VIOLA PUSHKAROVA (UKRAINIAN B. 1929)
Two Ivans and Oksana, 1964
oil on canvas
108 x 164.5 cm (42 1/2 x 64 3/4 in.)

PROVENANCE
Jurii Maniichuk and Rose Brady Collection

EXHIBITED
New York, Brooklyn Museum, Russian Modern, 2011-2016
New York, Ukrainian Institute of America, December 2016-April 2018.

LITERATURE
Jurii Maniichuk, Realism and Socialist Realism in Ukrainian Painting of the Soviet Era (Kiev: LK Maker, 1998), p. 191 (illustrated)

LOT NOTES
Viola Oleksiivna Pushkarova is a genre and still-life painter. In 1958, Pushkarova graduated from the Kharkiv Art Institute, where she studied under Leonid I. Chernov, Oleksandr P. Luibimskiy, Oleksandr A. Khmelnitskiy, et al.
Two Ivans and Oksana serves as both a still life study and an authentic genre scene - the exhausted father dozes off at the table while his two children play on the floor. Pushkarova enriches the piece with details such as the milk bottle, placed precariously close to the sleeping man, and the overboiling pot on the stove in the upper right corner. The surface is remarkably textured - from the curving strokes on the walls to the richly patterned carpet, the image seems to pulsate, embodying the spirit of spontaneous verisimilitude. The concise, soft modeling of the children's faces, though mostly hidden from view, is reminiscent of that of Mary Cassatt, particularly in her mother-daughter scenes, and exemplary of Pushkarova's technical prowess.

The following lots come from the collection of the Ukrainian-born American lawyer Jurii Maniichuk (1955-2009), who amassed nearly 150 large-scale pieces of Ukrainian Socialist Realism of the 1950s-1980s. Maniichuk acquired these paintings (primarily from working artists or their heirs) while working in Kiev as a legal consultant for the World Bank in the 1990s, and brought them to the U.S. in 1999. With UkraineÕs newfound independence from the USSR in 1991, Socialist Realism fell out of favor with most collectors and curators. Recognizing their historical value and aesthetic appeal, Maniichuk made it his preeminent goal was to preserve the paintings for future study and appreciation. As part of that effort, his widow, Rose Brady, now the collectionÕs owner, lent nearly half of the collection long-term to the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York (2012-2018). Select works have also been featured at the Brooklyn Museum (Russian Modern, 2011-2016), at East West Fine Art (formerly known as Gallery on Fifth) in Naples, Florida (We the People. Everyday Life in Post-Soviet Union and modern-day Southwest Florida, November 29-December 20, 2014; Rescued from the Flames, Soviet Era Social Realist Paintings from the Collection of Jurii Maniichuk and Rose Brady, December 2013-January 2014), and at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida (Ukraine: The Maniichuk-Brady Collection of Socialist Realist Art, August 27-December 4, 2015).