Association of Artists of Red Ukraine

Association of Artists of Red Ukraine (Асоціяція художників червоної України; Asotsiiatsiia khudozhnykiv chervonoi Ukrainy), 1926–32. An association of artists in the Ukrainian SSR founded upon a conservative program that strove to produce depictions of Ukraine’s ‘revolutionary life’ in a realist manner, based primarily on the artistic principles of the Peredvizhniki movement. The association, which was linked with the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, aroused the opposition of other Ukrainian artistic societies, notably the Association of Revolutionary Art of Ukraine. The Association of Artists of Red Ukraine had 14 branches (in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, Poltava, and elsewhere), studios in Kyiv and Kharkiv, a workshop for the production of political posters, and a publishing house. Among its members were Vsevolod Averin, Ivan Buriachok, Ivan Izhakevych, Ivan Khvorostetsky, M. Kozik, Fedir Krychevsky, Yukhym Mykhailiv, P. Nosko, M. Prakhov, Hryhorii Svitlytsky, Karpo Trokhymenko, Illia Shulha, Oleksii Kokel, and Mykhailo Zhuk. The association arranged many exhibitions, especially traveling exhibits. In 1929 a group of leading artists left the association and formed the Ukrainian Artistic Alliance. In 1930 the association was renamed the All-Ukrainian Association of Proletarian Artists, which existed until 1932.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]