The Kherson Regional Art Museum named after Oleksii Shovkunenko received a new exhibit for permanent storage — a porcelain miniature «Buratino on a Turtle». The work, confiscated by the Kyiv customs, was transferred to the institution according to an order of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
This was reported on the museum’s page.
It is noted that the figurine is a classic example of Ukrainian small sculpture from the 1970s. It is part of a well-known series based on the fairy tale «The Golden Key». The model’s author was the porcelain sculptor and chief artist of the Kyiv Experimental Ceramic-Art Factory, Vladyslav Shcherbyna.
“In the 1970s the Kyiv Experimental Ceramic-Art Factory was a leader in introducing new technologies and a true laboratory of Ukrainian porcelain. The miniature «Buratino on a Turtle» is a brilliant proof of this: at a height of only 7 cm, the work demonstrates an incredible level of detail. Such a small format required from the factory’s artists truly jeweler-like precision and virtuoso brush control”, – the post reads.
The figurine was produced at the Kyiv Experimental Ceramic-Art Factory (KEKKhZ) in the town of Vyshneve. In the 1970s this enterprise was a creative laboratory of Ukrainian porcelain, where the most modern painting technologies were implemented. Since the factory ceased to exist in the 2000s, every preserved work of its masters today is an object of national collecting and a scarce antique, the museum notes.
“This miniature is valuable not because of affection for Tolstoy’s character, but as proof of the skill of Ukrainian porcelain artists who worked under Soviet «temnyky», yet created items of world-class quality. It is – «a document of the era», part of our history that is important to preserve in the museum as an example of what the everyday life of Ukrainians in the 1970s was like, how through such charming images the Soviet authorities carried out «m’яку» Russification and the unification of the cultural space, imposing common heroes on all the republics”, – they wrote on the institution’s page.
Last summer, customs officers transferred 86 cultural items to museums in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions.