Exhibition "Hryhorii Havrylenko. New Life"

The Khanenko Museum presents the exhibition "Hryhorii Havrylenko. New Life"—the first major attempt in nearly twenty years to present and interpret the work of one of the key Ukrainian artists of the sixties (Shistdesiatnyky).

The exhibition will be open to visitors starting June 4 and will run until August 2026.

The exhibition title refers to Hryhorii Havrylenko's iconic series of works—illustrations for Dante's Vita Nova ("New Life") in Ukrainian translation. At the same time, "new life" can be read as a formula for Havrylenko's own practice, characterized by his quest for the "purity of man and the world." Ultimately, the title also speaks to a new wave of scholarly and public interest in the artist.

Hryhorii Havrylenko (1927–1984) was an outstanding Ukrainian artist of the 20th century who served as a focal point for the cultural milieu of Kyiv in his time. Havrylenko’s artistic practice combined painting, graphic art, book illustration, and experimental sketches, through which he consistently developed a new plastic language. His main focus was on female figures, nature, Kyiv landscapes, and a subtle interplay of color and light.

Havrylenko’s inner circle included artists Heorhiy Yakutovych and Valerii Lamakh, film director Sergei Parajanov, composer Valentyn Sylvestrov, conductor Ihor Blazhkov, poets Ivan Drach and Mykola Bazhan, among others.

Despite this, Havrylenko remains relatively unknown and misunderstood in modern Ukrainian culture. Since his death in 1984, no critical body of knowledge about him has been formed, and his works remain largely inaccessible to the general public, neither in museums nor through publications.