The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the world’s largest, has made changes on its site to recognize Arkhyp Kuindzhi, Illia Repin and Ivan Aivazovsky as Ukrainian artists.
The Kuindzhi’s bio on the site says he “was born along the coast in Mariupol, when the Ukrainian city was part of the Russian Empire.” The story also points out that “in March 2022, the Kuindzhi Art Museum in Mariupol, Ukraine, was destroyed in a Russian airstrike.”
Similarly, the note attached to Vsevolod Garshin’s portrait by Illia Repin says the artist was born in the Ukrainian town of Chuhuiv when it was part of the Russian Empire.
Moreover, the Met has renamed a painting of Edgar Degas’ series, formerly known as the “Russian Dancers,” into “Dancer in Ukrainian Dress.”
Ten months ago, the National Gallery in London altered the title of Degas’ “Russian Dancers” to “Ukrainian Dancers.”
“In the late 1890s, a number of dance troupes from Eastern Europe visited Paris […] This pastel may have been one of three showing ‘dancers in Russian costume’ that Degas showed a visitor to his studio in 1899, although these dancers are almost certainly Ukrainian rather than Russian,” the overview of the painting reads.
