A museum class for students from art institutions in Kyiv was held in the exhibition space "Sign on the Shield." About 50 young artists visited us to delve deeper into the more than thousand-year-old history of the Trident.
It was especially interesting for creative youth to learn about the role and participation of artists in state formation. Therefore, museum employees paid special attention to the artistic heritage of Vasyl Krychevsky, Heorhii Narbut, Robert Lisovsky, and Mykola Bytynsky.
In the exhibition, which features over 200 authentic artifacts from six museums and seven private collections from different regions of Ukraine, visitors had the opportunity to see the seals of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) and the state seals of the Ukrainian State under the Hetmanate of Pavlo Skoropadsky, dating from 1918 and designed by V. Krychevsky.
While examining the OUN seal presented at the exhibition, which dates back to 1929, we got acquainted with the creative heritage of the author of the image of the Trident with a sword – graphic artist Robert Lisovsky, a student and follower of H. Narbut and M. Boychuk.
The guests were incredibly impressed by the unique monuments of history and art presented in the exhibition – sheets from the "Album of Uniforms of the Ukrainian Army and Navy for the Age of the Liberation Struggle (1917–1921)". The author of the album is a Ukrainian graphic artist and heraldist, as well as a foreman of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Mykola Bytynsky. The artist studied heraldry and developed designs for the coat of arms of Ukraine, using the Trident as its central element. Museum staff also drew the attention of young artists to the peculiarities of variations in the image of the Trident.
The creation of military and special symbols as part of national self-determination in the conditions of modern war is becoming particularly relevant. And now again, as in the times of the Liberation Struggles, the words of Mykhailo Hrushevsky from the collection of articles "On the Threshold of a New Ukraine" of 1918 are relevant: "We must once again treat the army [...] as an ornament of the state and nation, and an honor guard, where all the best goes, most imbued with a sincere, serious attitude to the state, democratic, social and national tasks, not for the sake of attack, not for fear, but for conscience, to devote several of the best years to the fulfillment of the highest public duty: to defend the highest national achievements with our blood!"
The museum lesson was conducted in preparation for the citywide creative competition exhibition titled "Signs of Ukrainian Identity: Continuity of Traditions." This initiative was launched by the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War and the Kyiv City Methodological Center of Cultural and Educational Institutions.
We wish young artists much creative inspiration!
