Mariya Ovksentievna Primachenko, a master of Ukrainian ânaive artâ, has carried through her whole life a thirst for creation, an irresistible need to share her discoveries with people. She is one of those artists who created a unique world of her own images, the world of beauty, skillfully expressed those feelings that live in the people, in its folklore and thoughts.
Artist's childhood
Bolotnya - the native village of Maria Priymachenko - is located 80 km from Kiev. It was here that in January 1909 the artist was born. Her father was a carpenter, and also engaged in woodcarving. And mother was a famous needlewoman of embroidery: the whole family wore embroidered shirts of her production. Mariaâs grandmother was also engaged in creative activities - she painted Easter eggs.
The first creative abilities in Mary appeared in early childhood: she was fond of painting flowers in the sand. And then she began to paint the huts with blue patterns. On the walls of the houses, firebirds flocked and fantastic flowers bloomed. The villagers liked these drawings, which looked so beautiful on the walls and stoves.
After a while, the future artist began to receive the first orders: neighbors asked to decorate their houses with the same amazing patterns. Even the residents of neighboring villages gathered to admire her work.
Worldview and positive perception of life by the artist
The biography of Maria Primachenko was not without difficult moments in life. In childhood, the artist suffered from a terrible disease - polio, which imposed its negative reflection on the fate of the craftswoman. Maria spent all her life on crutches. This fact also influenced the authorâs pictorial style. Intolerable physical pain, combined with unrestrained creative imagination and the desire for life, poured into bizarre images. Now it is called art therapy. The opposition of joy and pain, good and evil, darkness and light is observed in every canvas of Mary Priymachenko.
The artist had a rather strict character, but she was friendly to people. Sometimes Priymachenko presented paintings to the guests of her house. For Mary, there were two worlds. Everyone lived in the first, and the second, internal, belonged only to her.
Her world was filled with various fantastic creatures, wonderful birds sang here, fish learned to fly, rainbow cows with human eyes grazed in the meadow, and a good brave lion was a defender from enemies.
The beginning of the work of Maria Primachenko
The artist became famous since 1936, when for the first time in Kiev at the All-Ukrainian Exhibition of Folk Art her works "Animals from the Wetlands" were exhibited. Maria was awarded a diploma of the first degree. Here she began to get involved in ceramics and continued to engage in embroidery and drawing. In particular, she wrote a number of wonderful paintings: âGoby for a walkâ, âBlue Lionâ, âPinto Beastâ, âBeast in Red Bootsâ 1936-1937, âDonkeyâ, âRamâ, âRed Berriesâ, â Monkeys are dancing â,â Two Parrots âand others (1937-1940).
The images of these works are striking in their fabulousness, magic and fantastic. They are based on folklore legends, stories from life and folk tales. In her works, reality and fantasticness intertwined. Animals, flowers and trees are endowed with the ability to talk, they fight for good and resist evil - everything is like in a fairy tale.
Birds also have fabulous properties: they have bizarre shapes, intricate shapes that resemble a flower, and the wings are decorated with embroidery. All the animals and birds of Maria are sunny, colorful, pleasing to the eye with their positivity (âThe elephant wanted to be a sailorâ, âA young bear walks through the woods and does no harm to peopleâ).
Creativity in the war and post-war periods
During the war, Maria Primachenko interrupts her creative activities and returns to her native village. Here she survived the terrible years of her life. The war took her husband from her, who could not see his son. In the post-war period, the artist constantly lives in Swamp, turning the parental home into a workshop. The year 1950 dates back to the embroidered panel âPavas in grapesâ on a blue background, on a brown âTwo Apple Treesâ panels, as well as the paintings: âTwo Hoopoes in Flowersâ, âUkrainian Flowersâ. In 1953-1959, the drawings by Maria Priymachenko âPuss in Bootsâ, âPeacockâ, âCrane and Foxâ, âShepherdsâ became famous. These works testify to the improvement of the primitive manner of Primachenko.
Creativity of the 70-80s
A special flourishing of her work falls on the beginning of the 70s. If earlier the artist portrayed real animals, then in the 70-80s. fantastic works appear in her works, which in reality do not exist. This is the four-headed ancient swamp beast, and swamp cancer, and Khorun, and the Prus, and the wild gorbotrus, and the wild wolves. She motivated the name of the wild chaplun with the word chapati. The emphasis is on the paws of the beast, which can wade through alder thickets. There are animals purple, black, blue; sad, funny, smiling, surprised. There are animals with human faces. Evil animals are allegories. Thus, a purple beast in a âbourgeoisâ cap, decorated with stylized bombs, grinned maliciously, showing sharp teeth and a long predatory tongue (âDamn the war! Bombs grow instead of flowersâ, 1984).
Style features
The artistâs works are a combination of all possible artistic styles of the twentieth century: impressionism, neo-romanticism, expressionism. One of Maria Priymachenkoâs favorite topics, which she often addressed, is space. She loved the starry sky and inhabited it with her winged creatures - a hunchback, mermaids, birds. Even on the moon, she planted gardens, cherishing her magical dreams. Her wonderful world was magical and unique, unique and shining, sincere and kind, like herself.
The creativity of a folk artist teaches people to notice beauty in everything. She sought to show each person individually how important it is to remain children even in old age, to maintain the ability to be surprised and to see a lively interest in everything that happens around. The works of Maria Priymachenko really bring us back to childhood. There is nothing superfluous on them, we see only the irrepressible imagination of a woman with an amazing soul, with the folk energy depicted in the paintings.
When Maria was asked why she paints animals and flowers that do n't exist , she answered: âWhy paint as they are, they are so beautiful, and I paint mine for the joy of people. I really want more people to watch the drawings and everyone to like it. â
The genius of the artist
The world of art opened the amazing work of Maria Primachenko at least twice. For the first time, the artist gained popularity in 1935 as part of a talent search campaign among the people. Then the work of the rural craftswoman attracted the attention of the capital needlewoman Tatyana Flora, who collected masterpieces of folk art for the exhibition. As a result, the artist successfully works in Kiev experimental workshops. The talent of the artist contributed to the fact that she mastered the skills of modeling and painting products from clay.
The artistâs works quickly began to gain popularity abroad. Visitors to Moscow, Prague, Montreal, Warsaw and other European exhibitions could meet amazing animals. Art lovers were shown drawings by Maria Priymachenko âTwo Parrotsâ, âBlack Beastâ, âDog in a Capâ, âBeast in Red Bootsâ, âBull for a Walkâ, âRed Berriesâ.
The world exhibition of Maria Priymachenko, which took place in Paris, brought the Ukrainian artist great fame, for which she was awarded a gold medal. It was in the French capital that the venerable colleagues, such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, first became acquainted with the artist's works. They appreciated her work and even began to use similar motives for their works.
The second time, the talent of a folk artist was discovered in the 60s. This was facilitated by the famous art critic and playwright Grigory Mestechkin, as well as journalist Yuri Rost. An article about the work of Maria Primachenko, which was published by a journalist in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, repeatedly made her popular.
The death of the artist
In the 89th year of life, an outstanding artist died. But, fortunately, the family of Priymachenko-artists continued. Her best student was her son - Fedor, now Honored Artist of Ukraine. Her grandchildren, Peter and John, also went her way. Today they are young, talented artists, each bright personality. Growing up alongside such masters as their grandmother and father, they adopted all the best.
Perpetuating the memory of Maria Primachenko
The name of the craftswoman was named the small planet 14624 Primachenko. This name was proposed by Klim Churyumov. In honor of the famous artist, a jubilee coin was issued in 2008. A year later, in Kiev, Likhachev Boulevard was renamed Maria Priymachenko Boulevard. In the cities of Brovary, Sumy and Kramatorsk there are streets named after Maria Primachenko.