Our museum continues the project Cheers!, launched last year and dedicated to anniversary artists whose works are preserved in our collection.

The KhRAM collection is a unique and inseparable part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. Its study, preservation, and promotion are our strategically important mission, especially in times of war for our freedom and identity.

Fedir Manailo is considered one of the founders of the Transcarpathian school of painting. His name stands alongside such figures as Adalbert Erdeli and Yosyp Bokshai. Manailo devoted his bright artistic talent entirely to his native Transcarpathia. He saw his mission in truthfully depicting the spiritual life of his compatriots, their national uniqueness, and their age-old striving to cultivate their own land. His paintings convey the very spirit and authenticity of the Carpathian region. These are not ethnographic studies or sketches, but deeply philosophical narratives expressed through visual art.

The artist knew the folk culture of the Carpathian highlanders perfectly — their customs, rituals, beliefs, and national costumes. In the 1940s, when a song and dance ensemble was organized in Transcarpathia, the performers needed proper costumes. “Fedir Fedorovych was very meticulous: here the hombytsia [a local dialect word for ‘button’] was not the right color, there the thread had to be different, and the shirt did not match the skirt because they were from different districts,” recalls People’s Artist of Ukraine Klara Baloh.

Manailo traveled extensively throughout the Carpathians, acquiring truly encyclopedic knowledge of the region’s ethnography and folk art. These became his source of inspiration: “My native land was generous to me: with its roots, colors, taste of its art, which enlivened my palette… I am happy and eternally grateful to my people,” the master noted. His granddaughter Viktoria Manailo-Prykhodko recalls that filmmaker Serhii Parajanov spent several days with her grandfather discussing the script of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and chief artist Heorhii Yakutovych emphasized that thanks to Manailo, the film acquired its unparalleled, powerful authentic resonance.

His granddaughter also remembers him as a highly educated man, fluent in Hungarian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Russian. He lived an ascetic life, was very hospitable yet critical — not to offend, but to guide others onto the right path. This applied equally to his teaching. “As a teacher he was remembered as straightforward. At first he spoke sternly and sharply, then more gently, but always remained fair. Sometimes I cried because of his criticism, but afterwards I chose the best of my works. This helped me in the future to raise my level and distinguish where I had painted well and what detail needed to be redone,” recalls Volodymyr Mykyta, People’s Artist of Ukraine and Manailo’s student.

Manailo’s artistic uniqueness was a fusion of high professional education gained at the Prague School of Applied Arts, the distinctive folk culture of Transcarpathia, the best examples of European painting, and his own plastic explorations. “Unexpected associations and bold new metaphors and allegories, striking hyperboles, the subtlest lyrical nuances, musical harmony of color and sharp, searing contrasts and dissonances, expressionist deformation and primitivism rooted in peasant creativity and folk worldview, fantastic grotesque and elevated pathos — these constitute the artist’s arsenal,” wrote art critic Hryhorii Ostrovskyi.

The work Old Shepherd, presented in the exhibition, was created by the artist at the age of 22, during his student years. It can be perceived as a portrait of a specific man, but also as a generalized image. Yet it is not simply a portrait, but a pictorial ode — a sacred, majestic image of a simple Ukrainian rooted in his native land and culture. The shepherd is depicted like a king on a throne, reminiscent of the iconographic canon of God the Father (Sabaoth). This is not irreverence, but a symbol of the greatness of the Ukrainian people. Though Manailo called him “old,” the man looks directly at us full of strength. Notice his large, strong hands, his barely perceptible smile — whether kind or sarcastic. He is wise, courageous, proud, indomitable. Overall, Old Shepherd is perceived as a monumental work, despite being painted with transparent watercolor. By additionally using tempera, a traditional icon-painting medium, the artist brilliantly achieved this effect.

Fedir Manailo lived and worked in the dramatic era of totalitarianism. He was accused of formalism, ethnographism, and decorativism, forced into the framework of the artificial method of socialist realism. He tried to adapt, painting large “epic” landscapes of Transcarpathia “in the manner of Shishkin,” with power lines and construction sites. “They also had power and epic scope, but it was no longer the same Manailo… The direct inspiration, the love of folk spirit, the magic was gone,” recalled renowned artist and Hero of Ukraine Tetiana Yablonska. Yet despite all trials, Manailo remained faithful to his chosen path. He returned to his true self and enriched Ukrainian art with works of European caliber, such as Old Shepherd. Nearly half a century has passed since Fedir Manailo left us, but his art remains one of the brightest pages of 20th-century Ukrainian art.

“I would advise: live in the wide world of culture. Such a broad embrace of the culture of all humanity, as we now have, such opportunities — never before has there been such wealth… I advise young artists to embrace these world treasures and use them as a gift for the development of the Transcarpathian school of painting, of European art…” — Fedir Manailo, artist, teacher, public figure.

For reference:

Fedir Fedorovych Manailo (October 19, 1910, Ivanivtsi, Transcarpathian region – January 15, 1978, Uzhhorod) — painter, graphic artist, theater artist, monumental artist, teacher, public figure. Father of artist and teacher Ivan Manailo; grandfather of artist Viktoria Manailo-Prykhodko.

• 1928–1934 — studied at the Prague School of Applied Arts

• 1930 — visited France

• From 1933 — participant in art exhibitions; exhibited at the 1933 Prague exhibition of Transcarpathian artists, where his work Grandfather – The Poor Man stood out; solo exhibition in Kyiv in 1970 was a tremendous success

• From 1937 — member of the Society of Fine Arts of Subcarpathian Rus

• 1937–1945 — taught drawing at the Uzhhorod vocational school

• From 1946 — member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine

• 1945–1955 — taught at the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts

• From 1947 — chief artist of the Transcarpathian House of Folk Art; among the first artists of the Transcarpathian Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater and regional philharmonic

• 1947 — illustrated the first Transcarpathian edition of Ivan Franko’s Zakhar Berkut; later illustrated works by Marko Cheremshyna, Olha Kobylianska, and numerous folk collections

• 1948–1951 — head of the Transcarpathian Union of Artists of Ukraine; co-initiator and organizer of the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life; collaborated with the Karpaty publishing house

• 1965–1975 — revived the technique of engraving decorative gourds

• From 1977 — People’s Artist of Ukraine

A vivid page in Manailo’s life was his tireless public activity. He took part in founding the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts (1946) and was one of its first teachers; in establishing the art gallery (1948), serving as deputy director for research; and in creating the Transcarpathian branch of the Union of Artists (1946).

On February 9, 1980, the Memorial House-Museum of People’s Artist of Ukraine Fedir Manailo opened in Uzhhorod.