Shevchenkiana Worldwide: The Image of the Poet in Easel Painting and Graphic Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century from the Collection of the Taras Shevchenko National Museum

This article analyzes the distinctive features of Shevchenkiana in visual art, specifically easel painting and graphic art by foreign artists from the second half of the 20th century, held in the collection of the Taras Shevchenko National Museum. The study focuses on works by members of the Ukrainian diaspora as well as artists representing the cultures of other nations. A particular layer of Shevchenkiana is highlighted—the graphic works of Ukrainians in Kazakhstan, created under the socio-historical conditions of the Soviet Union. These works, mostly illustrating episodes from the poet’s biography—particularly his exile—reflect a deeply personal, associative reading of Shevchenko’s fate, as the artists themselves (Valentyn Antoshchenko-Oleniev, Serhii Kukuruza) experienced arrest, repression, and rehabilitation. The article also examines works by diaspora Ukrainians such as William Kurelek, whose life was marked by the dramatic experience of separation from his homeland. It is noted that artists representing other cultures, such as Sicilian painter Lella Musmeci, interpret the poet’s image by revealing the universal meanings of his poetry. The most common types of Shevchenko’s portrayal used by foreign artists in their interpretations are based on his photographic portraits by Johan Nikolai Doss (1858) and Ivan Hudovsky (1859), as well as the poet’s self-portraits. Notably, the works of Canadian-Ukrainian W. Kurelek and Sicilian artist L. Musmeci marked a new stage in the development of visual Shevchenkiana— one in which the poet’s image is interpreted as a spirit, energy, or thought-form, with artists finding appropriate visual expression for these abstract ideas.