ARVM

The ARVM artist collective consisted of a married couple from Kyiv, artists Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko.

Volodymyr Melnychenko was a painter, illustrator, printmaker, architect, sculptor, and photographer. He worked in genre painting, portraiture, and landscape. Together with Rybachuk, he created monumental and decorative works (mosaics, sculptures), architectural projects, and book illustrations. His influences included folk art, expressionism, romanticism, and symbolism. Melnychenko was a member of the Union of Artists of the Ukrainian SSR (joined in 1960) and was made an Honored Artist of Ukraine in 2013.

Born in Kyiv in 1932, Melnychenko lived with his family while under German occupation during the Second World War. From this exposure, he was aware of the horrors connected with the occupation, including the massacre in Babyn Yar during the Holocaust. After the war, he studied at the Taras Shevchenko State Art High School (1945–50), where he met Ada Rybachuk. The pair then went on to enroll at the Kyiv State Art Institute, (1951–57), though the artists belonged to different studios—Melnychenko in that of Karpo Trokhymenko (1885–1979) and Rybachuk with Oleksii Shovkunenko (1884–1974).

In 1954, on the advice of Tetiana Yablonska (1917–2005), a teacher at the Kyiv State Art Institute, he went on his first trip to the Siberian Far North with Rybachuk. They sought new themes and subjects for their work. The artists spent May through July on the shores of the White Sea in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (district) of the RSFSR and August to September on Kolguyev Island.

In 1955, having gained approval for the theme of his thesis, Зимовий берег Білого моря. Острів Колгуєв [Zymovyi bereh Biloho moria. Ostriv Kolhuiev, The Winter Shore of the White Sea: Kolguyev Island], Melnychenko set off with Rybachuk on a second expedition to the Far North. During their nearly year-and-a-half-long stay in the region, the couple was productive and returned with a large number of artworks. Of the collection, 240 were exhibited in 1957 at the artists’ first solo exhibition in the assembly hall of the Kyiv State Art Institute during their thesis defense. Melnychenko exhibited sketches and two large-scale paintings, Перше вересня [Pershe veresnia, First of September] and Північне море [Pivnichne more, Northern Sea]. His diploma work passed with distinction. At an exhibition celebrating the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow, Melnychenko exhibited the painting Ada (1957). That same year he earned his membership to the Union of Artists of the USSR, and in 1960 he became a member of the Union of Artists of the Ukrainian SSR.

Melnychenko and Rybachuk’s shift from individual artist collaborators into the official ARVM collective can be posited as emerging in the mid-1950s as the artists worked closely throughout their arts education, but it was only in 1982 that the pair began signing their work with this abbreviation. [1] From the 1950s onwards, Rybachuk and Melnychenko predominantly worked together on the implementation of artistic projects, from book illustration to monumental-decorative and architectural projects.

In 1957–59, ARVM undertook its longest journey to the Far North, after which they gave the resulting 118 artworks to the city of Naryan-Mar, a gift that contributed to the foundation of the first art museum in the Arctic.

ARVM’s work was increasingly written about in periodicals where, interspersed with approving articles, there were accusations of “deviating from the fundamental positions of affirming the method of socialist realism.” [2] Accusations of “Boychukism” prompted the artists to take a greater interest in the tradition of modernism, in particular the work of the repressed artist Mykhailo Boychuk (1882–1937). The Russian symbolist artist Nikolai Roerich (1874–1947) was also one of ARVM’s favorite artists. Among Melnychenko and Rybachuk’s expanding influences was American artist Rockwell Kent (1882–1971), due in part to their personal acquaintance and correspondence after meeting in 1960, and Italian artist Renato Guttuso (1911–1987), having met the following year.

In 1962, ARVM held art classes for children at a boarding school on Kolguyev Island in the Far North. They worked with them to create the artwork Велика картина про наш острів [Velykа kartyna pro nash ostriv, A Great Picture of Our Island] (1962). The work was displayed at the exhibition Рисують діти острова Колгуєв [Rysuiut dity ostrova Kolhuiev, The children of Kolguyev Island draw] in 1964 at the House of Writers in Moscow. The outcome of this work was the catalogue Мы – о своем Острове. Рисуют дети острова Колгуев [My - O svoem Ostrove. Risuiut deti ostrova Kolguev, Our take on our island: The children of Kolguyev Island draw] published in 1970 in Moscow by the Sovetskii khudozhnik publishing house.

In 1960, ARVM met Kyiv architect Avraam Miletskyi (1918–2004), and their long-term collaboration began. The group’s monumental decorative design for the Kyiv Bus Station (1960) won the First All-Union Prize for Young Architects for mosaics and interiors. From 1963 to 1968, ARVM created a series of mosaic panels for the interior of the Republican Palace of Pioneers (now the Palace of Children and Youth) in Kyiv: Діти світу [Dity svitu, Children of the World], Чарівна скрипочка [Charivna skrypochka, The Magical Violin] (dedicated to Maria Prymachenko), Сонце та золоті пташки [Sontse ta zoloti ptashky, The Sun and Golden Birds], and Вершники [Vershnyky, Horsemen]. The group’s mosaic project also resulted in twenty-four emblems of different children’s clubs. The pool in front of the building’s main facade was also ornately tiled, with a large-scale tiered sun reflecting its title: Сонце, Зорі та Сузір’я” [Sontse, Zori, ta Suziria, Sun, Stars, and Constellations].

In 1965, the team took part in a competition to design a monument titled Жертвам фашизму [Zhertvam fashyzmu, For the Victims of Fascism] at Babyn Yar. In 1968, work began on the architectural and sculptural design of the Memorial and Ritual Complex Парк Пам’яті [Park Pamiaty, Park of Memory] at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv, which received the award for Best Project of 1968. At the same time, ARVM participated in design competitions for the historical and archaeological park Стародавній Київ [Starodavnii Kyiv, Ancient Kyiv] (1968), Ораторіум [Oratorium], and Ораторіум Революції [Oratorium Revoliutsii, Oratorium of the revolution] in Moscow (1970, 1971), all of which were also recognized as the best projects of the year. [3]

AVRM’s primary work in the 1970s was the Park of Memory. Miletskyi invited the artists to participate in the project. Together the trio developed the concept and its successive architectural and decorative components. In order to study folk burial traditions, Rybachuk and Melnychenko traveled through the Ukrainian villages of Volhynia, Podillia, and Bukovyna from 1968 to 1974.

The park consisted of a crematorium, a columbarium, an administrative complex, and a park area. Their focus was the construction of the Стіна Пам’яті [Stina Pamiati, Wall of Remembrance]. The overall concept of the complex and the wall was aimed at future generations who would come to lay their loved ones to rest. The composition consisted of several main sections: Квітучий сад [Kvituchyi sad, The Flowering Garden], Дощ [Doshch, Rain], Райдуга [Raiduha, Rainbow], Ікар [Ikar, Icarus], Весна [Vesna, Spring], Тривога [Tryvoha, Worry], Любов [Liubov, Love], Материнство [Materynstvo, Motherhood], Творчість [Tvorchist, Creativity], Мир [Myr, Peace], Чоловік і Жінка [Cholovik i Zhinka, Man and Woman], among others. Each section unfolded into the next through a series of scenes from world history and mythology—from the myth of Prometheus to World War II and postwar reconstruction. The total area of the relief was 2,000 square meters (21,500 sq. ft), and its height ranged from 4 to 14 meters (13 to 46 feet) with a length of 213 meters (nearly 700 feet). With such a large scale, ARVM invented a new technology for creating monumental reliefs, which consisted of manufacturing a spatial steel frame that was then filled with concrete. The frame also functioned as an engineering component by reinforcing the terraced cemetery. The reliefs were painted using the encaustic technique and covered with fusible colored glaze.

The Zimmerli collection includes the painting Рельєфи Стіни Пам’яті. Фрагмент «Творчість» [Reliefy Stiny Pamiati. Frahment “Tvorchist,” Reliefs of the Wall of Remembrance: Fragment “Creativity”] (1974, ZAM, D21664), which was created during ARVM’s work on the Wall of Remembrance. This piece gives an example of the color scheme intended for the monumental composition. According to the artists’ plan, a human figure was located between images of a blooming garden and palms holding ears of grain. This portion of the wall symbolized the triumph of life and human creative potential. The bright, contrasting colors correspond to the main concept: to lead visitors at the Park of Memory through all the stages of grief from personal loss and ultimately give them a sense of relief through participation in the collective experience of death.

At the end of 1981, at a meeting of the Artistic Expert Board of the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR and the Artistic Expert Council of the State Construction Committee of the Ukrainian SSR, a decision was unexpectedly made to stop the work at the Park of Memory, which in effect meant the destruction of the wall. From March to May during the following year, the reliefs created by ARVM were covered over with concrete. This came as a terrible shock to the artists. It was not until 1992 that the decision to demolish the wall was revoked, and the artists developed a project for its restoration in 1996. However, it ultimately remained covered in concrete.

Alongside their work on monumental and decorative projects, ARVM continued to create easel-based work, particularly in graphic printmaking; after traveling through the western regions of Ukraine from 1968 to 1974, they created a series of prints entitled Бабине літо [Babyne lito, Indian Summer (literally grandmother’s summer)], Бабина смерть [Babyna smert, Grandmother’s death] and Великдень біля Святого Димитрія [Velykden bilia Sviatyi Dymytriy, Easter at Saint Demetrius]. In 1991, the artists implemented a project dedicated to the memory of the victims of Babyn Yar, Коли руйнується світ [Koly ruinuietsia svit, When the World Is Destroyed], which consisted of a book and three tapestries. The most ambitious and significant work by ARVM after the destruction of the Wall of Remembrance was a series of large ceramic sculptures entitled Бронзові образи [Bronzovi obrazy, Bronze Images] (1982–2000), relating to AVRM’s eternal theme of the Far North.

After Ada Rybachuk’s death in 2010, Volodymyr Melnychenko devoted his life to continuing the fight for justice for the Wall of Remembrance and publishing archival materials about Ada Rybachuk and the activities of ARVM. In 2018 and then 2021, sections of the bas-relief (100 m² / 1000 sq. ft.) were uncovered from the section Оборона Батьківщини [Oborona Batkivshchyny, Defense of the Motherland].

In 2012, Volodymyr Melnychenko joined the creation of the International Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism 1937–1941 (architect Larysa Skoryk) on the territory of the National Historic Memorial Биківнянські могили [Bykivnianski mohyly, Bykivnia Graves] near Kyiv. From 1937 to 1941, the Bykivnia Forest was the site of the secret burial of victims of Stalin’s political repression, who were shot in the Kyiv prisons of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the Ukrainian SSR. On fourteen blocks of gray granite, Melnychenko created recessed reliefs entitled Пам’яті школи Михайла Бойчука [Pamiati shkoly Mykhaila Boichuka, In Memory of the School of Mykhailo Boichuk], На цвинтарі розстріляних ілюзій [Na tsviyntari rozstrilianykh iliuzii, At the Cemetery of Executed Illusions], and Зламані крила [Zlamani kryla, Broken Wings] (all 2012).

Volodymyr Melnychenko died in 2023 in Kyiv.

Oksana Barshynova

Translated from Ukrainian by Nathan Jeffers

Photo portrait: Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko in 1957. Source: Ukraine Unofficial.

Notes:

1. N. Horova, “Ada Rybachuk, Volodymyr Melnichenko (ARVM) yak pryklad viddanosti obranomu shliakhu. Stanovlennia tvorchykh osobystostei (1950–1960-ti)” [Ada Rybachuk, Volodymyr Melnychenko, as an example of dedication to a chosen path: The formation of creative personalities (1950–1960s)], 41.

2. M. Derehus and V. Kasiian, “Mystetstvo ne terpyt shumykhy” [Art doesn’t tolerate hype], in Pravda Ukrainy [Truth of Ukraine], September 27, 1959, 4.