Featured FOLK ART PRINT

This print came from the Ukrainian Museum of Decorative Arts. It's a print of the canvas of the famous Ukrainian folk artist Kateryna Bilokur (1900-1961). Her nаїve paintings were on display at the International exhibition in Paris. The famous Pablo Picasso saw her paintings there and highly spoke about her. If you are interested, I can give you more information about her and her artworks.

 

That is beautiful -- yes, more information about the artist would be welcome.

 

That is lovely!!!!!

 

So chic, the wattle fencing. Didn't know it was used in Ukraine as well.

Debora

 

It's a lovely painting. Any information you care to give about the artist will give us more accessible information in the future to make identifications from. Thank you.

Thanks for the term wattle fencing" @Debora , I never knew what that style was called.

 

I'm curious - are these paintings something you are selling? You seem to post pictures of artists local to your area that we are unfamiliar with - which is great because I like learning about new artists.

 

Looks fairly sophisticated to me. I wouldn't call it folk art.

 

While we are waiting... she is called a folk artist on a few websites. She was apparently self-taught, or at least did not attend an organized art school:

http://welcome-to-poltava.com.ua/read/ekaterina_belokur

http://totallyhistory.com/kateryna-bilokur/

http://blog.patternbank.com/kateryna-bilokur-detail-in-folk-art-florals/

 

Thanks to all of you for your interest. Kateryna Bilokur is famous in Ukraine but not known outside. I was lucky to have visited her home place in the village, 150 km from Kyiv. I cannot give you a lot of information, not enough space for it. Just a few words. She became an outstanding artist despite the hard life in a poor village family. She did not have any special education, actually, no education at all, just a few years at elementary school to be able to read and write. Her parents did not let her to learn drawing as she was supposed to work hard to take care of the house, husbandary and her brothers. Only after her tears, sufferings, and attempt to commit suiside her father let her draw in her free time (which was once a week Sunday afternoon). Her only teacher was nature. The main subject of her paintings was flowers. She made brushes of cats' fur, and mainly used natural paints, as she did not have money to buy professional paints. In the end of her life she wrote a book "I SHALL BE AN ARTIST" which became a "bestseller".
A lot of her pre-war artworks were burned. Only a few survived, including the one I loaded here (1935). At present her artworks are very expensive, they are sold at the European auctions. The Museum of Decorative Art in Kyiv has the best collection of her works. They sell the prints of her works and books about her (the books are in Ukrainian but with English summary). Last year I sent 10 prints and a few books about her to Seattle. The prints are not on paper but on special decorative canvas. If you want to buy her prints, I will check with my friend at the museum what is available and prices.

 

Thank you for the information, Natasha. Very interesting. I enjoy looking at her work.

 

Thank you Natasha, I really like the second one too!

As "norms" may differ from country to country, it may be "folk art" in the Ukraine, but I think this to be "VERY SOPHISTICATED" with a high skill level floral painting. As "design art" - yes - I would put it into a sampler type of folk art category.

 

Yes, over here the term "folk art" generally means very primitive forms.

For instance, this is called "folk art". I think your term means more like art created by maybe an artist who doesn't have classical training.

 

Yes, I know this form of folk art. Here, the experts call it naїve art. I have a large collection (about 500 paintings) of naїve art. What country is this painting from? I am confused with five-pointed stars. If they were red, I would have thought they are soviet.
Coming back to Kateryna Bilokur, officially she belongs to folk art artists, however I agree that the level of her works are much higher. Not without reason the international experts call her works unique. Interesting, that she never painted her flowers from memory in winter but only from live subjects observing them growing in her garden, recreating each stem, each leaf, each petal. Sometimes it took her years to complete one painting......... Later, she would write in her book "Oh, what a joy it is to be able to paint. I don't feel old or lonely, because what comes out of the paintbrush is new, wondrous and beautiful". She is amazing........

 

I took that image off the internet, but it looks Pennsylvania Dutch to me.

 

Hi Bev,
You are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO right.
greg

 

I thought the primitive painting is from your collection.

I mentioned before that I had visited Bilokur's house. It was a typical Cossack village house with whitewashed walls under straw roof. The house smelled of flowers, dry herbs. There was a feeling that the artist would come in any moment. There was a portrait of her painted by somebody else - young, with dark braids, in white scarf, embroidered shirt (vyshyvanka). People say she never invited visitors to her "studio" room........
Another painting (1957) of Kateryna Bilokur below.

 

with all those quits airing out in the sunshine..........yup !

 

Just gorgeous!!!!!

 

This is the last painting of Kateryna Bilokur I want to show you. Just to remind, if you want to have the prints of her artworks, let me know and I will check with the museum aboout availability and prices. Enjoy.......