Last year, I wrote about the first books to be catalogued from a donation sent to us by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York. 1918 saw immense changes in Ukraine, starting with the 22 January declaration of the independent state of Ukraine.

Two centuries later, Galician Ukraine was in the Austrian Empire, and 1848 saw the creation of the Holovna Rus’ka Rada (Supreme Ruthenian Council) in L’viv, which determined the blue-yellow flag Ukraine uses to this day and oversaw the publication of the first Ukrainian-language newspaper, Zoria Halytska (Galician Star, or Galician Dawn). 1648 saw the start of the Cossack uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which would eventually lead to the creation of the Cossack Hetmanate state. On its title page, it describes 1948 as a jubilee year, and refers back to the three years of 1648, 1848, and 1918. It is worth mentioning that Cambridge readers also have access to Dr Biedarieva’s 2021 edited volume Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic art : political and social perspectives, 1991-2021.Īs the first month of the new year draws to a close, it felt appropriate to look at Ukrainian kalendar’ al’manakh for 1948, 75 years ago. Some of the pictures in the catalogue are shown below, with the table of contents.

The catalogue is largely textual, with the text provided in Spanish, English, and Ukrainian. One of its editors and contributors, Dr Svitlana Biedarieva, kindly arranged the donation of a copy to the UL, and we are very glad to add it to our collections, for its examples of and insights into artistic experience of the pre-2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the role of art and artists in the context of war. This brief post looks at a couple of welcome donations of books about Ukrainian art.Īt the front line : Ukrainian art, 2013-2019 is the catalogue of an exhibition of 13 Ukrainian artists that took place at the National Museum of Cultures in Mexico City in 2019 and the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg in 2020.

Out of My Mind by Monja Danischewsky