«Steppe Ukraine: Ornament»

Description

This first reissue of the unique 1929 work “Steppe Ukraine: Ornament” preserves the original orthography. The album section features 30 separate color plates illustrating the ornamental designs used to decorate peasant houses in the Odesa region. The publication is supplemented by three forewords (by Dmytro Kazanin, Kateryna Kulai, and Olha Kosmina) and an afterword (by Mykhailo Selivachov) that bring this century-old work into a contemporary context.

The original edition of “Steppe Ukraine: Ornament” was produced in a limited run of just a few hundred copies. Not all surviving copies retain the foreword, as the album was dedicated to Mykola Skrypnyk; following his death in 1933, he—and consequently parts of this publication—fell under official prohibition.

The creation of the original album took place under the direct supervision of the distinguished graphic artist Professor Volodymyr Zauze. The recording of field material and the processing of the lithographic stones were carried out by Olena Brychevska, a student at the Odesa Polytechnic of Fine Arts (now the M. B. Grekov Odesa Professional Art College).