​

«Shirt»

​

Series "On this side of the past". Cardboard, oil, 50 x 40 cm, 2026

​

700 Euros

​

When a Ukrainian woman puts on a vyshyvanka, the world gains one more Mona Lisa.

And when it comes to the Zakarpattia shirt, its ornamentation makes it easily recognizable: dense embroidery, vibrant colors, luxurious geometric patterns—every stitch tells a story. The embroidery is very colorful; traditionally, more than a dozen colors were used here. Vyshyvankas from this region often feature geometric patterns with clear lines. The rhombus served as a symbol of fertility, as the shape of a rhombus was associated with a field. In Trypillian culture, the symbol of an equilateral rhombus with diagonally crossed lines was also associated with a sown field.

​

A photo from the Maramures Museum (Romania), captioned “A Ukrainian woman from the village of Lug on the Tisza.” Link to the photo’s history: https://rakhiv.rayon.in.ua/news/698083-neymovirna-znakhidka-gutsulka-z-muzeyu-maramorosha-viyavilasya-ukrainkoyu-z-rakhivshchini
The colors were based on the book by folklorist Stepan Makovsky, "Folk Art of Subcarpathian Rus", published in 1925 in Prague. https://uartlib.org/downloads/PodkarpatskaRus_uartlib.org.pdf