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Personal exhibition "Through the thorns" devoted to the 115th anniversary of the birth of the famous artist Petro Kodiev (1899 - 1968).

The artist was born in July 25, 1899 in the city Novogeorgievsk, Kherson province. The family was poor, that’s why he did not get a school education. Life path took him through the flames of civil war. After the war he witnessed the restoration of the Donbass and from the Kadievsky mine he was sent to study at the Kiev art Institute in 1929. His dream of becoming a professional artist began to be fulfilled.

Being a student in 1931 Petro was approved by the Director of the Kyiv art College and invited teaching coryphaeus of Ukrainian art: I. Izhakevich, V. Pashchenko, G. Pivovarov, A. Futerman. The school of realistic art which was formed here, within the walls of the College, played a role in the development of Ukrainian art, although the College did not last long, only until 1934. In the same yar of 1934 Petro was chosenas the Executive Secretary of the Leningrad Union of artists of Ukraine. At the same time he introduced a new in Ukraine case - restoration of works of art. And in 1938, the Council of people's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR was organized by the State research and restoration workshop in Kiev, which was led by Petro Kodiev.

During the great Patriotic war he was the director of the art Fund of art museums of Ukraine but which were evacuated to Ufa. The period of stay in Ufa was hardly the most productive in the creative fullness of the artist. Arriving to Kiev in December 1944, Petro returns the collection in good condition to their owners - the museums. There was a workshop chaired by L. Kalinichenko in Kiev.

Petro Kodiev takes the baton from L. Kalinichenko and again becomes the Director of the restoration workshops until 1962. Even now the living traditions which were made by this tireless worker, artist and citizen in the walls of the workshop (now national research and restoration center of Ukraine) are present. The artist sought to incarnate them in the paintings of the thoughts and feelings of people saw. The very same frightening image of the war - of course could not lie on the artist's canvas. Until the last days he did not cease to work on the embodiment of a terrible war experiences. This can be seen in the works of "Nabat" (1954), "Spring in the trenches" (1946). By the way, the artist had been working on sketches for several decades for the painting "Occupation", perfecting it. The last one was written in 1968. He was interested in not only the theme of the great Patriotic war but also the heroic past of Ukraine. He was especially fond of specific genres such as still life, portraits, landscapes, full of inspiration and joyful rise, lyricism. In the genre diversity of the creative heritage of the artist there are the works "Flowers. Still life" (1959), "November" (1963), "Moonlit night" (1952), "Evening melody" (1950).Petro remembered that when he was drawing, he always wanted to write at least a few poetic lines about what he’d seen.He got great pleasure from such picturesque and poetic sketches. Thinking about painting, he never forgot about poetry, which has enriched his understanding of the world. Therefore, working on paintings, often wrote poems. Here are the lines of one of them:

"Oh, the earth, my dear mother, How much you’ve taken in your depths So much that we fought hard for you, So you would always be free! So that you grew and grew The enemies are all cursed in fear, To thy glory bubbled The whole planet in the ages to come".

These lines have not lost their relevance even now, especially in the light of recent events. During his life Petro did not have to arrange any of his solo exhibitions and only after the artist's death there was opened five personal exhibitions during the last decade in Kirovohrad. The artist died in December 21, 1968 in Kyiv.

The works of our countryman are exhibited in the National art Museum of Ukraine, the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko. Kirovograd regional art Museum has about thirty works, documents, pictures and the monographic book "Petro IvanovichKodiev" which was written by the daughter of Petro. She is the art historian and doctor of Culturology. This book contains the memories of friends, family and colleagues. So, he is not forgotten, remember him, and young people, looking at his works, discovers a priceless painter.

All these works, documents, photographs are presented at this exhibition.

Our museum staff has been keeping a close contact with the family of Petro for almost twenty years. Elena and her husband Yuri are dear guests in Kirovograd Regional Art Museum and duringevery visit they always fill up the creative heritage collection by Petro’s books, artworks, photographs etc. And the opening of this exhibition was no exception. During the VernissageOlenaKodievapresented to the stock collection of the Museum a picture of his father, "Where boats match" (60’s  of XX century) and a photograph of Petro.

 

Valentina Nozhenko - chief custodian of the funds of the Kirovograd Regional Art Museum