“Ukraine” is emblazoned on the Pinzel exhibition banner above the central entrance to Paris’ Louvre Museum, greeting visitors to the world’s most popular art museum and filling the hearts of Ukrainians with pride.
The
exhibition of 18th century sculptor Ioann (Johann) Pinzel opened on Nov. 21 and
ends Feb. 25. The idea of taking Pinzel out of Ukraine’s borders belonged to Borys Voznytsky, the main curator of Pinzel’s works in Ukraine.
Pinzel is
believed to have lived in western Ukraine’s Halychyna region in the mid-18th
century, where he was sponsored by local count Mikolaj Potocki. However, disputes
about Pinzel’s origin are still not resolved. “I think he is first of all a
citizen of the world, though his heritage is Ukrainian,” said Olga Kurovets, a masters
student at the Louvre art school Ecole du Louvre. “We are talking about person whose
birthplace remains unknown. He could be from Bavaria, Bohemia, Silesia or
Halychyna and just made his name sound European later in Europe,” she explained.
Kurovets
says she’s been to the Louvre right after the exhibition’s opening. “Even
though I think that Pinzel’s works would look better in a dark room with
dramatic light rather than among terracotta walls and daylight, I still think
it is far not the worse way to show Pinzel,” she said. She was amazed by the fact
that It was Guilhem Scherf, chief
curator in the sculptures department, who was assigned to Pinzel’s exhibition.
“It
gives you an amazing impression when you look through these incredible Pinzel’s
sculptures and a magnificent perspective that opens from the window to the
Louvre pyramid and Champs Elysees up to the Arc de Triomphe,” said Oksana
Melnychenko, the exhibition’s organizer from Ukrainian side.
The
works are arranged in a way it reflects a church altar.
“The
gilded wooden sculptures with its flittering clothing [a distinctive feature of
Pinzel’s works] in the sunshine make the whole picture alive and very
impressive,” Melnychenko explains. There are 30
sculptures of Pinzel in the Louvre.
There is great wall
with the seven sculptures from Hodowica (on loan from the Lviv Art Gallery).
The center of the exhibition is occupied by several sculptures from the
Ternopil Oblast Museum (the sculptures originally went from Buchach), and one
from the Lviv Art Gallery.
However there is also
an empty place that should have been occupied by the sculpture of St. Onufriy,
from the church in Rukomysh village. “This sculpture is probably the only stone
one in the whole collection, but the priest from the church didn’t lend it to
the exhibition and the Louvre curators decided to leave the place empty with just
the sculpture’s pictures,” Melnychenko said.
Melnychenko has been to the opening ceremony and says there was a crowd.
“I know that the Louvre spread out around 3,000 invitations and more than
a half of invitation bearers showed up,” she says. “This is the advantage of
the Pinzel’s central location in the Louvre. Even if visitors come for Mona
Liza only they will have to go through the Pinzel’s exhibit hall and it is
almost impossible not to stop there,” she said. The Louvre museum has had more
than 9.5 million visitors this year.
Pinzel has pretty strong
competitors from other exhibitions.
“Raphael
is the most important one, but Pinzel is a great success as well,”
said Guilhem Scherf, the exhibition’s curator. “Pinzel
is a wonderful representative of Baroque art. His style is powerful, very
expressive and also very sensitive,” he said. “Now, with the city of Lviv part
of the world patrimony, and publications more and more in English, people can
travel with better knowledge.”
Although Pinzel’s
appearance in the Louvre is not just another step on the way to Ukraine’s
popularity abroad, but also a miracle opening for the world’s art community.
“No one expected anything new now, in 2012. People think that everyone already
knows everything about 18th century art, especially in Europe,”
Melnychenko said. “But when the Louvre says it is something new – people come.
People trust the Louvre and they didn’t get disappointed with Pinzel.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
