The halls of the Kyiv National Art Gallery are hosting the intermuseum exhibition project “Under the Christmas Star”. Scientists and gallery owners sought to revive public interest in Christmas-themed works of fine and decorative arts. For this purpose, authentic items were donated from the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine: folk icons of the XVII-XIX centuries, candlesticks of the early XIX century, Kosiv ceramics of the XIX-XX centuries, Christmas stars, and sashes. The project also included paintings by T. Danylych, F. Manailo, I. Marchuk, and V. Mykyta. Brands and masters of artistic ceramics take part in the exhibition.
Ukrainian and European traditions of celebrating Christmas, despite their harmonious coexistence, differ significantly. The Christmas star, shopka, and didukh are gradually joining the most common attribute of the holiday today, the decorated Christmas tree, a tradition that came to our lands from Germany in the nineteenth century. Popularization of Ukrainian Christmas artistic heritage is among the declared goals of the project. However, the exhibition still does not go beyond the level of familiarization with ethnographic material. After all, there is a need to create a Christmas canon not only in arts and crafts, but also in painting, for example. It would be great if there was a painting about Christmas that was well known and highly appreciated by all Ukrainians, for example, like Mykola Pymonenko’s Easter cycle.
Anyway, it’s good that worthwhile contemporary works about Christmas can already be collected for an exhibition, which gives us hope that collectors will be interested in them as well.
