Tag: 20th century artists

remembering Early 20th C. Ukrainian American artists Hope, Art and Freedom

Posted on by Catherine

3/24/2023. Now/Then

One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, remembering early 20th C. Ukrainian immigrant artists and Ukrainian American artists including Alexander Archipenko, David Burliuk, Jack Delano, Sonia Delaunay, Chaim Gross, Louis Lozowick, (Kazimir) Malevich, Jules Olitski, Louise Nevelson, Milton Resnick; also, New York’s first women dealer, Edith Halpert, who founded The Downtown Gallery. (Halpert represented Stuart Davis and dedicated several solo exhibitions for him despite lack of sales.)

A few traveled with or visited friends in Gloucester as they built their lives anew.

Reading The Holodomor Memorial 1932-33 at Grand Park in Los Angeles, CA.–dedicated in 1986, the first such tribute in the United States–is devastating, and through the lens of today’s war may fuel a greater understanding of the Ukrainian fight for freedom.

T. Kozour. Ukrainian Famine 1932-1933 | Holodomor genocide bonze on stone tribute commissioned and unveiled May 1986, Grand Park Los Angeles, the first such tribute in the US. Photo © C. Ryan, Sept. 2022. [Plaque text: “In memory of 7,000,000 Ukrainians, victims of Russian communism, who lost their freedom, property and life by order of the Soviet government during 1932-1933 genocide by starvation in Ukraine. Dedicated by the Genocide in Ukraine Commemorative Committee, Los Angeles.”]
The Holodomor Memorial at Grand Park, LA photo C. Ryan

As of January 2021, the Senate and House or Representatives have recognized the famine as man made and an act of genocide. Timeline roundup of the US Senate here and current US House of Representatives resolution (excerpt below):

“…Whereas title V of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1986 (Public Law 99–180; 99 Stat. 1157), signed into law on December 13, 1985, established the Commission on the Ukraine Famine to “conduct a study of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–1933 in order to expand the world’s knowledge of the famine and provide the American public with a better understanding of the Soviet system by revealing the Soviet role” in it;

Whereas the Commission on the Ukraine Famine, Investigation of the Ukrainian Famine 1932–1933: Report to Congress, adopted by the Commission, April 19, 1988, and submitted to Congress April 22, 1988, found that in 1932 and 1933, the Government of the Soviet Union had committed genocide against the Ukrainian people;

Whereas with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, archival documents confirmed the premeditated nature of the famine and exposed the atrocities suffered by the Ukrainian people;…”