Self-Portrait Against the Backdrop of Violent Age: Kateryna Bilokur in the Discourse of Letters, Art, and Memories

Abstract

Ukrainian history is once again experiencing increased interest in its past, namely the history of Ukrainian art and artists as seen through the lens of postcolonial studies and research of self-narrative. While reading autobiographical documents of artists, it is important to involve interdisciplinary practices and a broader context of documents from a specific era as well as the artistic discourse. A corpus of Kateryna Bilokur’s letters compiled and edited by Mykola Kaharlytskyi is a written testimony of self-narrative amid violent circumstances – the people’s artist was contemporary of the twentieth century, her life and creative biography have clearly overlapped with the dramatic events in the history of Ukraine, including two world wars, the Soviet government coming to power, Holodomor, German occupation, a famine of 1947, political repressions of Ukrainian artists. Kateryna Bilokur’s letters to Stepan Taranushenko and other prominent cultural figures of the time are compelling evidence of her resilience, willpower and internal opposition to the system. Memories about the artist record her multiple attempts to defend her right to paint, have her own view of creativity and protest against Soviet and German occupation. Th e article studies inter-art relations between letters, memoirs, and literary works about Kateryna Bilokur and her paintings.