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EXPOSITION “Return to the Native Land”

Ivan Savenko was born on January 17, 1924, in Varvarivka village, (Dolynska district, Kirovohrad region) in a wealthy family of grain growers with Cossack roots. During the period of collectivization and dekulakization, he and his parents were sent to Siberia. The tragic story of the artist's family became a peculiar illustration of the horror of that time when people were weaned from their native land, homes, their property was taken away, and they were abducted to the places where nature tested their will, and they had to survive. In the 1930s, he studied at a secondary school in the Urals, later in Kyzelovsk Mining School. Then he was involved in the Second World War which made serious changes in the formation of the young man as an artist. Ivan Savenko, as Ilya Repin in his days, had to relearn drawing with his left hand, because he lost his right limb near Kakhovka in the distant 1943... The surgeon who rescued young Ivan asked him whom he wanted to become, and Savenko replied that he wanted to study at the art institute. The doctor advised not to get upset and reminded of Repin. From that time everything changed, for the whole he was training his left hand by tracing sticks and circles out. And he managed to master the complex art of being left-handed. His son, Mykola, wrote about it: “...It seems that fate imposes the death sentence. But at the cost of incredible will power, he makes incredible... becomes a left-handed person...”

In 1944, his dream came true – he entered Kyiv Art Institute. And then followed trips to the countries of the former Soviet Union, work in the workshop and teaching profession. Particular attention was paid to landscapes – he tried to create a generalized image of nature in them, to show the distance, perspective, infinity of native spaces.

At the early stage of creative work, I. Savenko was characterized by unusual poetry and excessive detailization, but time and experience shaped new style features – the compositions became more laconic and austere, paint strokes were laid on the canvas sweepingly and free, copying the plasticity of the shapes. His paintings are lyrical, philosophical, they impress by the depth of the images and the game of color range. While painting, he used his own special ground, his own technology. He stood on his knees and stretched the canvas with his teeth so that it “rang.” The surrounding beauty of nature became his muse, model, mysterious companion. In 1952, he was affiliated to the Artists’ Union of the USSR. He participated in many exhibitions. The well-known artist Tetyana Yablonska described Savenko this way: “I am still affected by this artist’s inexhaustible love of nature, art and his tirelessness in work.”

The exposition “Return to the Native Land” presents a portrait of Ivan Savenko's mother “Grain Grower Yevdokiia Pazenko” (1969), which was transferred to the stock collection of the Kirovograd Regional Art Museum in December 2017 by the artist's nephew with the assistance of the historian, ethnographer, PhD in Economics Vladyslav Serdiuk and the chairman of the regional organization of the National Union of Ethnographers of Ukraine, director of the State Archive of Kirovohrad region Oleh Babenko. This is the story of a happy return to the native land. A sad face of an elderly woman, sitting on the bench, with a piercing, clear look of the brown eyes, is in the portrait. Work-weary hands lie on her knees. An artist made a particular accent on them, as these hands worked hard in the field for the whole life, giving life to spikes which gave birth the bread. Near the bench a loaf of bread is depicted, on the other side of the mother is a bundle of spikes, and the embroidery is behind. This is not just a painting, but the real “portrait-biography” in which the figure, the seal of sadness on the face and the interior tell about the tragedy of the artist's family and at the same time about the tragedy of the entire Ukrainian nation. By the way, Savenko was fond of writing several variants of his work. Portrait of the mother was not an exception. In 1976 and 1979 several more variants were painted. The image and the posture of the mother were the same, but the ornament, the coloring of the clothes and the interior had variations. You can have a look at these works of the artist in the book “I. Savenko. Selected Works,” which is shown in the exposition along with other materials.

The return of the portrait of Ivan Savenko's mother made a start on the acquaintance and friendship between Kirovograd Regional Art Museum and Liudmyla Ivanivna Zabashta, the wife of the Honoured Artist of Ukraine Vasyl Zabashta who was a good friend and colleague of our artist-countryman.

The article in the newspaper “The Day” about the transfer of the painting “Grain Grower Yevdokiia Pazenko” (1969) to the stock collection of the museum excited her and aroused a desire to share interesting information about the artist. Liudmyla Ivanivna transferred the book of V. Zabashta “The World Through the Eyes of an Artist,” published in 2009 which contains warm memories about Ivan Savenko, to the stock collection of the museum.

The talented artist-countryman left this world on the sixty-fourth year of life on December 17, 1987, in Leningrad (at present Saint Petersburg). At a time of current events and uneasy relations with Russia, it is very important that his works began returning to his native land.

Anna Nedlinska – research officer

of the department of the scientific and educational work

of Kirovograd Regional Art Museum