The famous Ukrainian artist Anatoliy Haydamaka passed away

On October 27, at the age of 85, the author of the idea of the memorial complex of the Holodomor Museum, Anatoliy Vasyliovych Haydamaka, a famous Ukrainian monumental artist, People’s Artist of Ukraine, laureate of the Shevchenko Prize, honoured artist of Ukraine, passed away.

The future artist came into this world six years after the Holodomor – on June 9, 1939, in the village of Voloskivtsi, Mensky district, Chernihiv region. And then, as a small boy, he experienced hunger – in 1946-1947. The pain of the people and his own bitter experience were forever imprinted in his heart and poured out through his creativity.

Having received an art education in the field of “Monumental and decorative art”, Anatoliy Haydamaka worked as an artist-architect at the “Kyivprojekt” institute. Since 1995, he has been the chief artist of the current National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. He worked on the design of the historical and cultural reserve on Khortytsia island, the museums of Mykhailo Kotsiubinsky in Chernihiv and Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv, the Literary Museum in Odesa, the National Museum “Chernobyl” in Kyiv and other museum institutions. In 2006, he won the competition for the best project of the future Holodomor Museum.

“The idea of perpetuating the memory of the Holodomor has been bothering me for a long time, and it was an idea that matured for years. In 2006, I won the All-Ukrainian open competition for the best project of the Memorial Complex in Memory of the Victims of the Holodomors and Political Repressions. It was a fair competition at which many interesting projects were presented, Anatoliy Vasyliovych recalled in one of the interviews. — But in none of them was it proposed to build the complex where it is now. I always proposed to build only on this place, where it is now located.”

We are grateful to Anatoliy Vasyliovych for the Museum and for the fact that it appeared in this very place. Grateful for creativity and ideas… The artist was last with us in the summer at the screening of the film “Kuban Cossacks”. At that time, no one could think we would see each other for the last time.

Bright memory to you, Master…

Our condolences to the family…

Photo from open sources.