Kateryna Bilokur: Google Doodle Celebrates the 120th Birthday of People’s Artist of Ukraine

Google Doodle celebrates the 120th birthday of Ukrainian Folk artist and painter Kateryna Bilokur (Катерина Білокур), known as People’s Artist of Ukraine, on December 7, 2020.

Who was Kateryna Bilokur (Катерина Білокур)?

Kateryna Vasylivna Bilokur (Катерина Василівна Білокур) was a Ukrainian folk artist born in 1900 in Bogdanivka, an out-of-the-way village in vast Ukraine, in the Poltava Governorate. Her birth date is obscure yet 7 December is used as her official birthday. After an unfavorable beginning, her works got known in the late 1930s and 1940s for their interest in nature. She was named People’s Artist of Ukraine.

Kateryna Bilokur got no proper education and her daily life was one of dismal, hard physical work, and family tasks. Be that as it may, her desire to paint was outrageous. So anxious was she to seek after her specialty that she designed her own paintbrushes and formulated her own paints from beet juice, berries, onions, viburnum, herbs, and whatever she could discover. She was frequently at work the entire day and painted during the night until she could at this point don’t remain alert.

The first works of Kateryna Bilokur (the 1920s — mid-30s) were amateurish. They were the representations of her relations and residents executed with charcoal and self-made vegetable paints.

The second half of the 1930s was a significant period in her creativity. At that point, she took to drawing still-lifes. Indeed, even her prior works — The Birch (1934), Flowers by the Fence (1935), Flowers (1936), and some others obviously demonstrated her outstanding innovative abilities. The inventiveness of selection of topic, vitality, fanciful creation, and harmony of colors characteristic of these photos became the main features of all crafted by the artist.

Some of Kateryna Bilokur’s works eventually discovered their approach to Europe, where it is said that as a matter of fact Pablo Picasso saw her work as well as got hypnotized, gazing at her paintings for hours, as though in a dream. Picasso recommended that if her works were broadly known, Bilokur would be the discussion of the world.

Kateryna Bilokur (Катерина Білокур) painted flowers and fruits in nurseries, orchards, fields; still lifes; and a few representations and self-pictures. Her paintings display originality, vivid coloring, and an extraordinary attention to detail.

In 1954, three paintings by Kateryna Bilokur were shown at an international exhibition in Paris where, among others, they were exceptionally praised by Pablo Picasso. Her work is preserved at the National Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art. Albums of her works of art were published in Kyiv in 1959, 1975, and 2010.

In 1956, Katerina Bilokur was named the “People’s Artist of Ukraine,” a staggeringly high honor. The picture was likewise given on a Ukrainian coin. She passed on 9 June 1961 in Bohdanivka Yahotyn Raion, Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. It is likely her wonderful work will live on for centuries to come and be considered among the most sublime masterpieces of the world.

Kateryna Bilokur (Катерина Білокур) rightfully possesses a leading place in the history of Ukrainian folk art. Bilokur’s craft depends on her significant information on nature and folk art traditions, and the effect her canvases produce is truly remarkable.

On December 7, 2020, Google observes Kateryna Bilokur’s 120th Birthday with Google Doodle.