Born: 7 December 1900, Ukraine
Died: 9 June 1961
Country most active: Ukraine
Also known as: Катерина Василівна Білокур
Ukrainian folk artist, painter and poet Kateryna Bilokur is known for her depictions of Ukrainian peasant women and her oil on canvas paintings of flowers. Although she struggled in her early adulthood, she found success in her 40s, and was named People’s Artist of Ukraine in the 1950s.
As a child, Bilokur’s parents did not support her artistic interest, but as she would later recount, “I stole a piece of white canvas from my mother and took a piece of coal… I shall draw something on one side of the rag, then I enjoy what I created, then I draw something on the other side… And this one time… I didn’t draw something I saw, but rather some birds I imagined… My soul felt so happy because of what I could make up! I stared at my drawing, and laughed like crazy… That’s when my parents busted me. They tore up my drawing and threw it in the oven… ‘What are you, crazy? What are you doing? What would happen if other people saw you doing this? What devil will agree to marry you after this!..’ But wherever I go, whatever I do – I have an image in my head that I simply have to draw, it follows me…I’m offended by Nature, it was cruel to me, by giving me this enormous love of holy drawing, and then took away any chance to create this marvelous work to the whole wide extent of my talent!”
Bilokur’s life changed in 1940 when she sent a drawing of viburnum to singer Oksana Petrusenko after hearing her sing “Or was I not the viburnum on the meadow.” The singer contacted the Folk Art Center, who sent someone to Bilokur’s village to enquire about her work, leading to her first exhibition later that year. It was a major success and resulted in her being invited to Moscow and lauded by Communist Party leaders.
Despite Soviet acclaim, Bilokur’s work is known for preserving the identity of the Ukrainian countryside, and the State Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Arts acquired several of her paintings in 1944. She was invited to paint a portrait of Josef Stalin, but declined. Reputedly, she signed her paintings with the inscription, “Kateryna Bilokur painted from nature” but Soviet authorities attributed them as “the works of a collective farm worker from the village of Bohdanivka.” Although her work was exhibited in different cities, including the display of Soviet art at the 1954 International Exhibition in Paris, she was never provided a passport to travel.