Authors

Discussion

The paper is focused on the art of Maria Pryimachenko (1909-1997), a Ukrainian folk painter who worked in the naive art style. Maria Prymachenko’s art could be classified as the most identifiably Ukrainian. Her art symbolises Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion of February 2022, and she is a leader of Western interest in Ukrainian culture. Being a female artist and disabled person under Soviet cultural repression she could express Ukrainian resilience in the fight for freedom. 

The decolonisation of Ukrainian culture is meant to reveal its authentic content, justify its identity, and reclaim from the Russian embrace. From the point of view of the decolonization naïve art especially has been worth studying as 1) it was actively developed under Soviet national colonialism for imperial purposes (presenting Ukrainian culture as secondary and folklore), and 2) it preserved and developed Ukrainian cultural identity. We can talk about the hybridity of Ukrainian Soviet naive art thanks to which the identity of Ukrainian culture survived. Discussion around Pryimachenko’s work is the paradigm case for assessing the decolonisation of Ukrainian culture.  The study of decolonisation with a focus on this particular artist contributes to 1) overcoming the Soviet imperial narrative about Ukrainian naive art as a folklore ghetto of Ukrainian national identity; 2) revealing modern political and cultural implications of Ukrainian naïve art; 3) international popularization of creativity of representatives of Ukrainian naive art (organization of exhibitions, round tables, discussions, publication of articles, etc.).

Philosophical and cultural analysis of Maria Pryimachenko's art in the context of modern cultural challenges and the Russo-Ukrainian war realities (updating the theme of violence, the "dark side" of human nature, the risks of reducing humanity to savagery, ecological ethics, etc.) provides the grounds for resisting the cultural appropriation of Ukrainian culture by Russia.

Reconceptualisation and promotion of Maria Pryimachenko's art as a paradigm case of resisting Russia's cultural appropriation of Ukrainian culture helps to resolve the dilemma of the Western perception of Ukrainian culture, frequently limiting it to folk or Russian origin.