Love

Among the pinnacles of twentieth-century Ukrainian art is Mykhailo Boichuk’s school whose artists in their work drew from the sacred art of Byzantium and the Proto-Renaissance and folk art. Antonina Ivanova was one of the first Mykhailo Boychuk’s students, after her studies in St. Petersburg. Her monumental works, such as The Peasant Family mural, are, in compositional terms, close to those of Diego Rivera. In the 1930s, she was forced to abandon monumentalism because of illness, so she focused on decorative art, including fabric paintings. The work Love belongs to the Boichukist period of the artist's life, and the distinctive features of icon painting, such as elongated figures or the depiction of the landscape, are noticeable in it. The artist uses her beloved floral motifs.