Background
Mrs. Bilokur was born in Bohdanivka, Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on December 7, 1900. She was born into a poor family.
Monument erected in the honor of Kateryna Bilokur.
Mrs. Bilokur was born in Bohdanivka, Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on December 7, 1900. She was born into a poor family.
Kateryna Bilokur received no formal education and her daily life was one of dreary, hard physical labor and household chores. But her desire to paint was extreme. So eager was she to pursue her art that she fashioned her own paintbrushes and formulated her own paints from beet juice, berries, onions, viburnum, herbs and whatever she could find. She was often at labor all day and painted during the night until she could no longer stay awake.
The first works of Mrs. Bilokur in the 1920s-1930s were amateurish. They were the portraits of her relatives and villagers executed with charcoal and self-made vegetable paints.
The second half of the 1930s was an important period in her creativity. Then she took to drawing still-lifes. Even her earlier works - The Birch (1934), Flowers by the Fence (1935), Flowers (1936) and some others clearly showed her exceptional creative abilities. Ingenuity of selection of subject matter, vitality, fanciful composition and harmony of colors characteristic of these pictures became the main features of all the work of the artist.
Kateryna Bilokur’s paintings were first displayed at the Poltava Regional Exhibition in 1940 and then at a national exhibition in Kyiv. They were highly appreciated by art-lovers and art-critics. Inspired by this success, the artist went to Kyiv and Moscow "to see real paintings by real masters" and afterwards created a series of wonderful compositions permeated with love for her native land and its industrious people. Unfortunately, all of the works displayed at the Poltava exhibition in 1941 perished during the Second World Wаг. Only some works of the period, which were not entered in the exhibition, have been preserved (Flowers and Birches at Eventide, Flower s in Fog, Dahlias, Field Flowers).
The two years spent on fascist-occupied territory were the most trying in the life of Kateryna Bilokur. Only a few pictures were made in this period - Flowers and Flowers at Eventide (1942), and Flowers (Lilies) which she finished by the end of 1943. After the liberation of her native village, Mrs. Bilokur created new compositions, Luxuriant Vegetation, Decorative Flowers (1945), Bounties of Nature (1946), 30th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1947), and her famous canvas Ear the King which is unrivaled as regards its esthetic and emotional impact.
The 1950s were the most productive years in Mrs. Bilokur’s artistic career. She made such original and bright still-lifes as AppIes and Tomatoes, Breakfast (1950), Watermelon, Carrots and Flowers (1951), In Shramkivka District of Cherkassy Region (1955-1956), Flowers and Crapes (1953-1958) which are distinguished for their freshness and verve. Through the artist’s fantasy the flowers, vegetables and utensils limned in these pictures turn into a canto glorifying nature, man and his deeds, into symbols of beauty.
In the 1950s Mrs. Bilokur made her first attempts in water-color painting. Her best works of the period - Bogdanivka Village in September, Beyond the Village (1956), Early Spring (1958), Autumn (1960) - are noted for their extraordinarily emotional expressiveness. During the last years of her life, which were dimmed by serious illness, Kateryna Bilokur created a number of notable pictures such as Dahlias (1958), Peonies (1958), Bogdanivka Apples (1959), Bunch of Flowers (1960) and others.
Kateryna Bilokur’s creativity has won her general recognition. She was given the honorary title of the People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and awarded the Badge of Honor and a diploma of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. In her native village a monument was erected in her honor. At all times of the year its pedestal is covered with flowers which she so admired.
In 1954 three paintings by Bilokur were exhibited at an international exhibition in Paris where, among others, they were highly praised by Pablo Picasso.
Field of the collective farm
Portrait of farmer Tatiana Bakhmach
Flowers at night
Flowers on the blue background
Portrait of the nieces
Hello harvest
Flowers and viburnum
Pumpkin bloom
Still life "Breakfast"
Everything goes, everything passes
King spike
Peonies
Autumn
Self-portrait
Self-portrait
Bouquet of flowers
Bouquet of flowers
Still life "Watermelon, carrots, flowers"
Still life "Flowers, apples, tomatoes"
House in Bogdanovka
Garden flowers
Early Spring
Mallows and roses
Dahlias
On the cliff
Dahlias
Irises
Still life "Flowers with nuts"
Flowers
September in the Bohdanivka village on the dam
Portrait of Olya Bilokur
Bouquet of flowers
Portrait of Nadia Bilokur
Flowers by the fence
Wheat, flowers, grapes
Peonies
Still life with spikes and jug
Peonies
Decorative flowers
Still life "Beet"
In Bogdanovka by the dam
Collective farmer
Flowers and birches in the evening
Still life
Still life "Flowers and Vegetables"
Apples of Bogdanivka
Exuberant
Grove
In the village
Field flowers
Mallows
Catkin
Still life with bread
Bilokur painted flowers and fruits in gardens, orchards, and fields; still lifes; and several portraits and self-portraits. Her paintings display originality, vivid coloring, and great attention to detail.
Quotations: "You may not like my work as I paint only flowers. But how can I not paint them if they are so beautiful! When I begin a picture of flowers I think sometimes: when I finish it I’ll do something from the life of the people. But by the time I finish it, my imagination already draws new pictures, and all of them — flowers. That’s the long and the short of it. When spring comes around, and the fields turn green, and flowers begin to bloom, each prettier than the others… My God, i forget everything, and again lake to painting flowers.Don’t be angry with me, my close and distant friends, for me painting flowers, because the pictures with flowers are beautiful."
