Village to Modern

The theme of the mutual influence between peasant, naïve, and folk art and the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century has been widely explored in Ukraine over the past few decades. Now the idea has crossed the ocean — the Ukrainian Museum in New York presented the exhibition Peasant Modern, which ran through August 24, 2025. Exhibition curators Peter Doroshenko and Oksana Semenik, together with essay contributor Myroslava Mudrak, explore in this publication the contexts of folk tradition and the practices of professional artists.

“Folk art significantly influenced the development of Ukrainian art from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1960s. In the works of the Burliuks, Delaunay, Exter, Hnizdovsky, Krychevsky, Malevich, Syniakova, Sobachko-Shostak, Yermilov, Kosarev, and others, traditional practices merged with modernist experimentation, creating a vibrant and multifaceted artistic language. These artists did not merely honor cultural heritage — they reinterpreted it, weaving it into contemporary art. The close relationship between past and present continues to define the essence of Ukrainian art today,” writes Peter Doroshenko in the foreword.

The publication includes bilingual (English and Ukrainian) texts and catalogue sections.