June 9, 2022, 1:34 a.m. ET Volodymyr Titulenko in his studio in Rusaniv, Ukraine, with the painting “Spring in Rusaniv”, top right. Photos by Nicole Tung for the New York Times Volodymyr Titulenko has long been haunted by his first childhood memories of World War II. Now, at the age of 82, the artist expresses his pain for the current war through his painting. Mr Titulenko’s house in the village of Rusaniv, an hour east of Kiev, was on the front line between the Ukrainian army and Russian-led forces. With his wife and granddaughter in Kyiv ensuring that his work at a gallery there was safe, he spent two weeks sheltering at his home in his village alone. Mr. Titulenko, who can only see well with one eye, has been stuck in TV reports about the war, and this is reflected in his art. Returning to his studio in his flower-filled backyard, one of his first paintings was “Spring in Rusaniv,” which shows blooming wildflowers in the foreground and flaming Russian tanks in the background. On the road near the tanks, the bodies of two Russian soldiers can be seen. During a visit on Tuesday, Mr. Titulenko painted beautiful touches on his latest work: “Mariupol ’22,” a large canvas depicting the destruction of the city and a Madonna-like figure carrying a child. He said he decided to paint it when he could not get a picture of the steel plant in the city where Ukrainian fighters endured for weeks. It was a picture of Anna Zaitseva, who had been in the steelworks since February 25 with her son, Sviatoslav. “I saw a picture of a woman emerging from the Azovstal steel plant holding a child,” he said. The mother figure had a halo around her head, a nod to another of his passions: picture painting. Behind him, his granddaughter Eva was painting on a small easel. One of her paintings was to be auctioned off to raise money for the Ukrainian army. Her mother was in eastern Ukraine to help the army. Mr. Titulenko, who also carves wooden sculptures, has long painted a political work alongside his icons and bucolic landscapes. Some paintings hanging in the studio gallery satirize leaders such as former President Viktor Yanukovych, who used his political position to become the richest man in Ukraine, and another businessman who became president, Petro Poroshenko. The two men are presented in a project to conquer the country’s natural resources with a sign that says “New Tariffs”. A painting with two small children standing in front of a pile of damaged military equipment hung nearby. The project was completed several years ago and was inspired by Mr. Titulenko’s childhood in post-war Berlin, where his father, a Soviet soldier, was based. During the war, he was with his grandparents in Ukraine, separated for several years from his mother, who was studying art in Moscow and had been evacuated to the Urals, and from his father, who was also a student. art in Moscow in the past. developed on the forehead. His mother eventually left Russia, pretending to be a nurse to take Mr. Titulenko to Ukraine before going to Berlin to be reunited with his father, and spent several years after the war in Germany. He did not expect to see childhood memories repeated in his old age and especially did not expect the Russians to invade his home. “My mother was from Russia,” said Mr. Titulenko, who was born in the Russian capital while his parents were studying. “Who would have expected someone to come from Russia to kill us?” His wife, Ludmila, said she had a hard time understanding why Russia would invade. “We have always lived here peacefully,” he said. “No one had any problems with language or nationality. “Nobody ever talked about it.” Mr. Titulenko has one last big project in mind. “I will paint a mural to celebrate Ukraine’s victory,” he said. See more
