The Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine in the new format grand opening is going to take place in Kyiv on December 17th. A unique collection of Ukrainian art of the XX – early XXI century, which have been collected for almost twenty years, will finally become available and open to the public. More than 4.500 exhibits will be gradually exposed in the new museum facilities with the area of 3.5 thousand square meters on 17 Hlubochytska Street. The museum is private. Its founder, a prominent businessman and philanthropist Serhii Tsiupko, is not a public persona and does not like to advertise his charitable projects, having the renowned philanthropists as his model and believing that good deeds are to be done quietly. This interview reveals how the idea of collecting native art occurred to him, which surprises the new museum has prepared for its visitors, as well as the founder’s plans for the future.
Serhii Viktorovych, You are the founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine, which opened in Kyiv on New Year’s Eve. The museum collection is actually your private collection. Tell us how everything began.
Everything started twenty years ago, in the late eighties. Quite by a chance I got acquainted with a group of abstractionist artists. If you remember, life was tough then, and artists, as, in fact, everybody else, were having extremely difficult time. I started to help them and gradually got fascinated with their works, learned to appreciate their art and all of sudden I realised: art had become a part of my life. Actually, I am a man of few words. I think that not everything in life can be expressed in words, and do not always want to do it. But with the help of the language of colours, lines and images – in a word, the language of painting – a lot can be told, it can reach the bottom of your heart.
So, what is the colour of, say, love?
Golden.
What about dream?
There are no objects on canvas, but there are feelings, mood and impressions. I have always felt a strong appeal to what they call non-figurative visual art in a professional language. Take, for instance, the works of a talented Ukrainian artist Fedir Tetianych, who, alas, died two years ago. You will not find any distinct outlines on his canvases. Space dominates there and the artist with the help of brush and paints has expressed his attitude to the world within it. And everyone sees something unique, very special on the canvas.
However, the paintings of Ukrainian artists of the previous century are also exhibited in your museum?
Correct. The collection, presented at the opening of the museum, includes about four and a half thousand works of Ukrainian painting, drawing, sculpture and decorative art. I am delighted that I managed to make my dream come true: to gather in one place the works of artists of Ukrainian Contemporary Art of the XX – the beginning of the XXI century, whose creative activity should become our national pride. And it’s not just nice words. Come to visit our museum, and you will see: we have much to be proud of.
Has Your interest in abstract art transformed into the passion for the classics?
Not exactly. Rather, I switched from abstract art to collecting Ukrainian Fine Art works. Then, in the early nineties, having plunged into art theory and history issues, I realised that the huge layer of artistic life in Ukraine, represented by Odessa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Crimea, Kyiv and other regional schools, are not known to the public. After all, if prior to 1985 the Ministry of Culture had still purchased some pictures, eventually this process stopped. As a result, Ukrainian artists are poorly represented in public museums and real collections don’t exist, some separate works had either turned out abroad, or found their refuge in the mansions of Koncha-Zaspa. Who can see them there? In fact, nobody, except the person who bought them, his family and friends.
Is displaying a private art collection to public and being “open” Your fundamental position?
The uniqueness of this museum is exactly in the fact that it is open to people. Calling this a fundamental position is wrong. Rather, I am trying to do my best, what I feel is the best. We started in 2005 as a small museum in a rented room at 14 Bratska Street in Podol. But over the years as the rent went up, I had to seriously consider moving. Therefore we decided to acquire more comfortable premises of our own, where we could display the major part of the collection. If the majority of works on Bratska Street had to be kept in the storage, now the museum area is about three and a half thousand square meters, which allows us to exhibit virtually all the works.
But “closing” with your collection at home … With so many exhibits, it is simply unreal. Those who collect paintings and those who love art will understand what I mean. Each work radiates its energy. It can cause disharmony in an apartment or an office, but inside the museum art works live in harmony with each other. Have you ever wondered why people feel so nice and quiet in museums, why they are so attractive? Just because harmony reigns there, a special works of art aura and people need it. At least, I believe in this.
A museum on three floors! This is perhaps the largest museum of Ukrainian art in the country.
Yes it is. The Museum of Russian Art occupies a little bit more than a thousand meters. Art Arsenal is definitely more spacious. But so far there is no collection there, and the renovation is not finished yet. But the idea itself is magnificent. So you are right, now it is the largest museum of Ukrainian art in Ukraine – at least among private ones. However, we are proud of our valuable artefacts, not of these square meters.
The visitors of your museum can see paintings of more than 500 artists. Are there any works among them which are special for you?
Hard to say, all of them are in a way special for me. In accordance with the concept of the museum, the first floor will host temporary exhibitions. Now the visitors of the museum can see Odessa Art School in the framework of a large-scale project “The Art Map of Ukraine”, which was launched last year. In a few months we plan to show the Kharkiv school. I think that acquaintance with the regional schools of Ukrainian painting is a very good idea. We are also going organise the exhibitions of young artists. After all, people of art must communicate with each other, and artists must be exhibited. Otherwise how can the public learn about them? We are used to take after foreign, Western art, forgetting that we have our own, national art, each scrap of which should be collected, preserved and popularised.
The second and the third floors host a permanent exhibition, which will be changed every two years as our collection is constantly updated through collaboration with the artists, collectors, and research expeditions to the regions of Ukraine.
All of them are probably difficult to mention?
Of course, it is impossible to mention all the artists. Our collection includes the works of painters from different regions, widely known in Ukraine and Europe. So, Kyiv is represented by Mykola Hlushchenko, Serhii Grygoriev, Mykhailo Deregus, Ivan Kavaleridze, Tetiana and Olena Yablonski; Adolf Constantynopolskyi and Olexandr Khmelnytskyi represent Kharkiv. Volodymyr Zauze, Mykola Pavliuk, Vyacheslav Tokarev and Volodymyr Filatov are from Odessa. Lviv is represented by Carl Zvirynskyi, Elena Kulchitskaya , Roman Petruk, Roman Selsky and Ivan Trush; Crimea – by Valentin Bernadskiy, Fedir Zakharov, Petro Stoliarenko and Valentyn Tsvetkov; Carpathian region (Zakarpattia) – by Anton Kashshay, Fedir Manailo and Adalbert Erdeli. There are also pictures by the famous “Ukrainian Parisians” – Vasyl Khmelko and Mykolay Vaker, there are also New Yorkers Abram Manevich and Mykhaylo Turovskyi, and many others.
Do you hunt for the works of famous artists?
Fame is a very tricky issue. I remember a story from Van Gogh’s life, when, being not yet recognised as a master, he painted a portrait of a doctor as a reward for his services – “Portrait of Doctor Rey”. No wonder, the doctor did not like the work, and the picture was abandoned in the attic. Subsequently, a hole in a chicken coop had been plugged with it, where it remained for many years. Eventually it was sold for a few pennies. And now this picture is priceless. Who of young Ukrainian artists can anticipate the great future which is waiting for him? Nothing is impossible…
There must be some personal preferences anyway…
I love landscapes. I really like the Crimean school, especially Mykola Bortnikov. In the Soviet time the artist used to live unsociable life, was not in a special contact with anybody. I managed to purchase the whole collection of his paintings. It will be exhibited in the museum in a separate hall. There is so much warmth and light, so much fun in it! I hope that every visitor of our museum will find something special for himself, something that appeals to his soul.
Where do you get the pictures?
We buy the majority of paintings in Ukraine – from the artists themselves and the families of those who have already passed away. We try to stay in touch with families as any picture is a remembrance, and memory is extremely hard to part. Sometimes the pictures are not sold, but given on the condition that they will be exhibited in the museum, that they will be seen people.
Do you carry the inspections out?
Before buying a picture, I always consult with the experts. We have a very good professional team in the museum. We always carry out the examination of paintings, trying to avoid frauds and imitations. This is our strong point.
Do you buy any works at international auctions?
Unfortunately, such auctions, as Christie’s and Sotheby’s are too expensive for us. Our museum has a number of works bought there, but there are just a few of them. However, I am used to reaching my goals and have already put an eye on some paintings of Ukrainian artists which I am going to try to buy at these auctions.
Is there any interest in the Ukrainian art abroad?
Fundamental Ukrainian school is not known in the world. Only some individual artists are famous. We should begin with collecting and exhibiting this school here, in Ukraine. That’s exactly what we are doing now.
What are Your prospects for the museum? What to expect from such an enormous project?
I would like to see the halls of the museum full. After all, it is open to all people. I would love children to become regular visitors here. I think that it is of great importance to introduce kids to beauty at an early age. Especially when you live in a society where many values had been devaluated, culture and arts having lost their importance and moved to the background. I myself became interested in painting and art in the early childhood, thanks to my class teacher, who was an artist. So I’ll be delighted if the museum will be able change something in the lives of children, make them closer to something good, eternal.
By the way, our museum will eventually host clubs for children and special tours for schoolchildren, and children’s room, and artists’ master classes. We are already negotiating with the Swedish Foundation for Astrid Lindgren about placing a children’s room in our museum – this is a real mini-museum of a famous writer’s fairy-tale characters.
Of course, I would like the museum to travel the world. In March, we’re going to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, Russia…
Have you ever tried to calculate how much money had been spent on the museum’s collection?
Never. Honestly. Do you really believe that everything in this world is about money? Money come and go. And what is left behind? Take, for instance, a crystal from my collection, which age is approximately 1 billion 750 million years. Every time I look at it, I think: “It had witnessed so many events! And all of them are recorded in its memory, which scholars will decipher someday. Then we are going to discover the secrets of distant eras…” By the way, we plan to open a unique museum of stone someday. We already have the collection, we just need to develop a concept and finish the paper work.
You are not a vain person, however, have you ever tried to compare yourself with such philanthropists as Mamontov, Tereshchenko, Tretiakov?
I still have much to accomplish to be compared to them. They had done much more: they opened schools and hospitals, doing all this with patriotic enthusiasm. I have read a lot about them, know much about philanthropy. I have just one thing to say: there is much to strive for. Just need to earn more money to be able to spend more.
We know that you patronise other projects beside the museum.
Yes, you are right; I have been helping “Bravo” theatre for more than 15 years. At home, in Sumska oblast, I have just renovated the school – it was in such a bad condition that it was supposed to be closed. But now it works. We organise excursions to the museum for children from rural schools. I try to help many people, but do not want to talk about it.
You do not want to be a public persona?
You know, some people prefer talking, others – acting. It just happens that when you act, you have no time for talking. Besides, good things should be done quietly, without loud promotion. I am not a politician. I do not need it at all.
Have you ever been offered to buy some of Your pictures?
I have other goals. I have not sold a single work. I get to preserve. I do not want Ukrainian artistic heritage to move to another country or disperse throughout the world. I hope that my children will continue my business.
What if they will not?
If they will not have any inclination to it, I will have to grant my collection to the state. It should remain in Ukraine.
Interviewed by Oksana Rakova
December, 2009