Works by Ukrainian artist Volodymyr Kutkin digitised

As part of the “History Preserved in Digital Format” project, the Holodomor Museum team has begun crucial work – digitising items from our museum collection.

This project was made possible by the House of Europe Cultural Heritage Digitisation Grant Program.

Among the digitised museum objects, the graphics of prominent Ukrainian artist Volodymyr Kutkin hold a special place.

Volodymyr Kutkin (1926—2003) – an Honoured Artist and People’s Artist of Ukraine. He developed and consolidated the best traditions of Ukrainian fine art of the 1920s and 1930s. The artist worked in various genres: easel and book graphics, painting, and monumental art. He dedicated many of his works to the themes of Taras Shevchenko’s work.

Despite his hard fate, Volodymyr Kutkin demonstrated incredible strength of spirit. In the 1950s, as a student, he was imprisoned and went through the horrors of the Gulag. But even the camps did not break him, and he returned to creativity, creating a powerful cycle of works dedicated to the prisoners of the Gulag.

The series of graphics titled “Famine-33,” created by the artist in 1988, holds special significance for our museum. As an eyewitness to the Holodomor, Kutkin reflected his memories in art. From now on, these works will be preserved in digital format.

As fellow artist Hennadiy Poliovyi noted, Volodymyr Kutkin was “able, like no other, to feel the sore nerve of modernity, able to raise a topic for which someone else would lack the courage, spiritual fire, and compassion. Throughout his life, he professed one idea: to create a large-scale image of Ukraine in the light and tragic moments of its history…”

The project “History Preserved in Digital Format” is supported by the European Union under the House of Europe program. Follow our updates to learn more about the implementation of this project.