Fresh out of school, the young artist Natalka Husar travels to Soviet Ukraine, the homeland of her displaced parents. There she meets an already famous artist, Ivan Ostafiychuk. It is 1969, and the Cold War is raging. In great concern about the KGB cracking down on Ukrainian artists and intellectuals, the two engage in letter writing, for Ivan wants to escape the Soviet regime. For several years, letters crossed the ocean as the two artists staged a long-distance romance in order to convince secret services that they were in love and wanted to marry. Did they succeed? Did Ivan escape the Soviet Union? How did this romance with the plot of a thriller end?
Meet Natalka Husar and hear the story in person. Learn the perspective of scholars who study Ukraine and KGB surveillance. Read the newly published book containing Ivan’s letters.
Natalka Husar is a Toronto-based artist who has explored diasporic and post-Soviet Ukrainian identity over her 48-year career. Her paintings are in many of Canada’s foremost museums, including The National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Alberta, where her painting Edelweiss/Paradise is on view in the exhibition “Seeing and Being Seen.”
🌟 Featuring panelists:
Oleksandr Pankieiev (moderator) – Associate Professor & Kule Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography, Director of the Kule Folklore Centre
Natalia Khanenko-Friesen – Professor & Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography, Director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Andriy Kohut – Director, Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine
Also check out other Arts events in Edmonton, Fine Arts events in Edmonton, Exhibitions in Edmonton.
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