From March 27 to June 21, the exhibition “SunRise” will be on view at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, dedicated to the work of the outstanding Ukrainian artist Anatolii Lymariev (1929–1985), a representative of unofficial art and an exceptional master of color and light.
Across five museum halls, the exhibition presents around 100 works of painting and graphic art, as well as archival photographs taken by the artist himself and his wife, Svitlana Datsenko. A multimedia installation for the show was created by artist Vitia Kravets and composer Oleksii Shmurak.
Lymariev’s dream of a major exhibition at the National Museum is being realized only now, 40 years after his death. During his lifetime, he did not receive due recognition: despite the absence of overt political dissent in his works, Soviet art councils systematically rejected them. His painting was considered too bold—an improvisation, a kind of “jazz in paint.” The exhibition conceptually outlines the key vectors of the artist’s practice.
Born in the Donetsk region, Lymariev returned every summer from Kyiv to his native Amvrosiivka in search of a distinctive southern light. His deep attachment to this land makes him a true apostle of the steppe. Three halls of the exhibition are dedicated to the land and people of Donetsk region. Separate sections present portraits of the artist’s family and friends, as well as self-portraits. An important part of the exhibition is devoted to the Shevchenko cycle, in which the image of the poet appears as the artist’s alter ego.
The dialogue between photography and painting within the exhibition space creates a powerful line of tension. The photographs appear like fragments of a shattered mirror—shards of the past. The primordial world of the Donetsk steppe is today turning into ruins as a result of Russian bombardments, which erase hundreds of towns and villages, destroying memory along with its carriers—people, their homes, old photo albums. In contrast to the “instantaneity” of photography, painting accumulates time: in Lymariev’s works, the moment continues to unfold, and the reality of his canvases exists in the present. “Donetsk Region: Earthly and Heavenly” emerges as the central protagonist of this narrative—a double exposure, a landscape of memory and dreams.
Curatorial team: Olena Hrozovska, Mykhailo Kulivnyk, Kateryna Lisova
Project management: Oksana Barshynova, Liudmyla Nazarko
Exhibition architecture: Oleksandr Burlaka
Design: Daria Podoltseva
Sponsors: MNVO “Biokon”, JSC “Unex Bank”, the Kharko Family
Collections:
Anatolii Lymariev Foundation
National Art Museum of Ukraine
Dukat Art Foundation
Private collection of Eduard Dymshyts
Private collection of Ivan Svitek
Private collection of Oleksii and Olena Kharko