Kateryna Bilokur

Kateryna Vasylivna Bilokur (; – 9 June 1961) was a Ukrainian folk artist, painter and poet born in the Poltava Governorate. After an unpromising start, her works became known in the late 1930s and 1940s for their interest in nature. Her paintings have become famous for depictions of peasant life among Ukrainian women. Above all it was Bilokur's flowers done in oil on canvas which brought her general recognition, with critics noting, "he sees the souls of flowers."

Bilokur was named People's Artist of Ukraine in 1951. Numerous sources report a popular legend that Pablo Picasso saw Bilokur's work exhibited in Paris and commented, "f we had an artist of this level, we would make the whole world talk about her."

Biography She was born on 24 November (7 December), 1900 in the village Bohdanivka.

At the age of 6 or 7, Bilokur learned to read. Her family decided not to send her to school, to save money on shoes and clothes. She started drawing from a young age, though her parents frowned upon this hobby and wouldn't permit her do it. Bilokur continued drawing secretly, using old rags and coal.

"I stole a piece of white canvas from my mother and took a piece of coal... I shall draw something on one side of the rag, then I enjoy what I created, then I draw something on the other side... And this one time... I didn't draw something I saw, but rather some birds I imagined... My soul felt so happy because of what I could make up! I stared at my drawing, and laughed like crazy... That's when my parents busted me. They tore up my drawing and threw it in the oven... "What are you crazy? What are you doing? What would happen if other people saw you doing this? What devil will agree to marry you after this!.." But wherever I go, whatever I do - I have an image in my had that I simply have to draw, it follows me...I'm offended by Nature, it was cruel to me, by giving me this enormous love of holy drawing, and then took away any chance to create this marvelous work to the whole wide extent of my talent!"

She would draw decorations for a local drama club, organized by her neighbor and a distant relative, Nikita Tonkonog. Later, Bilokur would perform on the stage of this theater.

Between 1922 and 1923, Bilokur found out about the Myrhorod professional school of artistic ceramics. She selected two of her own drawings and traveled to Myrhorod: one was copy of a painting and the other a sketch of her grandfather's house, both on paper that she bought especially for this occasion. But she wasn't accepted to the school as she had no previous formal education. She returned home by foot.

The desire to draw never left her. Later, she started attending a drama class organized by two teachers who were a married couple, the Kalita.

Her parents agreed to her participating in plays, on condition that her acting would not interfere with her housework. In 1928, Bilokur heard about a drama school in Kyiv, and decided to try out her luck there. But again she was rejected for lack of previous education.

In the autumn of 1934, she attempted suicide by drowning in the river Chumgak, and her feet were damaged by the cold. After the suicide attempt, her father finally agreed to let her draw.

Volodymyr Khitko, then head of the artistic and methodological council of the regional House of Folk Art, came to visit Bohdanivka. He showed several paintings by Kateryna Bilokur in Poltava to the artist Matvey Dontsov. In 1940 an exhibition of 11 paintings by Bilokur opened in the House of Folk Art in Poltava . The exhibition was a huge success and the artist was awarded with a trip to Moscow. Accompanied by Volodymyr Khitko, she visited the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum.

Bilokur was quickly recognized as a folk artist who Communist Party leaders felt captures "socialist realism" but Bilokur's work is noted for preserving the identity of the Ukrainian countryside.

In 1951, she was awarded the "Badge of Honor" and received the title of Honored Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR. Bilokour would sign her paintings with a inscription: ‘Kateryna Bilokur painted from nature’ but, the Soviet authorities in State publications signed her paintings as‘the works of a collective farm worker from the village of Bohdanivka'

In 1956, Bilokur received the title of "People's Artist" of the Ukrainian SSR. In subsequent years, the works of Bilokur were regularly exhibited at exhibitions in Poltava, Kyiv, Moscow and other cities. Bilokur was never provided a passport to travel.

She did not work often with watercolor and grey pencil because she was more attracted to oil paints: "I made brushes myself - I took hairs of the same length from a cat's tail. Each paint has its own brush. I figured out the canvas priming technique by myself."

Tribute On 7 December 2020, Google celebrated her 120th birthday with a Google Doodle.

In November 2024, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in her honor.