Taras Shevchenko. The Image in Art

The Book "Taras Shevchenko. The Image in Art"

The book "Taras Shevchenko. The Image in Art" will speak to each reader in its own way. What was the poet-artist like? How he was seen by his youthful friends, numerous admirers of his poetic genius and artistic talent at the time of his creative rise; later - by a few brave souls who dared to keep in touch with the disgraced artist during his exile; and later - by his followers, for whom the image of "Father Taras" as the father of the nation was most important. What did the political regime of the USSR do, unable to overcome the authority of the figure of a convinced antagonist of the empire, no matter what guise it took?

Younger readers may be surprised to realize that their grandparents' generation had a different idea of Taras Shevchenko than they do. Their parents had a different one.  Older readers may realize that there are other interpretations of the poet's image in painting and graphics besides the one they know and love. And there are reasons for this.

Each reader will find out that Shevchenko changes along with us, our personal and social priorities, our experience, the peculiarities of the historical and cultural situation in which a particular generation lives and works, etc. And yet it remains our own for all of us. The main unifying factor is the understanding that thanks to Taras Shevchenko we have not disappeared as a people. And today he looks at us from the posters of the Russian-Ukrainian war as a symbol of preserving identity and freedom. 

So who is he? St. Tarasius? Father Taras? An aristocrat of the spirit? An indestructible energy? A warrior poet? Let's look for the answer together. Everyone will have their own answer. And always the right one.