Kuindzhi Art Museum

Kuindzhi Art Museum (Ukrainian: Художній музей імені Куїнджі, romanized: Khudozhniy muzey imeni Kuyindzhi) was an art museum located in the city of Mariupol in Ukraine.[1] It is dedicated to the display of the life and works of the artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, who was born in the city. The museum opened on 30 October 2010, however its creation was proposed almost a century earlier.

Kuindzhi Art Museum
Художній музей імені Куїнджі
Established30 October 2010 (2010-10-30)
Dissolved2022 (2022)
LocationGeorgievskaya Street 58, Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast 87500, Ukraine
TypeArt museum
DirectorTatiana Buli

The museum building was destroyed by an airstrike on March 21, 2022, during the Siege of Mariupol. Three original works by Kuindzhi were not in the museum at the time, but works by other artists were.[2]

History

The creation of a museum in Mariupol dedicated to Arkhip Kuindzhi was first suggested in 1914. A potential donation of works from the Kuindzhi Society of Artists was proposed, but the First World War delayed decision-making. Serious consideration to the construction of a museum was once again made in the 1960s, but funding was unavailable for a museum and the Kuindzhi Exhibition Centre opened instead. In 1997 premises were donated and renovation began in 2008.[3]

The museum opened on 30 October 2010 as a branch of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore.[4] It is housed in a building that was constructed in 1902 as a wedding gift for the wife of the founder of the Real School, Valentina Gadzinova.[5] In 2015 the museum celebrated the 175th anniversary of the birth of its namesake.[6] In 2019 the French ambassador to Ukraine, Isabelle Dumont, visited the museum, praising its work.[7]

The museum was destroyed by a Russian airstrike on March 21, 2022, during the Siege of Mariupol. Three original works by Kuindzhi had been removed from the museum and ended up looted by Russia, but works by other artists were. The fate of paintings by other artists (Ivan Aivazovsky, Mykola Hlushchenko, Tetyana Yablonska, Mykhailo Deregus, Andrii Kotska, Mykola Bendryk, Leonid Gadi) is unknown.[2][8]

Collections and research

The art collection includes 650 paintings, 960 graphic works, 150 sculptures and over 300 decorative art objects.[5] Much of this collection was developed by the Mariupol Museum of Local History during the twentieth century.[3]

Three original works by Kuindzhi were held at the museum, as well as copies of his works.[7] The original works are the sketches Red West, Autumn – Crimea and Elbrus, donated by the State Russian Museum to the local history museum in Mariupol (then known as Zhdanov after a Soviet functionary) in the 1960s. Their current whereabouts are unknown.[5][2]

The museum also holds papers relating to the life of Kuindzhi, as well as a copy of his 1841 Ukrainian birth certificate.[9]

It includes the work of other artists, such as Victoria Kovalchuk who exhibited there,[10] as well as Ivan Aivazovsky, Vasily Vereshchagin, Ivan Shishkin, amongst others.[3]

The museum has provided evidence to support an 1841 date for Kuindzhi's birth, which has been the subject of debate due to contrasting evidence. This debate was played out between Russian and Ukrainian Wikipedias.[9]

  • Kuindzhi bust, Mariupol
    Kuindzhi bust, Mariupol
  • Arkhip Kuindzhi, around 1900
    Arkhip Kuindzhi, around 1900
  • Stamp of Belarus 2018, Birch Grove, Kuindzhi 1901
    Stamp of Belarus 2018, Birch Grove, Kuindzhi 1901
  • Stamp of Ukraine, After Thunderstorm, Arkhyp Kuindzhi 1879
    Stamp of Ukraine, After Thunderstorm, Arkhyp Kuindzhi 1879

See also

References
  1. "The Art museum A.I. Kuinji". mariupolrada.gov.ua. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  2. "Mariupol museum dedicated to 19th-century artist Arkhip Kuindzhi destroyed by airstrike". The Art Newspaper. 23 March 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-03-26. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  3. "МАРІУПОЛЬ ВІДКРИЄ НАРЕШТІ МУЗЕЙ АРХИПА КУЇНДЖІ". forumn.kiev.ua (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  4. "Mariupol Museum of Local Lore". Mandria. Archived from the original on 2012-10-14. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  5. "Kuindzhi Art Museum • Mariupol is a tourist city". Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  6. Kharchenko, Olha (21 December 2015). ""I am Kuindzhi"". day.kyiv.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-07-04. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  7. "French Ambassador to Ukraine visits the Arkhip Kuindzi Museum in Mariupol". mariupolrada.gov.ua. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  8. "In Mariupol occupiers destroyed an art museum that housed original works by Aivazovsky". Hromadske Radio. Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  9. "Український чи російський художник? У "Вікіпедії" "б'ються" за Куїнджі". Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2022-02-02. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  10. Замок, Високий (2018-05-08). ""Майно Спілки художників розікрали, а мене виключили з її лав" — Високий Замок". wz.lviv.ua (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2022-03-11.

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