Alla Horska was a Ukrainian painter, who represented Socialist Realism, Naïve Art (Primitivism) and Soviet Nonconformist Art movements. Due to the subversive political and nationalistic subject of her art, KGB often destroyed, deterred and even banned her work from public display.
Background
Alla Horska was born on September 18, 1929 in Yalta, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (present-day Yalta, Russian Federation). She was the daughter of Elena Horska and Oleksandr Horsky, who was a Ukrainian film producer and one of the pioneers of Ukrainian cinema. When the war broke out in June 1941, Alla and her mother found themselves in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and being unable to leave the city, they stayed there until the end of the Nazi blockade. Later, they moved to Kiev.
Education
Since 1946 till 1948, Alla attended Taras Shevchenko State Art School in Kiev. Later, finishing the school with a gold medal, she enrolled at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, where she studied under Mikhail Sharonov and Sergey Grigoryev.
In 1964, Horska collaborated with Halyna Sevruk and Liudmyla Semykina on the creation of a stained-glass panel for Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Because of its unconventional style and patriotic message, the panel, which depicted an angry Taras Shevchenko, was destroyed by the authorities and Horska was expelled from the Union of Artists of Ukraine. She had to leave Kiev in order to find a work, but she continued to defy the authorities by protesting against their repressive measures.
In the late 1960s, she created a number of portraits of her contemporaries, such as B. Antonenko-Davydovych, V. Symonenko, I. Svitlychny and Yevhen Sverstyuk.
Horska also dedicated much of her time to supporting fellow artists, who had been arrested and convicted as "soviet dissidents", often giving court testimony on their behalf and offering support to their families, while they were in labor and concentration camps.
Achievements
Alla Horska was best known as the "artistic and spiritual" leader of the 1960s art movement, while Ukraine was under Communism and part of the USSR.
Her works are kept at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Lviv National Museum and in some world's largest collections.
Sketch of a Stained Glass Window "Shevchenko. Mother" for the Kiev Art Institute
painting
Portrait of the Writer B.Antonenko Davydovich
Portrait of the Poet Ivan Svetlichny
Portrait of the Poet Vasyl Symonenko
Map of Ukraine
Swan Lake
The Bird of Happiness
Blooming Fantasy
In the Yard
Taras Shevchenko
Pioneer Control
Abstraction
Sketch for Mosaique
Taras Shevchenko
Harvesting
Sunflower
Sketch for Fire Flower Mosaique
Mother and Child
Untitled
Fire Flower (made in Cooperation with Galyna Zubchenko and Victor Zaretsky)
Bride
The Victory Banner. A Sketch for Mosaic in Krasnodon (made in Cooperation with Victor Smirnov and Victor Zaretsky)
Warrior of the Golden Horde. Sketch of a Theatrical Costume
Mountain Landscape
Old Yard
Balalaika Player
Portrait of a Woman in a Kerchief
Taras Shevchenko. Sketch for the Play by Ivan Drach "Knife in the Sun"
Cossak Mamay
Fairy Tale
Views
Alla publically and artistically acknowledged the criminal nature of the Soviet Communist system and rejected dogmas of Socialist Realism.
Membership
Horska was one of the organizers of the Creative Youth Club "Suchasnyk" and a member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine. She also was one of the representatives of the Sixtiers.
Artists' Union of the USSR
1959
Connections
Alla Horska married Victor Zaretsky, a painter, in 1952. Two years later, in 1954, their son Alexey was born.
