Several years ago I visited Russian Museum of Contemporary art in Jersey City. It was a sad and depressing experience. The museum was more like a poorly run gallery with no curatorial work involved whatsoever, but with a price tag attached to each work. I don't even know why it was called "museum", since there was no educational aspect to their exhibitions at all.

When I was going to see "Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930" in The Ukrainian Museum in NoHo, I dreaded of "Deja vu" from my past Russian Museum visit. I must admit I was quite impressed by the exhibition and the museum itself. Well cared for gallery spaces, exhibition programs, nice installations of art works with expertly written descriptions for each piece and gift shop that was selling "Ukrainian Modernism 1910-1930" catalog that supports the "Crossroads" exhibition.

Curatorial work was close to impeccable and deserves special praise. Considering obstacles of displaying Ukrainian art on foreign turf, where most of the audience doesn't know much about Ukrainian culture and art in particular, both Ukrainian and American colleagues tried to make viewer experience as educational as possible. The show was organized by the Foundation for International Arts and Education with the National Art Museum of Ukraine and is traveling from Ukraine to Chicago and New York. You can see professionalism throughout: every gallery has an informational tableau that describes what particular section of the exhibition is about. For example, introduction in Symbolism gallery explains influence of Klimt and Odilon Redon( prominent European symbolists of that time) on Ukrainian artists such as Vsevolod Maksymovich and Mykhailo Zhuk. Another such example is theatrical design section that examines works of Anatol’ Petryts’kyi, Alexandra Exter and her pupils in Kyiv, Moscow and eventually Paris. All descriptions are given in both Ukrainian and English and I was happy to discover that the translation from Ukrainian to English was adequate, so that reader could get close to original, comprehensive and meaningful information.

The main goal of "Crossroads" was not only to familiarize West with Ukrainian Modern Art that blossomed at the beginning of the 20th century, but to show that a lot of famous artists such as Kazimir Malevich, David Burlyuk, Alexandra Exter and Alexander Archipenko who traditionally considered to belong to Russian Avant-garde, were in fact "born and bred" in Ukraine. In achieving this goal organizers also included artists like Popova and Rodchenko who by no means were Ukrainian, but rather Russian collaborators in creation of Constructivism, Suprematism and Futurism. This is probably the only thing that in my opinion could have been examined more in depth, because Ukrainian art didn't exist in a vacuum and was greatly influenced not only by mentioned in exhibition French or Italian artists, but by Russian modernists as well. Both Ukrainian and Russian artists exchanged ideas, shared views, participated in the same exhibitions and were writing movement manifestos together. Some of the artists are associated with Russian Modernism because they were living and working for many years in Russia. I don't think that by mentioning such relationship with Russian Avant-garde, Ukrainian art would be considered less valuable.

Another aspect of the exhibition was to show historical struggle of Ukrainian Avant-garde to be free from Soviet political influences and to create truly "national" modern art. Among the presented artists are those who were persecuted as "Enemies of the State" and those who were forced to emigrate. One of such artists is a "father" of Ukrainian Art Academy and monumental art, Mykhailo Boichuk. His paintings reminded me of the illustrations to the folk tales that I saw in my childhood. Combination of modernists "flatness", influenced by Cezanne and "Byzantine" art, but with Ukrainian scenes from everyday life and "national" vivid colors typical for Ukrainian art. I can't even imagine why artists with such innocent works that display ordinary family or apple trees can be regarded as a "threat to the Soviet art" and therefore executed. Among other artists who "cradled" Ukrainian Modernism as we know it are Bohomazov, brothers Krychevskyi and Abram Manevych who taught at Kyiv Art Institute along with such prominent artists like Malevich and Tatlin.

This exhibition is organized by different themes: early modernism( monumental art, Boichuk ), Futurism( Burlyuk), Constructivism/Suprematism(Malevich), portraiture, Symbolism(Zhuk), genre paintings( including early Soviet Realism) and theatrical decorations and costumes. My favorite section was theatre designs. I was fascinated by artists’ ability to combine Ukrainian traditional folk art colors and styles with "constructivism/cubism" forms. On top of that try to make meaningful costume design from abstract shapes and you will see the challenge that Exter and others faced trying to make Salome or Madama Butterfly recognizable using "modernists" styles. I admired these artists, especially considering that they were trying to avoid Art Nouveau influences, which were everywhere at that time. Two designers that fascinated me most were Petryts’kyi and Meller.

All in all kudos to organizers for an interesting exhibition and to supporters of Ukrainian museum for make it happen. As for the Russian Museum of Contemporary art, I'll try to go to their new exhibition in December and see if anything changed since my last visit. Will keep you posted.