Re-Ukrainization of Avant-Garde Art as a Process of Identification of Ukrainian Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The paper aims at tracing the process of decolonization of Ukrainian artistic modernism of the 1910s –1930s starting from the discovery of the phenomenon of «Ukrainian avant-garde» in art criticism up to its historical and cultural identification as a self-sufficient phenomenon in European culture. The applied task is to promote the famous names and monuments of the Ukrainian avant-garde as a relevant cultural heritage of Ukraine. Methodologyof theresearch is based on a combination of general scientific and specific historical methods with the principles of objectivity, historicism, consistency, scientific principle and principle of verification. Scientific novelty of the paper is presented by the analysis of the emergence and development of Russian and European avant-garde of the firstthird of the twentieth century, made on the base of the art history, culturological and historical literature as well as documents. The above allowed to make an attempt to reveal the phenomenon of the «Ukrainian avant-garde» not only in the artistic sphere, but to comprehend it through the historical plane of decolonization. The process of re-Ukrainization includes, first, the return of a number of names of world-famous masters (O. Arkhipenko, O. Bogomazov, D. Burliuk, O. Exter, V. Yermylov, K. Malevich, V. Meller, A. Petritsky, etc.) to the map of Ukrainian culture; second, the recognition of their unique role in the emergence, formation of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde; third, the reintegration of the Ukrainian component in European modernism and rethinking the influence of the Ukrainian artistic language on European artistic culture. Conclusions.The Ukrainian avant-garde is a self-sufficient original historical phenomenon in European culture. Its exclusivity is conditioned by the combination of European innovative artistic trends with ethical norms and aesthetic ideals of Ukrainian folk culture. Polyethnicity and democracy of the Ukrainian avant-garde determined and actively influenced the rise of the Russian avant-garde. The latter therefore should not be characterized as the achievement of Russian culture.