Historical background, philosophical and aesthetic platform and ideological principles of Ukrainian modernism
Authors: Babunych Ulia 
Published: December 2019

Ukrainian culture from the second half of the nineteenth century. developed with such main features - the transformation of a purely cultural movement into a national liberation movement, the formation of similar features in the cultural-process processes with the European laws. At the end of the nineteenth century. associates of Ukrainian culture, the main task of their position is the solution of a number of political and socio-economic issues. The process of national-cultural revival has gained strength since the 1880's in both parts of Ukraine and at the beginning of the 20th century. already yields concrete results. In Lviv there are active centers of cultural development. Similar processes have been taking place in the other part of Ukraine, activated by the idea of ​​the revival of the Ukrainian national style. At this time, the intellectuals are much more cohesive, trying spiritually and politically self-determination. These moments were extremely important, for at that time, eastern and western parts of Ukraine, notwithstanding certain ideological points of contact, were not only politically delineated, but also mentally, culturally and spiritually.

In Ukraine, the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. is characterized by changes in the cultural situation, which are marked by modern (modern) influences from the European West in the field of culture, philosophy, and creativity. The national renaissance acquires a qualitatively new meaning, characterized

by the creation of distinctive national forms in all branches of artistic culture. For Ukrainian modernism, the inherent dependence on the geocultural features, the attachment of its representatives to their environment. At the same time, we observe differences in the genre specificity of modernism in the western and eastern Ukrainian territories, due to the influence of Russian or European art. The geographical location of Ukraine between the two parts of the world - Europe and Asia - led to the creation of a unique version of modernism in our territories (tied to national origins, folk folk sources, historical cultural heritage). Stylistic inspirations from different sources flocked to Ukraine, creating polyphony of its modernist art.

The contradictory nature of the transitional period has been reflected in the formation of ideological settings of the art of the first third of the twentieth century. Modernism in Ukraine is characterized by an organic combination of the latest philosophical and aesthetic theories and traditional features of local culture. Philosophy played an important role in shaping the foundations of the "new" art and its artistic practice, giving an alternative way for a better understanding of it in the context of the metamorphosis of social consciousness. At the end of the XIX - in the first third of the twentieth century. especially the theories of intuitionism, existentialism, irrationalism, and so on.

The theoretical works of Ukrainian artists of the first third of the 20th century, often with a philosophical and aesthetic basis, serve as a significant contribution in the context of the formation of not only a national version of modernism, but also a pan-European one. As a basis for artistic creation, modernists

choose a symbolic-allegorical beginning, often serving as both generally accepted and purely national archetypes.

If we sum up the process of national-cultural revival in Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it should be noted that the national movement stimulated the political, social, economic, cultural, and scientific progress of society. Among the values ​​of the intelligentsia was chosen intelligence of Western ideas, including ideas of modern Western philosophy and culture. Worldview principles of modernism in Ukrainian art include interpretation of the historical national and world creative heritage, the use of symbols and archetypes, mythology of creativity, rethinking the achievements of folk art and folklore traditions. Such directions of search determine the conceptual content of the Ukrainian art of this period and the main ideas of creativity of representatives of modernism.