Uniqueness
The Uniqueness of Tavrian Painting: From Palette to Philosophy
Tavrian painting is special and unlike any other — a true distinction of Southern Ukraine and of the Mykolaiv Region itself. At first it seems to speak only of the fauna and flora of a picturesque land, of the ordinary life of people in the coastal settlements, of their work: fishing, viticulture, grain-growing. But as you look more closely, you see that it touches a boundless world of beauty and inspiration. It helps you feel the particular charm of a culture and discern the life-affirming messages of the ancestors to those living now. And that is enchanting.
Liubov Paraniuk recalls how she began to look for an answer to the question of how it all began. Why did this painting arise?
“The answer, as always, lay on the surface — in the books and articles of Yevhenia Bondarenko. Having studied them, I concluded that everything begins with love: love of one’s land, of the blue sky and the boundless steppes, of the sea, of the wind, of the sun; with boundless respect for hardworking, wise and brave people; with wonder at the history of one’s native land. All of this is in every line, in every word of Yevhenia Bondarenko’s work. You feel how much strength and inspiration she gave to the cause she loved.
…Such familiar paths, the ones I too ran along as a child to the lyman. Bare feet sank in yellow clay dust… And that smell of wormwood, the hot sand… Fishermen, vine-growers, tillers of the soil — I grew up among them. They are my relatives, my close ones, my neighbours. This is our land and our country — how could one not love them?” — Liubov Paraniuk sinks into thought and memory.
So what makes Tavrian painting so exceptional?
In most decorative paintings the main theme is plant life. “Tavryka,” first of all, is about the sea and sea creatures. That is why its principal elements are “drops,” “waves,” “hooks” and “boats,” from which more complex forms are built: “fish,” “matulas,” “lighthouses,” “anchors,” “dolphins” and others.
This is not to say that the painting lacks plant and animal themes. On the contrary, they are vividly present — but they play a more secondary part. The exception is steppe subjects and compositions.
Thanks to Yevhenia Bondarenko, who not only drew the elements of the painting but also recorded explanations of their symbolism in her articles and novellas, Tavrian painting reflects a rich sign-system of protective meaning from many sides. Little lighthouses, matulas, sailing boats, boats, seagulls, swans — these are only some of them. In Yevhenia Bondarenko’s books, for example, one meets the figure of Berehynia Mayakivna with a red flower in her hands; the Sea Dove who gently holds her children; the Yellow Heron, a meeting with whom foretells happiness; and Matula — a woven fate. What other painting has protective symbols of such philosophical depth is a rhetorical question.
Beyond decoration, the makers of Tavrian painting also laid in it the function of a charm, encoding certain information in the patterns. So the same little waves with light-winged boats, breathing a fair wind, took on another meaning and came to stand for the restless sea itself.
Liubov Paraniuk says: “If images carry no idea, no meaning or spiritual value, they quickly become ‘pictures for prettiness’ and, as a rule, quickly ‘go out of fashion.’ That is not true of Tavrian painting. In it every element is a separate word that wants to tell us something…”
Bondarenko Yevhenia. Mayakivna Goes to Be Married. 2001
The compositional structure of the painting as a whole is made up of ornamental friezes, vases (the Tree of Life), and simple narrative scenes.
Images devoted to the sea, to plants and to animals predominate. The examples recorded by researchers are marked by lightness, a lace-like quality, and a certain dynamism, a sense of movement. Looking at some of them, one feels that the little waves are racing toward the shore, and a playful breeze is gently urging them on.
The painting also has its own character in the building of narrative compositions — above all in its attitude to space, in the wish to convey its boundlessness. The compositions are not packed tight, not overloaded with decorative detail. On the contrary, they keep to what is essential. Between the elements there is a great deal of air.
Work by Paraniuk Liubov
“Tavryka” belongs to those paintings in which the mark of the brush is of real importance. The basic strokes carry dynamism and movement through the compositions. Depending on the intention and the skill of the master, a stroke may become a flower petal, or part of a fish, and so on. The basic elements of Tavrian painting have their own ways of being laid on a surface, according to their thematic meaning. These concern pressure and turns of the brush, the curve of the palm and the fingers. Contemporary “Tavryka” also has no transitional stroke: it is more graphic and transfers quite readily to canvas, ceramics and wood.
So Tavrian painting is a priceless treasure that Yevhenia Bondarenko brought back to life and left to us — an extraordinary necklace of the cultural heritage of the steppe and the seacoast of Southern Ukraine, once broken, which she gathered pearl by pearl for those who would come after. Liubov Paraniuk says: “Every artistic craft is based on the living lore of the land where it was born — that is the root… After that it depends only on people and on time whether it will develop, whether it will be needed, or whether it will fall into oblivion. But we, the people of the Black Sea coast, must keep and increase what is precious that Yevhenia Bondarenko studied and left to us. Tavrian painting has a right to exist. It is the inheritance of a people. It is a sign of a person’s boundless love for the universe and for the family. That is how it all began — with love…”
