King spike 1949

Editor: This is Kateryna Bilokur's 1949 oil and tempera painting, "King Spike". It's a really dense composition, bursting with fruits and flowers, almost overwhelming! I'm curious – how would you interpret this work, especially given its materials? Curator: Looking at the layers of tempera and oil, consider what these material choices meant in postwar Ukraine. Bilokur, largely self-taught, used readily available materials, blurring the line between "fine art" and the resourcefulness required for survival. Do you see this connection to daily life reflected in the image? Editor: Absolutely! It feels very connected to the earth. It makes me think about labor, agriculture...the role of rural women like Bilokur. Curator: Exactly. It pushes us to analyze whose stories get told through “high art” and whose are relegated to craft or folk traditions. What kind of labor was required to cultivate what she depicts here? And the labor required to grind pigments, mix paint? Editor: So, it’s about recognizing the social context embedded in the materials and techniques themselves. A celebration of everyday processes, but also a statement about value? Curator: Precisely. The vibrant colors and painstaking detail, especially considering her limited resources, elevates the overlooked. Bilokur transforms these ordinary subjects into something extraordinary, defying artistic hierarchies in the process. Editor: That makes me appreciate it so much more, understanding that her material choices were a deliberate, almost political, statement. Thanks! Curator: And by focusing on materiality, we can question what is deemed worthy of artistic representation and who has the power to define it. Always more to see, isn't there?