Monumental decorative mosaics are particularly important milestone of the Ukrainian culture, which includes examples of Soviet modernism unique artworks. In the mid-twentieth century, in the era of total control and art censorship, artists could not afford themselves free their creativity in academic works, so often they have been implementing it in works of decorative art. Today we see their unbiased perception of ideology in mosaic components and we make our own assessment of mosaic’s artistic uniqueness. In addition, importance of preserving the Soviet cultural heritage is an evidence of the civilized society, the main value of which is attentive treatment of cultural and historical layers.
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Soviet Mosaic in Ukraine is an interactive database of all mosaics scattered all over the territory of Ukraine, which contains standardized information about each item: photo, title, author, description of the work. The site includes an interactive map with data and geolocation of each mosaic. The “Authors” includes section with biographies of muralists. Section “Texts” contains a virtual library with scientific and journalistic articles, films and documents that are available for further explorations in history of monumental art of the Soviet period.
Most of the materials were collected in Donetsk region is the launch basis for further filling of a resource data on the monumental and decorative heritage of other regions of Ukraine.
SOVIET MOSAICS IN UKRAINE online platform is open for cooperation: everyone can send pictures of mosaics exteriors and interiors with the location addresses and names, if they are known. The authors’ names and photos are listed on the site.
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Another interesting source for exploring Ukrainian monumental decorative mosaics is the instagram account @ukrainianmosaics of Eugenyy Nikiforov, Ukrainian photographer who is interested in this form of art and makes impressive photos of the mosaics. Eugenyy Nikiforov is also getting ready to publish his book called “Decommunised: Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics” at Osnovy Publishing house. The book will be available in spring 2017.
Photo source: @ukrainianmosaics, Decommunised: Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics Facebook page, izolyatsia.org, sovietmosaicsinukraine.org
