Nikolay Malynka


Mykola Malynka was a Ukrainian painter, creative artist, and sculptor. He was among those who studied and worked in the Soviet Union where Socialist Realism became a state policy, but is often considered a representative of Ukrainian impressionism as well. Focused on the dramatic depictions of Soviet and Ukrainian history, Mykola Malynka produced canvases of Ukrainian Cossack's quest for peace and freedom, portrayed prominent personalities of the past and present day, composed a brief history of his homeland - Yahotyn county of Kyiv Region. Later, when Gorbachev's glasnost’ effectively ended state censorship, he began to reveal on the canvas Ukrainian national tragedies, such as the forcible collectivization and the Great Famine of 1933, which took millions of Ukrainian lives.

Early life

Mykola Malynka was born in small village, Lysniaky, and spent his childhood side by side with picturesque beauty of historical Poltava Governorate of Dnipro Ukraine.
No sooner out of the cradle, the boy started to paint his surroundings. It seemed nobody took seriously a young talent except a local artist and photographer L. Briummer, who persistently advised him to take professional courses. Instead, under parental pressure, Mykola Malynka entered, in 1929, the horticultural school but soon dropped out. Then, he became a student of the book department of the Kharkiv cooperative technical college.
The city was a significant cultural center of Soviet Ukraine. The young man read a lot, visited museums and exhibitions, met prominent people and gradually came to a final decision to become an artist.
In the fall of 1933, he enrolled in Kyiv Art Institute where he had been studying fine art and graphics for several years. In the middle of his studies he was drafted into the army and served in the unit located in Moscow. Being always on the lookout of a new possibility to continue education, Mykola Malynka very soon became a student of the fine art studio that is now the internationally renowned Moscow's Grekov Studio of Battle-Scene Artists. His training was led by the talented masters of Soviet war art whose idea was to promote the Red Army heroic past by a new cohort of artists.
Among them were Khrystophor Ushenin, Vasyl’ Swarog, Yevhen Katsman, Oleksander Herasymov.
By the end of 1939, Soviet mainstream newspaper “Pravda” recognized MYkola Malynka as one of the best students who had good understanding of the color palette and composition.
His education was supplemented with Grekov Studio's team expeditions to the Caucasian Region of the country which resulted in several artworks of the socialist realism style. Thus, the gallery of the future artist was started, and first recognition soon followed: Caucasian theme canvases by Nikolay Malynka were exhibited at the Central House of the Soviet Army and honored with the certificate of the heroic deed of the Moscow Military District.

WWII (1939-1945): Personal impact and career

The wartime brought destruction in Europe's fallen countries, and political confusion for many of Mykola Malynka's countrymen. At this time, Malynka's temporary location was city of Kosiv, which is part of Ivano-Frankivs’k Region in the west of Ukraine at the present time. Following the order of Soviet authorities, he was in charge of creating a local School of Applied Arts. Meanwhile, the artist's spirit was captured by the beauty of Carpathians, rich ethnos, folklore and memories of long ago. Later, in postwar times, he will produce several masterpieces sunken in Carpathians spirit, such as “Arcan, the Gutsul’s Dance”, “On Upper Reaches of Carpathians”, “The Gutsul’s fair” and many others.
Shortly before the German occupation, Malynka returned to his homeland, the Yahotyn county of Kyiv Region; because of two members of the family who were sick, his family required him to stay by its side. Released from the draft due to his own illness, he worked at the local railway station. But with Nazis in town, he wasn't able to continue his work. Many intellectuals, including Malynka and his family, which completely depended on him, survived two long years under Nazis, working hard at their private vegetable patches.
One day he was imprisoned but was fortunate enough to escape from a freight train headed to Germany. When German forces were driven out of the area by the Red Army, he became enlisted in 209th battalion of the 8th Air Army and found himself on the front lines of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
Malynka's postwar life was typical for Soviet intellectuals. To make a living for his family, he painted Soviet slogans, placards, posters, etc. At any cost, he tried to be incorporated into mainstream cultural postwar process but had no luck. Meanwhile, a small-town-artist made several efforts to brush into canvas wartime memories. The picture “Babyn Yar” and several others were exhibited in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Soon after, in 1949, he became a member of All-Soviet Union of Artists and, in a few years, of Kyiv Artist Society. Those Kievans significantly influenced his style and shaped his artistry in a new way. Soon Malinka found himself at a stylistic turning point: features of socialist realism disappeared and his impressionistic style began to develop.
His best pieces entered all-Union and all-Ukraine exhibitions. At one of these exhibitions the picture “Arcan, the Gutsul’s Dance” was bought by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine; another similar work, “On Upper Reaches of Carpathians”, was taken to Australia by an art collector. It was a big achievement.

Famous people painted

Legacy

Mykola Malynka was one of those artists who proved that great art can be created in small towns and villages as well. Thanks to the artists of his kind, Ukrainian art reached international standards and continues to keep abreast with the latest field developments.
Malynka left behind more than 300 paintings, sketches, drawings of realist and impressionist style, mostly oils and partially watercolors. Majority are displayed in museums and galleries of his homeland – Yahotyn and villages of the Yahotyn county; some are spread worldwide, including Ukraine and its capital Kyiv, as often happens with an art of a great significance.
Some of them present a good educational material, such as “The Soviet Tanks T-34 Forcing Desna River at Liutizh Area” or panoramic panels, on a topic of prehistoric village primitive life, which are exhibited at the Dobranichevka Archeological Museum, of Yahotyn County. Notable historical city of Pereiaslav, of Kyiv Region, has in its possession another Malinka's famous work of the same matter - “Kobzars”; reproductions of this artwork became a part of Woscob Private Art Gallery and Yahotyn Art Gallery. Some “little pearls” from landscape series – “The Summer” and “The Stalks under Snow” – are long gone to Switzerland's Zürich collection. And there are Australia, the Netherlands, and other foreign countries in the listings.
Mykola Malynka's performance in artistry and Ukrainian cultural rebirth was honored, in 1990, with a title “The Honorable Citizen of Yahotyn City”. As a tribute to Malynka's humble and highly talented personality, Ukrainian National Television Company UT-1 aired in 1993 a short biographical documentary.