Maria Pryimachenko

Maria Pryimachenko

Maria Pryimachenko is a Ukrainian folk-art painter, whose works really resonate with me. Her art is a perfect blend of real-life and made-up fairytale images, that completely submerge you into the fairytale world. Her art makes me go back in history and to the time when people knew how to coexist with animals and understood the mystery of nature around them. The animals and plants created by her are not static; there is movement, mystery, and nevertheless harmony. She somehow is able to express the warmness of Ukrainian culture as well as its uniqueness. Through her art, she exposes the very soul of Ukrainian culture, as she attempts to express her emotions and ideas through tales, myths, and the life itself. No wonder that Maria Pyimachenko is titled an Honored Artist of Ukraine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160809154533/http://artes-almanac.in.ua/art/articles/chornobyl_maria_pryimachenko.html
Maria Pryimachenko grew up around Chornobyl, and after the catastrophe her art may be interpreted differently. With the mutations happening in people and animals, her paintings become a warning or a prophecy even. Interestingly, one of her paintings is called "Atom" and is fairly dark. There is also a detailed description for what inspired her to start painting and where she was getting the ideas from.

https://medium.com/@shemakesarttoo/maria-prymachenko-the-ukrainian-artist-that-made-picasso-bow-down-d22ed7cbf02a
The article provides various interesting facts about Maria's life and art. For example, Picasso once said after visiting a Primachenko exhibition in Paris, “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.” Exhibitions of her works have proved tremendously popular in Moscow, Poland, Bulgaria, France, and Canada.

https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/02/maria-prymachenkos-fantastic-world-of-flowers-and-animals.html
Maria suffered the consequences of polio for a major part of her life, which also contributed to her artistic development. As an artist she has a unique worldview, and no matter how her technique was changing, the world of her images always remained the same.