November 26 – Morgan Williams’ 85th Birthday

Morgan Williams, an American businessman, philanthropist, and collector of Holodomor art, was born on November 26, 1939. He would have turned 85 today.

Його знайомство з Україною відбулося ще на початку 1990-х років. Опікуючись тут питаннями сільського господарства, він дізнався про Голодомор 1932—1933 років. Американець був вражений трагічною історією чужого народу та масштабним приховуванням цього злочину. His acquaintance with Ukraine occurred in the early 1990s. While taking care of agricultural issues there, he learned about the Holodomor of 1932-1933. The American was struck by the tragic history of a foreign people and the large-scale cover-up of this crime. This ultimately led to the fact that this topic was almost not reflected upon by artists. “Around 1995, I contacted James Mace, who was a well-known Holodomor researcher and worked in Kyiv. I shared with him that there was very little visual material about the Holodomor. Few photographs, no paintings, no music… And he told me about the large-scale cover-up that had lasted for many years,” Morgan Williams recalled.

The philanthropist began collecting posters and artwork about the Holodomor and encouraged artists to create such works. Thus, canvas after canvas, a collection began to emerge, which Morgan Williams himself called “Canvases That Never Were.” It became the largest collection of works about the Holodomor in the world.

The collector dreamt that his art collection would find a worthy place in our museum. Unfortunately, he did not have time to do this personally – he unexpectedly passed away in June of this year. Today, this dream has come true: the Holodomor Museum has recently received a collection as a gift from the donator’s heirs. It consists of over 700 storage units, most of which are works of art, as well as books, brochures, stamps, envelopes, and badges related to the Holodomor theme. The authors of the paintings are famous artists Vira Barynova-Kuleba, Ivan Baldukha, Taras and Yurii Honcharenko, Viktor Zaretsky and others. The collection also includes linocuts by Mykola Bondarenko from the “Cookbook” series, graphics by Volodymyr Kutkin from the “GULAG” series, drawings by Yevhenia Dallas, Mykhailo Ivanchenko, Ilko Myronenko, etc.

We are deeply grateful to the collector’s heirs for their generous gift and to the American-Ukrainian Business Council (USUBC), which Mr Williams chaired for a long time, for their assistance in transferring the collection. Unfortunately, we cannot personally thank Morgan Williams— a Ukrainian in spirit, if not by birth for the significant effort he dedicated to bringing this collection to fruition. However, we are convinced that he finds comfort in knowing that the art collection now has a home and will be preserved in the main commemorative site of the Holodomor.

More about the art collection can be found in an interview with Director General Lesia Hasydzhak for Radio Kultura. Link to the broadcast is here.