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Between Aesthetics and Imagination: The Ongoing Transformations of Ukrainian Art in the Times of the War

Received: 21 April 2023    Accepted: 16 May 2023    Published: 29 May 2023
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Abstract

The paper attempts to examine, under the conditions of the war against Russia, the highly relevant question of the relationship between the ongoing Ukrainian war-influenced nation-building process and the nation’s art practices. The latter are considered by the authors to be of utmost importance as both the reflection of the former and, at the same time, as something that can influence it, thus, possibly slightly changing or altering the overall shape that the Ukrainian nation, which is being born, will take. It is suggested that imagination plays a major role as something that allows one to go beyond liberalism’s utilitarian or deterministic understanding of a nation. Accordingly, an artist is called someone who can, at least hypothetically, overcome a double limitation — that of processes of globalization and standardization of art market products and, on the other hand, total conditioning by the past of the nation. The Ukrainian nation is considered as a project in the process of making, an important role in which could be played by the artist’s imagination, relatively less determined by tangible parameters and determinants. In accordance with this statement, numerous examples are provided of how artists of modern Ukraine interpret, in the languages of different styles and genres of art, the ongoing war and the changes caused by it in the collective imagination of the Ukrainian nation, the process of formation of which continues. Using the "world-system", according to I. Wallerstein, method of comparative epistemology, the authors of the article prove the possibility and the effectiveness of studying the cultural habitus of Ukraine from the standpoint of transcendental aesthetics.

Published in American Journal of Art and Design (Volume 8, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14
Page(s) 37-45
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Ukrainian Art, Contemporary Art, Imaginary Community, Art Episteme, Geography of Art

References
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[2] Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, New York: Verso, 2006.
[3] Balibar, É. At War: Nationalism, Imperialism, Cosmopolitics. London Summer School of Critical Theory. 2022. https://commons.com.ua/uk/etienne-balibar-on-russo-ukrainian-war/?
[4] Cheh, Myroslav. “Ukraine is not a frontier. Ukraine is the center”. Zbruc. September 28, 2022. https://zbruc.eu/node/113272?fbclid=IwAR2jRVniZdc4j6MjzjyDoRGbQ_XppsMVsdc-QbFpa6p2zETnYFVRlcgwM2I
[5] Danto, Arthur C. What Art Is. Yale University Press, 2013.
[6] Illich, Ivan. H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness: Reflections on the Historicity of Stuff. Dallas; Dallas Inst Humanities & Culture; First Edition, 1985.
[7] Irvin, Sherri & Dodd, Julian. In Advance of the Broken Theory: Philosophy and Contemporary Art. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Vol. 75 (4), p. 375–386, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12412
[8] Foster, Hal. Design and crime (and other diatribes). London, New York: Verso, 2002.
[9] Heiser, Jorg. Torture and Remedy: The End of -isms and the Beginning Hegemony of the Impure. e-flux Journal. December 11, 2009. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/11/61346/torture-and-remedy-the-end-of-isms-and-the-beginning-hegemony-of-the-impure/
[10] Kuryshko, Diana. Repin, Aivazovsky are Ukrainians. How the museums of the world change the signatures of artists. BBC News Ukraine. February 11, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-64612053?at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_type=web_link
[11] Kuspit, Donald. The Contemporary and the Historical. ArtNet, 2005. http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/kuspit/kuspit4-14-05.asp
[12] Léger, Marc James. Retroactivating the Idea of the Avant Garde. Journal of Avant Garde Studies. Vol. 1, p. 1–18, 2020.
[13] Lisovenko, Kateryna. Ukraine War Art Collection. Archives. 2022. https://war-art.mkip.gov.ua/?p=7297
[14] Lyotard, Jean Francois. What is the truth? In Richard Kearney (Ed.), States of Mind: Dialogues with contemporary thinkers on the European mind. Manchester University Press, 1995.
[15] Matravers, Derek. Art, knowledge and virtue: comments on Alana Jelinek’s “This Is Not Art”. In Alana Jelinek (Guest ed.), Journal of Visual Art Practice, Vol. 13 (3), p. 169–177, 2014.
[16] Osborne, Peter. National identity should be sought in the future, not looking back to the past. LB. UA. January 13, 2023. https://lb.ua/culture/2023/01/13/542239_piter_osborn_natsionalnu.html
[17] Protas, Maryna & Bulavina, Natalia. Ukrainian Art in the Time of the War: An Art Episteme Shift. American Journal of Art and Design Vol. 7 (4), 2022, p. 116–123. DOI: 10.11648/j.ajad.20220704.13.
[18] Red Sunset. Arkhip Kuindzhi (Archip Ivanovich Kuindzhi) Ukrainian. The Met. 2023. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436833
[19] Rollo, Toby. Draft — Democratizing Critical Theory: Beyond the Metaphysics Voice and the Ontogenetic Turn. Political Science, University of British Columbia. Draft paper for presentation at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association of Political Theory. https://www.academia.edu/34191543/
[20] Sebald, W. G. Austerlitz. Modern Library; 10th Anniversary edition, 2011.
[21] Snyder, Timothy. Ukraine Holds the Future: The War Between Democracy and Nihilism. Foreign Affairs. 2022. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-war-democracy-nihilism-timothy-snyder
[22] The Metropolitan Museum renamed Degas’ “Russian Dancers” to Ukrainian. Vogue.ua. February 8, 2023. https://vogue.ua/article/culture/art/muzey-metropoliten-pereymenuvav-rosiyskih-tancivnic-dega-na-ukrajinskih-51292.html
[23] The New York museum recognized the artist Arkhip Kuindzhi as Ukrainian. Frontnews Ukraine. February 8, 2023. http://www.frontnews.ge/en/news/details/52341
[24] The Paris Statement. “A Europe we can believe in” 2017. https://thetrueeurope.eu/a-europe-we-can-believe-in/
[25] Tkachenko, O. The art born during the war will speak for us longer than we live. UkrInform. July 27, 2022. https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-culture/3537665-mistectvo-pid-cas-vijni-govoritime-za-nas-dovse-niz-mi-zivemo-tkacenko.html
[26] Ukraine Became a Special Guest at Arte of Nuvola in Rome. Gwara Media. November 18, 2022. https://gwaramedia.com/en/ukraine-became-a-special-guest-at-arte-of-nuvola-in-rome/
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Maryna Protas, Natalia Bulavina, Igor Isychenko. (2023). Between Aesthetics and Imagination: The Ongoing Transformations of Ukrainian Art in the Times of the War. American Journal of Art and Design, 8(2), 37-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14

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    ACS Style

    Maryna Protas; Natalia Bulavina; Igor Isychenko. Between Aesthetics and Imagination: The Ongoing Transformations of Ukrainian Art in the Times of the War. Am. J. Art Des. 2023, 8(2), 37-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14

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    AMA Style

    Maryna Protas, Natalia Bulavina, Igor Isychenko. Between Aesthetics and Imagination: The Ongoing Transformations of Ukrainian Art in the Times of the War. Am J Art Des. 2023;8(2):37-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14,
      author = {Maryna Protas and Natalia Bulavina and Igor Isychenko},
      title = {Between Aesthetics and Imagination: The Ongoing Transformations of Ukrainian Art in the Times of the War},
      journal = {American Journal of Art and Design},
      volume = {8},
      number = {2},
      pages = {37-45},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20230802.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajad.20230802.14},
      abstract = {The paper attempts to examine, under the conditions of the war against Russia, the highly relevant question of the relationship between the ongoing Ukrainian war-influenced nation-building process and the nation’s art practices. The latter are considered by the authors to be of utmost importance as both the reflection of the former and, at the same time, as something that can influence it, thus, possibly slightly changing or altering the overall shape that the Ukrainian nation, which is being born, will take. It is suggested that imagination plays a major role as something that allows one to go beyond liberalism’s utilitarian or deterministic understanding of a nation. Accordingly, an artist is called someone who can, at least hypothetically, overcome a double limitation — that of processes of globalization and standardization of art market products and, on the other hand, total conditioning by the past of the nation. The Ukrainian nation is considered as a project in the process of making, an important role in which could be played by the artist’s imagination, relatively less determined by tangible parameters and determinants. In accordance with this statement, numerous examples are provided of how artists of modern Ukraine interpret, in the languages of different styles and genres of art, the ongoing war and the changes caused by it in the collective imagination of the Ukrainian nation, the process of formation of which continues. Using the "world-system", according to I. Wallerstein, method of comparative epistemology, the authors of the article prove the possibility and the effectiveness of studying the cultural habitus of Ukraine from the standpoint of transcendental aesthetics.},
     year = {2023}
    }
    

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    AU  - Maryna Protas
    AU  - Natalia Bulavina
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    AB  - The paper attempts to examine, under the conditions of the war against Russia, the highly relevant question of the relationship between the ongoing Ukrainian war-influenced nation-building process and the nation’s art practices. The latter are considered by the authors to be of utmost importance as both the reflection of the former and, at the same time, as something that can influence it, thus, possibly slightly changing or altering the overall shape that the Ukrainian nation, which is being born, will take. It is suggested that imagination plays a major role as something that allows one to go beyond liberalism’s utilitarian or deterministic understanding of a nation. Accordingly, an artist is called someone who can, at least hypothetically, overcome a double limitation — that of processes of globalization and standardization of art market products and, on the other hand, total conditioning by the past of the nation. The Ukrainian nation is considered as a project in the process of making, an important role in which could be played by the artist’s imagination, relatively less determined by tangible parameters and determinants. In accordance with this statement, numerous examples are provided of how artists of modern Ukraine interpret, in the languages of different styles and genres of art, the ongoing war and the changes caused by it in the collective imagination of the Ukrainian nation, the process of formation of which continues. Using the "world-system", according to I. Wallerstein, method of comparative epistemology, the authors of the article prove the possibility and the effectiveness of studying the cultural habitus of Ukraine from the standpoint of transcendental aesthetics.
    VL  - 8
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Author Information
  • Department of Curatorial Exhibition Activities and Cultural Exchange, Modern Art Research Institute of National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

  • Department of Curatorial Exhibition Activities and Cultural Exchange, Modern Art Research Institute of National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

  • Department of Curatorial Exhibition Activities and Cultural Exchange, Modern Art Research Institute of National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

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