The Kyiv National Art Gallery (KNAG) is one of the most prominent art museums of Ukraine. Institution celebrated the centenary of its founding in 2022.
Despite of the extremely hard situation resulted from the invasion of Russian army and that the state of was declared in Ukraine, the KNAG didn’t stop its activities considering them as its contribution to the future victory, defense of national interests on cultural front, fight for spiritual values, liberation from impacts of imperial colonial policy, renovation of historical justice, promotion of the image of an Ukrainian as an European, enriched with own history, original culture and art. Even after the KNAG building was damaged in a result of a rocket attack in the center of Kyiv, the museum does not stop its activities, continuing its work on both Ukrainian and international projects.
The facade of the building of the Kyiv Art Gallery. Photo made in 1920s.
The KNAG is not only one of the oldest, but one of the most favorite museums of Kyiv. Its collection is one of the richest of art museums in Ukraine. It includes above 14 000 paintings, graphics, sculptures, and arts and crafts.
Among the most famous museum items there are: icons of XIII-XVII cc., portraits by Volodymyr Borovykovsky and Dmytro Levytsky, magnificent collections of landscape paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky, Mykola Ghe. There also brilliant collections of works by Illia Repin, Mukhailo Vrubel, artists of the end of XIX – beginning of XX cc., as well as pieces of modern Ukrainian artists, eyewitnesses of the present day, which reproduce artistically their impressions on actual events in Ukraine, on trials that fell to its lot.
The facade of the building of the Kyiv Art Gallery after the rocket attack. Photo made in Oct'2022.
On preserving and promoting examples of the classic art, the KNAG strives to be on the crest of time. During the war calamity, the organization of contemporary art exhibitions and other art events became the basic form of the Kyiv National Art Gallery activities, the means to reflect actual problems through the prism of the best artists’ of modern Ukraine view.
