeal to the sources of Ukrainian culture and its history, which was manifested in the historical paintings created in those difficult times. The desire for a true reproduction of historical events and images that embodied the best features of heroism and invincibility of the people in the midst of struggle and numerous confrontations known in history, albeit significantly censored at the time, was of great importance.”
“Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in Podillia”. Oil on canvas. 1987 – a monumental painting executed in a realistic manner. The artist demonstrates the school of high painting culture. According to professional experts, there are some inconsistencies in terms of historical correspondence.
For example, the Cossack headdresses depicted in the painting were actually worn by Symon Petliura’s army. Wikipedia notes that if there was a brim before the eighteenth century, it was short, made of the same material as the entire top of the hat. In addition, experts draw attention to the incorrect location of B. Khmelnytskyi’s saber. According to the scientists of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve “Mezhybizh,” there is currently no documentary evidence of the storming of the Medzhybizh Castle led by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.
However, we do not know whether the author set out to accurately recreate historical events, details of the Cossacks’ clothing and ammunition of that time. It is undeniable that Viktor Poltavets perfectly mastered the technique of drawing, his composition is dynamic and solidly constructed, the painting conveys the great tension, energy and drama of the events of the national liberation struggle. It is impossible not to notice certain historical parallels: nowadays the scale of the war is more global, the weapons are more deadly, the realities are more bloody, but the enemy of Ukrainian statehood, as well as hundreds of years ago, is still trying to enslave or destroy us.
… “In honor of the prominent statesman and commander Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, the city of Proskuriv was renamed Khmelnytskyi and the region was renamed Khmelnytskyi from Kamianets-Podilskyi by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR on January 16, 1954. January 16, 1954”. As history and our present show, there has never been a fair union on equal terms with our northern neighbor and there will not be in the foreseeable future.
REFERENCES:
Viktor Poltavets (11.01.1925, Polohy, Zaporizhzhia region – 05.11.2003, Kyiv) was a painter and graphic artist. He was a participant of the Second World War and received received combat awards.
1950 – graduated from the Kharkiv Art Institute. Since then, he taught at the Kharkiv Art School and participated in exhibitions.
1953 – editor of the political poster of the publishing house “Art”.
1954 – 1957 – creative work.
1958 – 1975 – chief artist of Dytvydav (later Veselka Publishing House, Kyiv).
Awards: International Diploma at the Paris Biennale of Graphic Arts (1958), Big Silver Medal of VDNKh of the USSR (1961).
Since 1974 – Honored Artist of Ukraine; since 1985 – People’s Artist of Ukraine.
His main fields of activity are easel painting and book graphics. He created battle, historical, genre paintings, dioramas, landscapes. His works are full of romantic pathos, compositionally perfect, dramatic; they are distinguished by sophisticated color combinations; landscapes are characterized by lyricism.
He illustrated the works of the classics of Ukrainian and foreign literature by O. Honchar, А. Mickiewicz, I. Nechui-Levytskyi, Taras Shevchenko and others (Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine).