Наше Життя (Our Life), рік 1993, число 12, грудень

IN THE TEMPLE OF IVAN HONCHAR’S ART“I wish that everything I collected and created becamethe only, permanent, active museum, where present andfuture generations would learn.”(from a letter by I. Honchar to Borys Olijnyk,President o f the Culture Fund, July 18, 1988)This article was translated into English. (H.K.)Photos from Lidia Orel's collection of Ivan Honchar’s works.Artist: Ivan Honchar.I have known Ivan Makarovych Honchar for almost30 years. I often visited him in his home-museum,listened to his fascinating tales about Ukrainian folk art,his travels throughout our land, I rejoiced at everydiscovery he made, and felt the pain of suffering heexperienced under the Communist rule. Artists such asIvan Honchar who propagated Ukrainian culture werepersecuted by that regime.There were not too many such devoted artists duringthose times — Mykola Lysenko, Porfyrij Demuckyj,Mykola Leontovych, Oleksander Koshyc, Dmytro Javornyckyj,Mykola Bilashivskyj, Ivan Honchar, MychajloSikorskyj. Sooner or later they will be duly honored andtheir names will forever be remembered by our people.Ivan Honchar’s museum, with its valuable collection,can compete with any other government museumof its kind. All this was collected by one person, who isnot only a talented sculptor, painter, art expert and ethnographer.Of course, in his monumental plan to createBy Lidia OrelCurator of The Museumof Folk Architectureand Art of Ukrainea museum he was not alone: he had assistants-correspondentsin different parts of Ukraine, who understood thevalue of his work and collected artifacts to be exhibitedin the museum. Sometimes even those enthusiasts whovisited his museum became assistants-correspondentsin his work.I also wanted to find similar artifacts as did Honchar.He suggested I visit his village Lypianka, Shpolanskyjrayon, in Cherckashchyna, and also Shevchenko’svillages. Wherever I traveled in his footsteps, peoplealways had a good word about him and asked me togive him their greetings.Ivan Honchar’s museum quickly became a center ofnational rebirth. Visitors came in large groups, from variousorganizations and academic institutions of Kyyivand other cities of Ukraine, as well as from other countries.It is hard to estimate how many of them visited themuseum, maybe thousands. Honchar felt his missionwas to open his treasures to the people, and in this wayto revive their national awareness and feeling of pride intheir culture.I also put in a lot of effort so that his museum couldbe seen and known by more people. I brought many ofthem — relatives, friends, students, including the Presidentof the Association to Safeguard Treasures of Historyand Culture. More and more, I was convinced thatthe museum left an impact and no one left the museumindifferent. One person started to embroider shirts andtowels, another painted, others became pioneers of theuse of Ukrainian language in russified cities. Othersjoined the ethnographic choir ’’Homin” that was foundedby Ivan Honchar himself.It is not surprising, therefore, that many of hisfriends and followers, and Ivan Honchar himself, werelabeled "nationalists.” As he himself said, and we alsoknew, in the 1970’s he was constantly guarded by KGBagents, who watched his every move and who visited hismuseum. They also tried to convince some visitors ofthe museum to help them in their dirty work, by spyingon the activities of the museum, checking who the visitorsare, etc. One such employee of the KGB was BorysKovhar, form erly in charge of the Funds Department ofthe Museum of Folk Architecture and Art of Ukraine. Hewas assigned to watch Ivan Honchar in the beginning ofthe 1970’s. When Borys Kovhar got to know Ivan Honcharbetter, he realized the value and importance of’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ” , ГРУДЕНЬ 1993 17