Collecting and donating art in post-WWII East-Central Europe: Yulian Kupchyskyi’s gift to Ukrainian museums

Abstract

The article presents results of the author’s research into the history of an art collection handed over by Polish national Yulian Kupchynskyi to museums of the Ukrainian SSR between 1951 and 1954. Despite the collection’s remarkable size and diversity, neither the donor’s identity nor the circumstances under which he obtained and subsequently donated the items have hitherto been subjected to scholarly inquiry.

The purpose of this research was not only to establish factual information concerning Kupchynskyi and his collection, but also view this episode as a case study on private and institutional collecting in post-WWII East-Central Europe. For this purpose, the author suggests a theoretical framework that combines approaches of material culture studies, Alfred Gell’s ‘art nexus theory’, anthropology of gift giving, and ‘inconvenient heritage’ studies.

Research has demonstrated that Kupchynskyi acquired most pieces in his collection during his stay in Silesia between 1946 and 1950. It core was composed of works by German artists who were forced to leave the region after its occupation by the Red Army and annexation to Poland, as well as other items that, mostly likely, had previously belonged to them or their family members. Due to the lack of sources, it is not possible to determine the precise circumstances under which Kupchynskyi obtained the items. Instead, the author analysis the collector’s own statements and proposes several hypotheses concerning this subject.

Between 1951 and 1954, with several governmental bodies acting as mediators, Kupchynskyi handed over several hundred items to museums in Kyiv and Lviv. According to the donor, in doing so he sought to ‘serve his Fatherland’. However, the author considers other factors that might have been behind this decision. The risk of political persecution seems to be the most important one.

The paper outlines the initial composition of the collection and its ‘afterlife’ in Ukrainian museums, namely the dispersal across several institutions and claims regarding most objects’ ‘poor artistic value’. Instead, the study demonstrates the significance of the gift in general and some of the items, such as paintings, drawings, and prints, specifically. Finally, the author charts some of the links between the case under consideration and broader research issues related to private and institutional collecting, particularly (but not exclusively) in post-WWII East-Central Europe.

Funding. The publication was created under the scholarship Programme of the Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue.