Depicting Genocide: 20th Century Responses to the Holodomor
It was even more than just a famine, though that itself was horrifying enough. It was part of a broad campaign to quash any residue of Ukrainian autonomy and self-determination by attacking the deepest sources of that identity: language, culture, and traditions centered on agriculture and the land. As such, is one of the sharpest "before and after" demarcation points in modern Ukrainian history.
This exhibition opens during the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor. It also opens as Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, during which genocide is yet again being perpetrated.
"Depicting Genocide" explores some of the ways in which the Holodomor was represented during the 20th century, particularly though art.
The artistic depiction of genocide is challenging. Should horrors be depicted directly and graphically — with skeletons or dead bodies? Or should the approach be more understated, providing the viewers or readers with just enough to allow them to create the images of horror in their own minds? While many artists and writers were quick to create a substantial body of work about other genocides (such as the Holocaust), depictions of the Holodomor were remarkably sparse prior to the last decade of the 20th century. The Ukrainian History and Education Center is honored to have a number of these early works in its permanent collection. This exhibition is built around those items and explores the extremely varied approaches that artists over more than seven decades have used to tackle the Holodomor.However, we believe that this art cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the Holodomor as a historical event and its impact on Ukrainian society. This, along with the general lack of familiarity with the Holodomor, has led us to include considerable background information on the historical context of the Holodomor. These are illustrated with public domain images from Ukrainian archives and other sources, as well as primary source materials in the UHEC's collections. We also explore how the Holodomor was portrayed in the press and how Ukrainians in the diaspora responded to it.
Continue to exhibition overview