01/23/2016 2 860 0 Jadaha

Interesting

If just a year ago, little was known in Europe itself about the great country of Ukraine, which is located in the very heart of Europe, but now our country has become known to almost every resident, not only of Europe, but of the whole world.

But what do they really know about us, other than the revolution that took place here? At best, Europeans can call the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. But few people know that this is the most ancient capital of the world. It is generally accepted that Kyiv is only 1500 years old. This is what Soviet politicians once decided for some reason. In fact, our entire civilization began from the Kyiv lands, when the avatar (leader, authoritative leader) Rama led people with him to the banks of the Dnieper. This was about 7500 years ago.

We can be proud that it was in the Ukrainian lands that a new human era was born. Ukraine occupies a very large territory, which contains a quarter of the world's standard black soils. It is one of the first and best seven global producers of vegetable oils. Ukrainian land gives birth to such talents in various fields that are known throughout the world. It seems that when the Lord distributed land and brains, Ukraine was first in line. There are a lot interesting facts worthy of being known. The world's first largest cargo-lifting aircraft was developed by the Ukrainian design bureau Antonov. This is the famous An-225 Mriya, which is now used for heavy cargo transportation. By the way, the world's first helicopter and four-engine airplane were also designed by our great fellow countryman Igor Sikorsky.

The First World Constitution also appeared in Ukraine back in 1710 on April 5 under the authorship of Hetman Philip Orlik. It was called “The Constitution of the Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporozhye Army.” For example, in America the Constitution first appeared only in 1787, and in 1791 in Poland and France.

Ukraine holds the world leadership not only in honey production in general, but also per capita. And the first frame evidence was invented by our fellow countryman Pyotr Prokopovich back in the early 19th century.

The biggest monasteries are called Laurels. There are six of them all over the world and half are in Ukraine! These are: Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv; Pochaev Holy Dormition Lavra in Pochaev; Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra in Svyatoshrsk, Donetsk region.

Ukraine is famous not only for its “brains”, but also for being the first in Eastern Europe educational institution. In 1615, the Kiev-Mohyla Academy was founded, which not only successfully exists to this day, but is also considered the most prestigious educational institution in our country.

In 1899-1902 V South Africa The Anglo-Boer War was going on. The commander of one Boer detachment, Ukrainian Yuri Budyak, saved a journalist from England from execution. Later, this same journalist helped the brave commander enter the University of Oxford. After his studies, Budyak served in the Ukrainian government. He died in a Soviet concentration camp at the end of World War II. The English journalist whom Yuri saved was named Winston Churchill.

Composer Nikolai Leontovich from Ukraine owns the most recognizable and sought-after musical composition"Shchedrik." Throughout the world this melody is known as Carol of the Bells or Ring Christmas Bells.

The longest historical route passed through Ukrainian territory - “the path from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Its length was 3 thousand kilometers. A unique system of river routes was built that connected Ancient Rus' with the southern Russian lands, and the Black Sea with the Baltic. That is, Kievan Rus served as a kind of bridge between Eastern Europe and the Ancient East.

In nature there is a rare phenomenon called “singing sands”. They “sing” after rain, when a thin crust forms on the sand surface. Walking along this sand, you can hear amazing sounds, reminiscent of the whistle of air released from a rubber bladder. Anyone who wants to encounter such a miracle of nature is welcome to Ukraine! Namely, on the branch of the Dnieper there is a spit near the Lapinka River, which is not far from Nikopol.

The great master Picasso admired the paintings of the Ukrainian artist Ekaterina Belokur (1900-1961). He described her work as “brilliant.”

Honore de Balzac was married to a Ukrainian woman, Evelina Ganskaya. This was in Berdichev in 1850. Also, the king of waltzes, Frederic Chopin, lived in this place for a long time.

In the Ukrainian Tsyurupinsk there is the largest European desert (the old name is Oleshki). The Oleshkovskaya desert acquired its current appearance due to the constant grazing of sheep on it, which destroyed all the grass. At a depth of 300-500 meters of this desert there is a fresh lake with the most delicious water. However, scientists have determined that this water cannot be extracted, as this will lead to dangerous subsidence of the sands.

In 1887, with the help of precision measuring instruments, the geographical center of Europe was established. It is located in Ukraine and is located in Transcarpathia, in the village of Dilove, Rakhiv district. Like this!

The best of the best:

  • The cave in Podolia containing gypsum is the largest. Its length is 216 km and its depth is 20 m. It is called “Optimistic” and is second in size only to Mammoth Cave in America.
  • Ukrainian trembita is the longest musical instrument.
  • In Ukraine, in the Rivne region, the oldest oak tree lives. Its age is 1300 years.
  • Arsenalnaya metro station is the deepest and is located in Kyiv. Its depth is 105 m. It was one of the first built in 1960, near the House of Parliament. Rumor has it that it has underground hiding places for political leaders.
  • The trolleybus route, with a length of 86 km, has the longest length. It goes from Simferopol to Yalta.
  • Kiev Khreshchatyk is the shortest street among all the capital's streets. Its length is 1225 m. However, it is also the widest street.
  • The third most visited McDonald's in the world is located in Kyiv near the railway station.
  • The oldest geographical map was found by scientists in the Rivne region. It is about 15,000 years old and was carved on mammoth bones.
  • The most environmentally friendly launch vehicles are produced by the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk.
The flower kingdom of Ekaterina Belokur: 10 facts about the artist. Part 1.

Ekaterina Vasilievna Belokur (Ukrainian Katerina Vasylivna Bilokur; November 25 (December 7) 1900 - June 10, 1961) - master of Ukrainian folk decorative painting.

Flowers in the Fog, 1940. Oil on canvas



Flowers and viburnum, 1940. Oil on canvas


It is difficult to find a case in the history of art when the desire to become an artist encounters as many difficulties as Ekaterina Belokur had to overcome. The dream of a girl from a simple peasant family came true not thanks to, but in spite of fate. Almost all her life she had to fight for the right to paint, and despite this, her paintings radiate worship and admiration for the gifts of nature. Wildflowers and garden flowers, adored by the artist, are like a mirror of pure, fiery and tender soul, reflect the view of the world of an enchanted little girl.

1. "I want to be an artist"
Ekaterina Belokur was born in 1900, in the village of Bogdanovka near Kiev, into a family of peasants and nothing foreshadowed her becoming an artist. At the beginning of the twentieth century, girls in villages faced a completely different fate - early marriage, caring for husbands and children, housework, and work in the fields.


Portrait of Ekaterina Belokur by her only student and fellow villager Anna Samarskaya


Little Katri's dreams were completely different - from early childhood the girl wanted to draw. And despite the fact that it was impossible to get either paints or paper in the village, she made homemade brushes from twigs and scraps of wool, and painted on pieces of canvas that she took from her mother, or on planks that she found from her father. I felt especially envious of my younger brother, who was sent to school, because he had notebooks!



One day Katerina took one of them and painted it with wonderful drawings. Hoping to please her parents, she hung her fairy-tale pictures in the room. The father, noticing such creativity, burned them in the stove. Since then, her parents not only forbade her to draw, but punished her with rods, wanting to wean her from a useless activity.



“Fate tests those who dare to go towards a great goal, but no one will catch the strong in spirit; with clenched hands, they stubbornly and boldly go towards their intended goal. And then fate rewards them a hundredfold and reveals to them all the secrets of truly beautiful and incomparable art.”
Ekaterina Bilokur


Bouquet of flowers 1954. Oil on canvas


2. Brilliant self-taught
Catherine did not spend a single day at school. She learned to read on her own in almost a week using the ABC book her father gave her. And then the girl had to read her favorite books secretly from her mother, who found everything new job to distract my daughter from books.


Bouquet of flowers, 1960. Oil on canvas


The lack of primary education prevented Katerina from studying at art school. In the 1920s, she went to Mirgorod to enter art school, taking with her best drawings, but without a certificate the documents were not accepted.


Dahlias, 1957. Oil on canvas


3. The right to draw
The girl continued to draw, but her parents’ resistance continued. In 1934, driven to despair by her mother's persecution, she tried to drown herself in the river in front of her eyes. Only after the suicide attempt did my mother allow me to draw and did not force me to get married, and Katerina, who caught a cold in her feet in cold water, remained disabled for the rest of her life.


Decorative flowers, 1945. Oil on canvas


4. Flower symphony by the artist
Ekaterina Belokur became famous for her floral arrangements. The artist painted every flower and all her works are distinguished by careful detail. A craftswoman could work on one painting for a year. In winter she painted flowers from memory, but in spring and summer she worked both in the field and in the garden and could even walk 30 km to the neighboring Pyryatinsky forest to paint lilies of the valley.


Collective farm field, 1948-1949. Canvas, oil


It is known that the artist never picked flowers. She said: “A plucked flower is like a lost destiny.” Maybe that’s why her living bouquets with peonies, daisies, roses, hollyhocks, and lilies have a special magic, captivating viewers!

5. Long-awaited recognition
Ekaterina Belokur became a famous artist at the age of 40, and chance helped. Once she heard on the radio the song “Chi I am in Luzi not Kalina Bula” performed by Oksana Petrusenko.

I'm not in a pot of viburnum,
Why am I not in the pocket for chervona?
They took me and broke me
I was tied into buns.
This is my lot!
Gorka is my share!

The words of the song touched the artist so much that she wrote a letter to the famous Kyiv singer. After talking about her personal drama and dream, she enclosed a drawing of a viburnum tree. Petrusenko became interested in the fate of the talented girl and showed it to her acquaintances in Kyiv artists. Very soon, representatives of the Poltava House of Creativity came to Ekaterina in Bogdanovka. And a miracle happened: the amazing works of an unknown but gifted artist were selected for a personal exhibition. The first exhibition of her paintings was held in Poltava, and soon in Kyiv.


Mallows and roses, 1954-1958. Canvas, oil



Still life with ears of corn and a jug 1958-59. Canvas, oil


6. God's gift
Many of Belokur's still lifes today are compared to French still life, and the dark background is associated with Dutch painting of the old masters. Meanwhile, Katerina Belokur never learned to draw professionally, but called nature her teacher. For the first time, the artist visited museums in Kyiv and Moscow after her personal exhibitions. Art critics call the artist a nugget, a talent from God.


Garden flowers, 1952-1953 Oil on canvas


After the war, Belokur's paintings were regularly acquired by the Kiev Folk Museum decorative arts. Today, most of the works of the national artist are stored in this museum and in Yagotinskaya art gallery, there are almost no paintings in private collections. In total, Catherine created about a hundred works during her life.


Monument to Ekaterina Belokur in Yagotin



Anniversary vase for the 90th anniversary of Ekaterina Vasilievna Belokur. Sculptor - Ukader Yu. A. Yagotinskaya art gallery


7. Picasso fan
After the war, Catherine received worldwide recognition. Three paintings by Belokur: “Tsar Ear of Spike”, “Birch Tree” and “Collective Farm Field” participated in the international exhibition in Paris in 1954.


Tsar Kolos (variant), 1950s. Canvas, oil


Having seen them, Picasso inquired about their author, and when he was told that these were the works of a simple peasant woman, he said: “If we had an artist of this level of skill, we would make the whole world talk about her.”

Apparently, not only Picasso was captivated by Belokur’s paintings; after the exhibition, during transportation to the USSR, the paintings were stolen. And they still haven't been found.


Flowers on a yellow background, 1950s. Canvas, oil



Peonies, 1946. Oil on canvas


8. Loneliness
Catherine’s personal life did not work out. She was an attractive girl and there were enough admirers in her native village, but none of them understood her passion for painting. The suitors were surprised and demanded to leave their creative dreams, saying “How? My wife will be a mop!? And Katerina was in no hurry to get married. Already in adulthood, she felt loneliness, she really wanted to share her joys and sorrows with a loved one, but in the village they did not understand her. She left her thoughts and experiences in letters to Kyiv art critics with whom she corresponded, and in her autobiography. All her lines are imbued with lyricism and sincere trust.


Wildflowers, 1941. Oil on canvas



Wheat, flowers, grapes, 1950-1952. Canvas, oil



Gorobchiki (Vorbiishki), 1940. Canvas, oil


9. People's artist
Despite the fact that Belokur’s paintings were bought by museums, her exhibitions were constantly held, Catherine was awarded the title of People’s Artist and given a large pension, she did not bask in the rays of fame. The artist still lived in her old parents’ house, and besides, she was caring for her sick mother, and she herself was already sick with cancer. Before last day I painted my favorite flowers with homemade paints and brushes, because spring was still in the artist’s soul.


“Self-portrait”, 1950 Paper, pencil



“Self-portrait”, 1955 Paper, pencil



“Self-portrait”, 1957 Paper, pencil


10. Museum-Estate E. Belokur
A memorial museum has been opened in Bogdanovka, where the artist was born and spent her entire life. Near the house there is a monument to E. Belokur, the work of her nephew, Ivan Belokur.



The house contains personal belongings, the artist’s documents, some paintings, and the last work, which Catherine did not have time to finish, stands on an easel - dahlias on a blue background.


Dahlias on a blue background




Flowers grow around Belokur’s house, as during her lifetime. Catherine wrote about them so enthusiastically and so sincerely in one of her letters: “So how can you not draw them when they are so beautiful? Oh my God, as you look around, this one is beautiful, and that one is even better, and that one is even more wonderful! And they seem to lean towards me and say: “Who will draw us then, how will you leave us?” Then I’ll forget everything in the world and start painting flowers again.”


“If we had an artist of this level of skill, we would make the whole world talk about her!”
Pablo Picasso

Around. 1940s

"Happy", 1950

"Dream", 1940

“Near the Shramkivsky district on Cherkasy land”, 1955-56


“Hut in Bogdanivtsi”, 1955

Violent. 1944-1947

Flowers on a blue background.

Watermelon, carrots, flowers. 1951

Flowers over the fence. 1935

The artist's life was difficult. But despite the failures and disappointments: ridicule from fellow villagers, rejection from art institutions due to lack of education, Bilokur still achieves his goal. In 1940 in the Poltava house folk art The artist’s first personal exhibition of 11 paintings took place, which caused real delight among the public. And all this happened as fate would have it - when Bilokur sent a letter with her drawing to singer Oksana Petrusenko, who captivated the woman’s gaze and forced her to go in search of an original artist. Since then, her name has become famous, although Katerina remains in Bogdanovka. There she had her own students; the then director of the Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Arts, Vasily Nagai, once came to see her there, purchasing her works. Therefore, today it is this institution that has the best collection of works of “naive” art by the Ukrainian artist, and last year’s retrospective exhibition at the Mystetsky Arsenal entitled “Katerina Bilokur. I want to be an artist!” was mainly built from the exhibits of this museum.

Her source of inspiration was folklore. Taking into account the texts of songs, fairy tales and legends, Bilokur worked with folk art, which was part of her worldview. Therefore, when she painted from life in the open air (plein air), this did not stop her from imagining. Bilokur managed to “collect” the flowers he saw on the canvas into lush floral compositions, in which one flower could be spring and another autumn. It was in such works that she showed her talent to the fullest. And, by the way, she was aware of this: “I do flowers well, portraits are so-so, but I’m not good with landscapes.”
“But as soon as it gets warmer, the snow melts from the ground and there are warm days, I will go out again and learn to draw landscapes.” This “go out and study again” is precisely the principle that has passed through creative path Bilokur, the path of continuous search and discovery.

Master of Ukrainian folk decorative painting, People's Artist of Ukraine. Original representative " naive art" Included in the unofficial list of 100 best artists Ukraine.

(December 7 (November 25), 1900, Bogdanovka village, Piryatinsky district, Poltava province - June 10, 1961, Bogdanovka village, Yagotinsky district, Kyiv region)

“Wherever I go, I don’t hesitate, and those that I decided to paint follow me. I’ll go to bed, and I’ll feel it, and I’ll see it, and I’ll make sure that I don’t throw it, that I don’t tug at it, that I paint it, that it’s on the paper, that it’s on the canvas.” . Katerina Bilokur

“If we had an artist of this level of skill, 

we would make the whole world talk about it.”
Pablo Picasso.

The work of a self-taught artist from the village of Bogdanovka belongs to best achievements Ukrainian culture XX century. Katerina Belokur was awarded high titles - “Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR”, “People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR”, the Order of the Badge of Honor, but remained a simple rural woman who not only did not have an artistic education, but did not even go to school. God sent her great talent as a painter and a heart open to beauty native land, but did not give family happiness. Ekaterina Vasilievna splashed all the generosity of her soul and the power of unspent love onto the canvas, creating many painting masterpieces at the level of the best examples of world “naive art.”

Biography

Katerina Belokur was born into a family of fairly wealthy peasants. The girl learned to read early, so they decided not to send her to school, but to burden her more with homework. At the age of 14, Catherine began to draw, but this “meaningless activity” was strictly forbidden to her. In the early 1920s, Belokur tried to enter the Mirgorod Technical School of Artistic Ceramics, but due to lack of education, her drawings were not even looked at. In Bogdanovka, the girl began studying in a drama club, tried to enter the Kiev Theater College, but the lack of a seven-year education certificate again thwarted all plans. Belokur even tried to commit suicide, but in 1934 she made an irrevocable decision: “I will be an artist.” The amateur artist was most attracted oil paints. She makes the brushes herself - she selects hairs of the same length from the cat's tail. Each paint has its own brush.

In the end, 39-year-old Ekaterina Vasilievna, already an elderly woman by rural standards and having earned a reputation as an “eccentric,” wrote a letter to the famous singer Oksana Petrusenko and sent a drawing on a piece of canvas. Petrusenko was amazed and showed the work to her friends – Kasiyan and Tychyna. An order was received in Poltava - to go to Bogdanovka, find Belokur, and take an interest in her work. And in 1940, a personal exhibition of self-taught artist from Bogdanovka Ekaterina Belokur opened in the Poltava House of Folk Art. The exhibition consisted of only 11 paintings. The success was huge. Catherine was awarded a trip to Moscow. In the museums there, she was most impressed by the “little Dutchmen,” the Itinerant artists and the French impressionists.

After the war, the artist continued to work and painted her flowers, always from life, often combining spring and autumn in one picture - such a picture was created from spring to autumn. In 1949, Belokur was accepted into the Union of Artists of Ukraine, in 1951 - she was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, received the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine, and later, in 1956, - People's Artist Ukraine. Her work was studied and written about. The works of Ekaterina Belokur were regularly exhibited at exhibitions in Poltava, Kyiv, Moscow and other cities. Three paintings by Belokur - “Tsar-Ear of Ears”, “Birch Tree” and “Collective Farm Field” - were included in the exhibition Soviet art at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1954. Pablo Picasso was amazed: “If we had an artist of this level of skill, we would make the whole world talk about her!”

But in real world The Ukrainian artist lived in an old house with her sick mother and only dreamed of moving to a city apartment with all the amenities. Ekaterina Vasilievna long years I was tormented by pain in my legs, to which were added sharp pains in my stomach. Rural medicine could do little to help her. Ekaterina Belokur died at the age of 60 after surgery at the Yagotinsky district hospital.

Large collections of paintings by Ekaterina Belokur will appear in National Museum Ukrainian folk decorative art in Kyiv, the Yagotyn Art Gallery and the Museum-Estate of Ekaterina Belokur in the village of Bogdanovka.

The 20th century is almost gone... What did it leave us? Is it just world wars, revolutions, human suffering? Not only. He also left the richest spiritual heritage, suffered and created the best people centuries. Among them are many wonderful cultural figures who are well known to everyone, but there are also those about whom we know almost nothing. Among them is the Ukrainian peasant artist Katerina Belokur, whose creative and life feat is one of the rare pages in the history of painting. Her work, shown at the 1958 UNESCO exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, was praised by Pablo Picasso. This year 2000, December 7 marks the 100th anniversary of her birth.

This essay was written back in 1986 and was then performed by the author on the Rodina radio station.

The arrangement of crystals and colors indicates how perfection increases.

E.I. Roerich

I entered the next hall of the museum with the intention of politely glancing at its exhibition and heading out. After Maria Priymachenko, a peasant artist, whose paintings with her fantastic animals, roosters and flowers you can stand for hours, laughing and crying with delight and gratitude to the old woman with the eyes and soul of a brilliant child, after such a vivid impression there was no point in continuing to explore the museum further. I had to leave, and my path lay through the hall, where I entered, looking around indifferently. She entered and... stopped.

Imagine that from a peasant hut with bright festive decorations, with the warm smell of baked bread, with a fairy tale hidden on the stove, you suddenly find yourself in the shining palaces of a magic castle, in the mysterious blue world of the Lady of Flowers, the Lilac Fairy. This was roughly the contrast between what I had just seen and what was revealed to me.

The paintings hanging here went so far beyond the scope of folk art, they were so striking in their sophistication and sophistication, they were painted at such a level of professional skill that I doubted whether this room belonged to the museum of folk decorative art on the territory of the Kyiv Lavra, or whether it was located here. another exhibition. But this was the hall of the museum’s permanent exhibition, a hall dedicated to the work of People’s Artist of Ukraine Katerina Belokur. I approached one of the paintings.

Constellations of daisies and cornflowers, yellow buttercups and pink clover, white flowers of strawberries and violets, galaxies of some small inflorescences, gradually appearing through the blue haze of fog, filling the canvas, go up, intertwining with ears, berries and flowers of viburnum, rose hips, melting stars loach, forming a space of deep blue around a bright golden flower, like the sun. Remember Yesenin: “Only blue sucks eyes.” It really sucks in your gaze - this space, it sucks in like a funnel, where in its gaping depths a window into infinity opens for you. Infinity of beauty...

Flowers and space... Together, these concepts, at first glance, are so unexpected that I would hardly have dared to combine them if not for the paintings of Katerina Belokur.

Having given humanity the word “cosmos,” the ancient Greeks included in it the concept of not just extraterrestrial space and the Universe. The etymology of this word is structure, order, decoration. And its generalizing meaning means an infinite variety of worlds existing together according to the laws of beauty and harmony.

According to the laws of harmony and beauty, Katerina Belokur painted her paintings. And among them - amazing canvas, which I just talked about - “Wildflowers”. I would call this picture, like, perhaps, the entire work of the Ukrainian artist, “The Space of Katerina Belokur,” and the fate of an amazing woman, “Through Thorns to the Stars.”

K. Belokur. Wildflowers

Entering the hall, I did not immediately notice the portrait of the artist - her paintings stunned me so much, and when I turned around, I saw on the canvas an elderly woman in a headscarf and padded jacket. And this peasant woman with hands calloused from the earth created such canvases?! Incomprehensible! At first it was impossible to combine the paintings and the image of the peasant woman who created them. “Where does a simple Ukrainian woman have such artistry, such a subtle aesthetic sense, such an attractive, almost magical power of the spirituality inherent in the paintings?” - wrote about her famous writer Oles Gonchar. This means that I was not the only one who was struck by the apparent incompatibility between the artist’s image and her work. Seemingly until I saw her self-portrait. No, she didn’t embellish herself in any way. The same peasant scarf, the same quilted jacket, more wrinkles on the face. But the penetrating power of the gaze spoke of such talent, so it asked us (remember Tyutchev: “How can the heart express itself? How can another understand you?”).

K. Belokur. Self-portrait. 1950

And, asking, she responded with such a frenzied thirst in her eyes - a thirst to reveal her world to us, people, so that we would understand how beautiful it is, this world of hers, and why she, Katrya Belokur, laid her life on it. Seeing these eyes, you understood that only such a gift, such a passion could bring to life canvases of fantastic beauty and power of imagination. Fantastic, although every flower or fruit was painted with realistic precision and skill, which many years of school and traditions of high artistic and professional culture give to the painter - everything that Katerina Belokur achieved only on her own, without a single class in either ordinary or art school.

In letters, excerpts from which are given here, Katerina Belokur, who had already become a People's Artist, in her declining years (she lived only 60, having been born in 1900), tells cultural figures and folk art specialists about her life:

“It used to be that I would take a piece of white linen from my mother, take a piece of coal and crawl into a corner somewhere so that no one would see or hear me, and I would begin to draw houses, mills, and trees in black and white.<...>

K. Belokur. Apple tree branch. 1955

And sometimes I’ll start drawing something that’s, as they say, fantastic—sometimes funny, sometimes scary, and sometimes amazing, attractive, that you can’t get enough of. And I will hang my creations in secluded place and I’m surprised, and I cry over them, and I laugh like crazy because I was able to do this. Mom used to even cry. “Look,” he says, “God punished us with such a daughter! People at this age have already got married, their mothers have sons-in-law, but ours, it will not be said by night, is drawing devils.” And in the fall of 1933 I told my father and mother: “I can’t put this off any longer, but I will learn to draw.” And my father looked at me as if I had told him that I would put up a ladder and climb to the moon: “Where have you heard of this, that an uneducated peasant woman suddenly becomes an artist? Yes, the world has never seen anything like this!” “Well, if you haven’t seen it, then let him see it,” I answered, wiping away my tears. “Well, draw, damn you! You don’t listen to swearing or words, and I’m tired of beating!”

Unfortunately, this did not end the attempts to break Katri’s decision to seriously engage in drawing. One day, driven to despair, she told her parents that she would not live if she was not allowed to do what she loved. On a cold November day, in front of her parents' eyes, she entered the water of a rural pond. First knee-deep, then waist-deep, chest-deep... And only when the water reached her throat did she hear from the shore: “Come out!” Draw!

You ask if I received advice from anyone in creative work? Oh, dear comrades, I have never received any advice. Somewhat too much remote place we have that there are no artists, no art critics nearby. And if my work is valuable, then only it is my own and was obtained with great love and bullish stubbornness. And if there are any shortcomings in it, then there is no one to blame either - neither the school nor the teachers.”

This is what Katerina Belokur’s “universities” were like. And if it weren’t for the Poltava House of Folk Art, which opened Belokur’s paintings and extended a helping hand, then people would not have seen her paintings and the untold beauty, the Space of Katerina Belokur, would have gone with her.

But I found out about this later, and then in the museum I experienced such an artistic shock that it was impossible to leave without a reminder about the artist - at least some kind of postcard. So I ended up in the office of the director of the Museum, Nina Leonidovna Rossoshinskaya, a passionate admirer of Belokur, and learned that 150 kilometers from Kyiv is the artist’s native village, Bogdanovka, and a memorial house-museum. Everything was decided in one moment - I’m going tomorrow!

Man has two worlds:

The One who created us

Another one that we have been since forever

We create to the best of our ability.

N. Zabolotsky

The world created by Katerina Belokur on her canvases began here - in a white Ukrainian hut, under the shadow of the patriarchal elm tree, which stands behind the fence at the gate, covering half the street with its mighty crown like a wing. And here is the old apple tree, the fruits of which are depicted in famous painting artist “Bogdanov Apples”. The tree still bears fruit, although the owner has long been gone. I pick up apples in the grass, tightly filled with the juice of this earth, which nourished the artist herself, and the flowers through which she revealed to us the beauty of the universe, the beauty of her soul.

K. Belokur. Bogdanov apples

“Or maybe you don’t write to me because you are unhappy that I only draw flowers? So why not draw them if they are so beautiful? - she addresses in a letter to one of the art critics. “I myself, as soon as I start a painting of flowers, I think: I’ll finish this one, then I’ll paint something from human life.” But by the time I finish, pictures appear in my head, one more wonderful than the other - and all flowers. And when spring comes and the flowers bloom, oh, my God! As you look: that flower is beautiful, and this one is even more beautiful, and that one is even more beautiful! And it’s as if they lean towards me and almost say: “Who will draw us then if you leave us?” And I forget about everything and draw flowers again.”

It was Katerina Belokur who first made me think about what a flower is? Wasn't it created by God, by nature, specifically for man, to teach him an understanding of harmony? Who else needs a flower in our world and why? — Insects, butterflies, bees that it attracts bright color, smell, nectar. The flower itself also needs this for pollination. But everything that it is made up of - petals, stamens, pistil, the shape of the cup, the grace of the stem, the variety of colors - after all, only a person is capable of perceiving all this as something whole and beautiful!

By comprehending the harmony of a flower, a person himself synthesizes a new harmony. It is not for nothing that in ancient times flowers symbolized the highest feelings among people. Thus, the biblical Jews of the time of King Solomon decorated the altars of temples with lily flowers, believing that their beauty promoted a prayerful mood.

It is unlikely that peasant Katrya Belokur, who never went to school and learned to read and write on her own, read somewhere about such things. She simply knew in her heart about the divine origin and purpose of flowers, and by transferring them to canvases (often woven with her own hands), Katerina not only created a picture, she said a prayer. Remember what people say: “Working is like praying.”

And here’s what Olga Klimovna Belokur (in Bogdanovka, half the village of Belokurov), the keeper of the artist’s memorial house, says: “You know, she was in a hurry all the time and kept working while standing. And I painted while standing, and I sewed on a typewriter while standing. He says, as long as I sit down, I’ll get up... it was a pity for time. I tried to be on time. Sometimes I had to talk to her: when do you read literature? She says when I eat. He stokes the stove and says: how long has it taken! I wish I could draw so many!

She is a person who did not think about a career; she devoted herself entirely to drawing and art. I knew her since 1947. As soon as I saw her deep gaze, I remembered her eyes. A sincere person, she looked into your very soul. She was very kind.

In the studio there are only her homemade brushes and paints. I accomplished everything in drawing myself.

She herself perfectly studied the technique of oil painting. Even her large canvases, and there are many of them, are painted using the finest miniature technique - incredible work! She understood the composition herself; unlike professional artists, she did not make an initial sketch of a general plan on the canvas, but began immediately with some kind of flower, keeping the entire complex concept of the painting in her head.

The pinnacle of the strict and chased form -

Earth flower: Jasmine, Tulip, Gorlet,

Fireweed and Clover, Lilies and Cannes,

Lilac and Rose, Lily of the Valley, finally.

Pick any flower in the middle of a clearing—

An example of pure art.

The cutter did not allow the Creator

Not the slightest flaw!

How little communication we have with flowers!

Between beauty and vain us

There is a dull, bold line.

But don’t consider their blossoming in vain,

We will come to them - pure and beautiful,

When the bustle is unbearable.

V. Soloukhin

I was returning from Bogdanovka to Kyiv. It was August, and many people in the carriage were carrying flowers. And then I caught myself looking at them as if with new eyes: I see each one separately and not in great detail, but as if immediately grasping the character of the flower, some kind of secret essence that was inaccessible to me just yesterday. This is how we see flowers in childhood, when the freshness of our perception is not clogged with vanity, and most importantly, is not yet subject to soul-drying pragmatism. The very same thing in which the intrinsic value of beauty as such ceases to exist for us. By pushing it into the background in favor of what is more profitable and convenient for us at that moment, we have made it a servant of our consumption, forgetting that without realizing beauty as the greatest value of life, a person ceases to be a person. A flower, which personifies the beauty of nature as if in its pure form, sometimes reveals something in us that we ourselves did not even suspect.

I was 12 years old when, at a dacha near Moscow, while picking flowers by the river, I found a wild hyacinth. He grew in a tiny damp hollow. The only one. And it was so beautiful that I didn’t dare tear it off. I lay down in the grass and looked at the pale pink stars of its inflorescence for a long time. And then I decided to remember this place and stood up, looking around. And the tall grass, almost to my waist, stretching in waves towards the silvery bend of the river, and the trees at a distance, frozen in some kind of blissful languor under the caress of the still not hot morning sun - I suddenly saw all this together, as a whole, as never before. I saw and felt such happiness that I still remember that moment and the words that I repeated like a spell, standing waist-deep in the grass and looking around. “Mine,” for some reason I said to myself, “all this is mine!”

“Mine,” as I now understand, is not by right of ownership, but by right of belonging, blood relationship with these flowers, herbs, trees, with this Sun that shines for us all on planet Earth. The same kinship that Katerina Belokur so keenly felt and so fully conveyed to us through her work.

Afterword

I had already prepared the essay “The Space of Katerina Belokur” for delivery in the issue, but I was still full of thoughts about the artist and the upcoming exhibition of her paintings in International Center Roerichs. And then the phone rang: the editor of our magazine, Natalya Aleksandrovna Toots, who lives two houses away from me, said that she was visiting our author from Koktebel, a writer who personally knew Katerina Belokur!

We all seem to know about the cosmic law of the magnet of thought. But how often do we notice it? Here this law manifested itself with amazing power... Tamara Stepanovna Shevchenko, having arrived in Moscow, went to see the editor on business and suddenly, without any connection with the previous conversation, asked Natalya Alexandrovna if she knew about the wonderful Ukrainian artist Katerina Belokur?! And immediately Natalya Alexandrovna calls me, and ten minutes later they are both at my house.

This is what we learned then from Tamara Stepanovna. In 1960, she, a young journalist from the regional newspaper “Kyiv Pravda”, went on a business trip to Bogdanovka to visit the People’s Artist of Ukraine Katerina Vasilyevna Belokur. Her amazing paintings have been hanging in the Kiev Museum of Folk and Applied Arts for several years. Most of the pre-war paintings by K. Belokur, which had been kept in the Poltava Museum since 1940, burned down during the war.

So, in the cold autumn of 1960, accompanied by a photojournalist and two instructors from the district committee, Tamara Stepanovna approached the dilapidated hut where the artist lived with her 90-year-old mother. Even on the road, from the grins of the instructors, from the chuckles they exchanged with the villagers, Tamara Stepanovna realized that here they were not only not proud of Katerina Belokur, but considered her almost crazy. She doesn’t work on the collective farm, she lives only on what she grows in the garden, and she draws, draws, draws. Is this really the case?

Apparently, the “comrades” from the district committee were in solidarity with the villagers in this. That’s why, when they were the first to appear on the threshold, these “comrades” heard from Katerina Vasilievna: “Get out of my hut!” But having learned that Tamara Stepanovna was from the newspaper, the artist allowed guests into the house. The poverty and cold that reigned in the old hut with an earthen floor, with junk instead of furniture, with a pile of brushwood near the smoky stove, shocked the young journalist: how in such cold, in such light, can you still draw!

The artist herself, transparent from thinness (as it later turned out, was already terminally ill with cancer), dressed in some kind of long, black rags, amazed with the nobility of her posture, inspired face, grace of movements and amazingly expressive hands. Seeing her paintings, Tamara Stepanovna not only immediately understood the scale creative personality artist, but, having fallen in love with the canvases, she forever accepted in her heart “the eyes of the earth” - that’s what Katrya Belokur called the flowers. Katerina Vasilyevna also immediately felt a kindred spirit in the young journalist and therefore told her about herself sincerely and confidentially.

Based on her story, and inspired by the paintings, T.S. Shevchenko later wrote the script for a feature film, which, unfortunately, was never produced on screen. This happened after the death of Katerina Vasilievna Belokur. She passed away on June 9, 1961, almost on the same day as her 90-year-old mother. The artist herself was 60 years old.

After her death, art historians went to Bogdanovka from Kyiv. Having returned without a single canvas, they said that this was complete “surprise” and was not suitable for Soviet museums.

A high school mathematics teacher from the neighboring regional center of Yagotina had a completely different assessment of the ownerless paintings. He took them to make a museum in a small town on a voluntary basis. This teacher's name was A.S. Neporozhny. A posthumous “thank you” to him for saving the beauty! Thanks to those people who take care of the museum today!

Film script based on tragic fate Katerina Belokur Tamara Stepanovna is going to turn it into a story, and our magazine hopes to publish it.

K. Belokur at work in his garden

And now we offer readers a small fragment of the script. It tells, almost like a documentary, an episode about Katerina Belokur’s acquaintance with a man who at one time helped her a lot. Its prototype was the artist M.A. Dontsov.

T.S.Shevchenko

A man in red corduroy trousers, a red shirt and a beret pulled low over his forehead was sitting on the bridge at the easel and painting. The round-faced girl quietly approached and stopped behind the stranger. She looked at the artist’s drawing for a long time and suddenly said loudly:

“And our aunt Katri also has trees.” Only she's doing better.

The artist looked around and whistled:

- Tell me, I didn’t even know. It turns out there is some kind of aunt, and she draws better.

- Better! - said the girl. - You should have looked, then you would have laughed.

- Who is she, your aunt?

— Like you, she is an artist. She won’t show you anything, she doesn’t show anyone. Only for children - she teaches us to draw.

-Where does she live?

“Come on, I’ll show you,” the girl suggested, delighted. “Maybe she won’t kick you out.”

Together with the girl, the artist entered an old thatched hut. He looked at the flowers displayed on the stove and on the slab above.

“Hello,” he said to the man who was sitting on a small stool and mending his boots. - It’s beautiful here. If you look from the outside, the hut is like everyone else’s, but inside,” the artist whistled again and spread his arms, “it’s a bird of paradise, not a hut.”

“My daughter played around as a child,” Stepan Danilovich carefully examined the stranger.

“Here, here,” the artist perked up. - They say she is your artist, I would like...

“They told you a lie,” Stepan frowned.

“We don’t have any artist, it’s just self-indulgence.”

“Don’t be afraid, Uncle Stepan,” the girl looked out from behind. “They are artists themselves, they wanted to see it.”

“Why be afraid?” the man who entered was surprised. - Well, yes, I’m an artist, I want to see it. I can show you mine too!

Stepan Danilych wiped his hands on the hem of his apron, approached the artist, and respectfully shook his hand.

“Excuse me,” here one whistler, a bespectacled man, scared me. He called himself a financial inspector. My daughter says yours draws, I’ll tax you. But does she sell? Where does the money come from? She doesn't even show them to anyone. Now I’ll call Katrya, you go with her...

An elegant man in a beret and red trousers easily turned from the stove to the door and saw a woman on the threshold. She was wearing a black scarf wrapped tightly around her neck and a long black dress. The huge, half-face-length eyes did not blink and burned with such an unbearable, alarming brilliance that I wanted to shield myself. And the artist suddenly lost his ease. He awkwardly stomped on the spot, wanted to extend his hand, then hid it.

“There’s nothing to see,” Katrya said dully. - I'm not an artist. I draw this way to live. I stop - there is nothing. I'm going brown again. My paintings are just for me.

- And you don’t want to show them to people?

- I wanted to once. And then I found out... They won’t see them. They will never see. No, I don't want to. I'm telling you, I'm not an artist.

The father, who came in after his daughter and was sitting on a bench, listening to the conversation, asked excitedly:

“Show me, daughter, he’s an understanding artist.” For me daughter, for father show me.

“I can imagine mine,” said the artist. He opened the folder, pulled out a canvas, Katrya looked and flashed her lamp-like eyes:

- Oh, everything is real with you. I can not do that. No, no,” she recoiled. - I'm afraid of other people's eyes. We watched them once. For a long time. Then I couldn’t pick up the brush for a long time. Everything got dark...

- What if those people were blind? - the artist insisted. - And I have different eyes. Look,” he smiled. - They are not strangers at all.

- Do you know that there are blind people? - Katrya asked suspiciously. Approaching the artist, I looked into his eyes. And I immediately hurried.

- I’ll be there now, I’ll be there soon.

She began to take paintings out of the next room. She closed the door tightly behind her, afraid that prying eyes might penetrate into the side room. The artist looked at the canvases and said nothing.

- More, please, - more, I ask you.

— And this was not exhibited anywhere? - he suddenly asked in a whisper. - Nobody knows about this?

“No,” answered Katrya. “Even my fellow villagers didn’t see them...

The artist grabbed Katrina’s hands and squeezed them tightly:

- Don't be afraid of me, I ask you. Trust me completely. I will arrange your exhibition. People need you! I assure you, they really need you.

“I’m not a scientist,” Katrya grinned.

- Maybe this is better! - said the artist. - They didn’t have time to spoil you. You already are. You... I don't know who you are. Blue miracle. Mother of pearl.

Katrya looked at him without blinking, with a sightless gaze. Tears flowed from my eyes.

- Better not. Everyone who liked my flowers always died. Those I hoped for were gone forever.

K. Belokur. Outside the village. 1956

- I will live. I didn't come here by chance. Bridge, little girl, Aunt Katrya!.. I believe! The only thing I am destined to do is to open you...