Biography

Short biography

Maria Avksentiivna Prymachenko (born on 30 December 1908 (on 12 January 1909) in the village of Bolotnya of Ivankivsky district of Kyiv oblast – died on 18 August 1997 at the same place) was a National artist of Ukraine, a representative of the world primitivism (naive painting), a winner of the T. G. Shevchenko National award of Ukraine, one of the most famous Ukrainian artists. She was awarded the title of the Honored art worker of the USSR in 1970; she was the National artist of Ukraine. She worked in the technique of gouache, oil painting, embroidery, and ceramics. Her oeuvre is represented by graphic sheets on animalistic topics, decorative flowerpot compositions, plot and genre paintings, closely associated with the traditions of folk art of Polesia and exterior murals.

Maria's childhood was darkened by a dreadful disease – poliomyelitis. This made her unusually serious and observant for her age, and sharpened her hearing and sight.

The creative career of the artist began in the middle of the 1930s. She worked in the Central experimental workshops at the Kyiv museum of the Ukrainian art to prepare the Republican exhibition of the Ukrainian folk art of 1936. Here, she created a series of watercolour paintings depicting fantastic beasts, birds, and illustrations to fables.

For the participation in the exhibition of the folk art of 1936, Prymachenko was awarded the first place diploma. Since then, her works have been exhibited with invariable success at exhibitions in Paris, Warsaw, Sofia, Montreal, and Prague.

In 1937, the drawings of the artist won a gold medal on the First International Exhibition in Paris, and received positive comments from Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

In the early 1960s, a new significant stage began in the works of M. Prymachenko. Having created her style, the folk craftswoman enriched the traditional art of the Ukrainian folk decorative painting with original forms of artistic reflection of life.

Beginning of her life journey

Maria Prymachenko was born in the village of Bolotnya in Kyiv region. The date of her birth is 13 January 1908. Concerning the surname and the date of birth of the artist, there are many inaccuracies. In Maria’s passport, the month and the year of her birth – January 1908 – were indicated, while the day of her birth was not specified. But according to Maria Prymachenko and her family, the exact date of her birth is 13 January 1908. Many sources give false data. And, according to the documents, Maria’s surname is Prymachenko, but not Pryimachenko. Maria herself answered the questions concerning her surname as follows, ‘My last name was derived from an entirely different root, from "prima", instead of "pryimak" (a foster-child).’ In 2010, by the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, it was decided that the correct spelling according to the documents was Prymachenko.

All her life, Maria lived in the village of Bolotnya. Her father, Avksentii Hryhorovych, was a master of woodcrafts in the village; and this way, he earned money for his family. Her mother, Praskoviya Vasylivna, kept house, and embroidered very skilfully; it was she who taught Maria, the future artist, to embroider.

Everything began like this. Once, I depastured geese near the house, over the river in a flower meadow. On the sand, I drew the flowers I saw. And then, I noticed some bluish clay. I took some and put it into a napkin and then I decorated our house… Maria's childhood was not easy. At the age of 6, the girl fell ill with a terrible disease – poliomyelitis. She endured all the suffering that the illness brought like a grown-up, and the result of the disease was three serious operations on Maria’s leg. The doctors managed to straighten the leg, but the leg was too short, therefore she wore a prosthetic appliance and had difficulty walking. Thus, the fellow villagers nicknamed her "lame Marya". Of course, the disease deprived the girl of the usual children's entertainments, but Maria found pleasure in drawing, first of all; she wanted to make people happy. Maria Prymachenko described the beginning of her creative career as follows, ‘Everything began like this. Once, I depastured geese near the house, over the river in a flower meadow. On the sand, I drew the flowers I saw. And then, I noticed some bluish clay. I took some and put it into a napkin and then I decorated our house…’

Maria was 8 years old then, and the fellow villagers of the future artist liked such a beauty, so they asked her to decorate their houses as well. Because of her disease, Maria could not be educated in the childhood – she got only 4 classes of school education. Therefore, the local educational programme (literacy project, a school for adults) was real help for Maria, there she learned to write and to read.

Creativity

Maria Prymachenko's talent was discovered by Tetyana Floru, a master weaver and embroideress, who lived in Kyiv. In 1936, Maria was invited to the experimental workshops at the Kyiv museum of the Ukrainian art. At that particular time, her creativity became more diverse – Maria not only drew, but also embroidered and took interest in ceramics.

Her works were a relief to the eye of both her fellow villagers and the people far beyond her native village: Paris, Warsaw, Prague, Montreal… In the same 1936, Maria Prymachenko was awarded the first place diploma for the participation in the exhibition of folk art. Her works were a relief to the eye of both her fellow villagers and the people far beyond her native village: Paris, Warsaw, Prague, Montreal… Despite such recognition, Maria’s body and soul remained in the native village of Bolotnya, and she did not accept the offer to move to Kyiv because she found her one and only true love there. Unfortunately, the happiness with her loved one was not long: he perished at the very beginning of the war, and never saw his son whom Maria carried under her heart then.

The post-war period was difficult for Maria, she was recovering as the artist for a long time, she could not take a brush in her hand for a good while as she had other concerns. She had to bring up her young son Fedir, and therefore she found herself far from artistic life. Soon Maria realized that she should keep living, and the fortune smiled at her, people still liked her works and she got a second wind.

In 1959, she became a member of the Union of artists, and soon great popularity returned to the artist’s works. In 1960s – 1970s, Mr G. Mestechkin, a journalist, organised broad promotion of Maria’s works, and people started talking about Maria Prymachenko afresh.

Maria Prymachenko was a very interesting person; she hated bad news, and she simply refused listening to anything that could irritate her, and when she received letters from unwanted people, she just disposed of them even without reading. The artist also had an ability to give unusual nicknames to people – almost all of her fellow villagers had their nicknames, which remained with them for the rest of their lives.

Maria Prymachenko remained in our memory as a very wise woman; everyone respected her very much, but the artist was a complex person, after all, everyone who knew her remembers well that Maria liked "to rake over the coals" (the artist called it like that when she gave someone a piece of her mind). There was no end to her talents because Maria, in addition, adored embroidering. She sewed clothing to herself and her family, and adorned it with the Polesia ornaments.

Her art immerses us in the wonderful world of fairy tales, unreality, naivety and lightness. All her life, Maria Prymachenko had a simple ability to perceive the world as a fairy tale and managed to convey us the "naive", at first glance, vision inherent to her.

The last years of life

During her last years of life, the artist was bedridden because of her old age and the long-standing disease. However, it did not prevent her from drawing and receiving guests like before. Until her last days, she welcomed the guests and gave them her paintings. Even very poor eyesight and helplessness did not prevent Maria from doing what she loved most of all – from creating.

Maria Avksentiivna Prymachenko died on 18 August 1997. The legendary artist was buried in the village of Bolotnya.