Illiustroteka (curatorial text)
Today, illustration is one of the most accessible and democratic art forms. It appears in ordinary books, miniature postcards, monumental street murals, and circulates widely on social media and online platforms. This versatility has significantly shaped the contemporary understanding of Ukrainian graphic style and its distinctiveness.
The roots of Ukrainian illustration and its expressive graphic language lie at the crossroads of European graphic heritage, Ukrainian folk art, and modern global art trends. The early 20th century, known as the “long twenties” (from 1917 to the mid-1930s), was a period of rapid cultural and artistic growth in Ukraine, especially in illustration. Amid the formation of the Ukrainian state and despite the subsequent Bolshevik occupation, a new urban culture, art, and technology were emerging. The leading artists of that era—founders of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts (now the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture), professors, graphic artists, and monumentalists—created the illustrations of the time. Heorhii Narbut, Mykhailo Zhuk, Sofiya Nalepinska-Boychuk, Ivan Padalka, and Vasyl Krychevsky established the foundation of Ukrainian illustration by training students and influencing generations of artists who built on their ideas. The Lviv graphic artists of the 1930s, such as Pavlo Kovzhun and Sviatoslav Hordynsky, as well as those of the 1960s, deserve mention. Thanks to reproduction technologies, the works of repressed artists of the 1920s, particularly those from the Boychukist school, have survived and become fundamental to the Ukrainian graphic tradition.
Children’s illustration emerged as a unique and distinctive phenomenon, with artists reflecting the creative experimentation of the 1920s and introducing young readers to new artistic imagery through its accessibility. Illustrators opened the world of modern graphic art to children—from the refined Art Nouveau of Olena Kulchytska to the expressive plasticity of Boris Kriukow. Today, children’s illustration plays an additional important role: it helps address complex topics with children, such as war, loss of home, forced emigration, and the fight for freedom.
Contemporary illustrators are rediscovering leading figures, reinterpreting the monumental features of graphic art, and blending the achievements of Ukrainian graphic schools with modern artistic practices. During the full-scale Russian invasion, these illustrators responded swiftly on social media, and their poignant images became symbols of Ukrainian resistance.
The exhibition Illiustroteka reveals the multi-layered world of Ukrainian illustration—from miniature letterheads to monumental murals, from hand-drawn graphic works to digital projects. Engaging in the artistic dialogue of the 2020s, it views Ukrainian graphic heritage as a living process: exploring its depths, discovering new talents, rethinking traditions in contemporary practice, and fostering the creation of new Ukrainian illustration.
Project curators: Oleg Gryshchenko, Olena Staranchuk.