The Shevchenkiana by Ivan Marchuk is a series of works from the collection "Voice of my soul" by the Ukrainian painter Ivan Marchuk, who holds the title of People's Artist of Ukraine and is a laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.
History of creation Marchuk painted the first portrait of Taras Shevchenko at the age of thirteen, when he was in the 7th grade of a rural school in Ternopil Oblast. In 1964, the painter won a student competition with an image of Shevchenko in oil on canvas. He chose the lines from Kobzar as the title of the work: "I am punished, I am tormented, but I do not repent."О. Сарматський. У Тернополі ще раз видали «Шевченкіану Івана Марчука», Терен, 06.03.2016.
Marchuk's "Shevchenkiana" consists of 42 paintings (out of a hundred planned), which were made in tempera (1983-1984). Marchuk wanted to fully appreciate the environment in which Shevchenko made his prophecies and created vivid images through poetry. Therefore, he worked in Ukrainian villages, and not a single painting was created in the city. The artist conveyed the intensity of Shevchenko's words, the richness of spiritual aspirations, personal and existential searches, and philosophical reflections of the Kobzar.У Черкасах відбудеться виставка робіт Івана Марчука, ПроВсе, 29.03.2018.
Public and critical reception
Dmytro Pavlychko notes the originality of the interpretation of Kobzar in this way:
In 1994, the Dnipro Publishing House published Kobzar with illustrations from Ivan Marchuk's Shevchenkiana.Т. Шевченко. Кобзар : ілюстрації Івана Марчука із малярського циклу "Шевченкіана", Київ : Дніпро, 1994, 688 s. In 2014, the catalog "Shevchenkiana by Ivan Marchuk" was published in Ternopil, that effort was initiated and funded by the rector(president) of Ternopil National Economic University Andrii Krysovatyi., Телекомпанія TV-4, 26.09.2014.
Marchuk's paintings were exhibited at the Shevchenko National Preserve (1983-1985, 1995, 1997), the National Museum Taras Shevchenko (1991, 1998), the House of the National Writers' Union of Ukraine (1984), the National Art Museum (2000), and others.С. Бушак. Марчук Іван Степанович, Шевченківська енциклопедія: Т.4: М—Па : у 6 т., Гол. ред. М. Г. Жулинський, Київ : Ін-т літератури ім. Т. Г. Шевченка, 2013, s. 103—104.
The paintings are kept in the Shevchenko National Preserve, while the portrait of the poet and an illustration to his message "To the Dead and the Living" are kept in the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko.
List of paintings Marchuk named individual paintings after specific stanzas from poems by Taras Shevchenko.