A tour through the halls of the Yevhen Kibryk Art Museum in Voznesensk city

Yevhen Kibryk Art Museum in Voznesensk city is quite unique in its kind. Here, all the items exhibited are the results of work of one person. The art museum was opened in Voznesensk city (Mykolaiv region, Ukraine) in 1985. It is located in the very heart of the city, on Sobornosti Street. It is a two-story building with more than 2,000 exhibits under its roof. Kibryk’s personal belongings are exhibited here, and the interior of his workshop was partly reproduced. Photographs and letters of the artist hung on the walls. Some rooms are reserved for lectures; there is a library. There are permanent exhibitions of the works of Yevhen Kibryk. All of them are thematically divided. Each exhibition reflects different era in the artist’s life. Through his works, we can get to know his inner world. There are works by other artists that were donated to Kibryk himself and to the museum.

In 1964, at the invitation of the editor of the Voznesensk district newspaper "Radianska Pravda" B.Slobodianiuk and the director of the local history museum K.Lutanova, Kibryk, together with his wife, came to Voznesensk after a forty-year break. Since then and until the end of his life, the artist was closely connected with his native city and Mykolaiv. In April 1976, Yevhen Kibryk donated the watercolor painting "Mountainous Inhushetia" to the museum, which was created during his trip to the Caucasus in 1937. In his correspondence with Kibryk, B.Slobodianiuk announces the idea of creating an art museum in Voznesensk. "Of course, the creation of an art museum in Voznesensk, which you wrote about, is a great honor for me, and I will willingly transfer to such a museum my works that I have." (From the letter of Kibryk to B.Slobodianiuk). But as a result of his sudden death, Yevhen Kibryk was not able to fulfill his promise personally. On 19 October 1985, in Voznesensk city, the artist's hometown, there was a ceremony on the official opening of the Yevhen Kibryk museum. Representatives of regional, city and district administrations, artists from Moscow, Leninhrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, pupils of Mr. Kibryk, his wife and relatives were present at the rally dedicated to this significant occasion. In the eight rooms of the second floor, there is a permanent exhibition which includes the works of Mr. Kibryk, a memorial items and artworks of painting, graphics, and sculptures by the Soviet and foreign artists donated to the artist. The Yevhen Kibryk Art Museum is a unique personal museum of the artist in Ukraine in terms of size and number of stored items.