Album „Odesa. The Long 20th Century in Art”

Album accompanying the exhibition “Odesa. “The Long 20th Century in Art” tells about the history, art and identity of the city – the pearl of the Black Sea from the 19th to the 21st century, and notes all the most important political and artistic breakthroughs.

The photographs in the album show both the dignified city of 1895, the port of Odessa during the 1917 revolution, and the activities of artist-protesters from the 1960s.

The city is the scene of struggles of various actors: the search for artistic individuality by fin de siecle creators, the imposition of the principles of socrealism and its overcoming in the 1970s, the building of an independent Ukraine, the war for Crimea in 2014 and full-scale Russian aggression in 2022. The city is the scene of struggles of various actors: the search for artistic individuality by fin de siecle creators, the imposition of the principles of socrealism and its overcoming in the 1970s, the building of an independent Ukraine, the war for Crimea in 2014 and full-scale Russian aggression in 2022. The Odessa Steps are not witnesses of shots fired by the tsarist army at the Russian people, but of performances from the 1970s or the struggles of Maidan supporters and separatists in the 2000s.

The album contains about 100 works – photographs from the life of the city and its artists, postcards, reproductions of graphics, paintings and sculptures. They are accompanied by texts – about art, cinematography, the distinctiveness of Odessa compared to other cities and regions of Ukraine, and the myth of Odessa in culture.

Project is co-financed by the City of Krakow (project Odesa and Kraków. Closer Through the Art).
This book was published as part of the project Long Twentieth Century of Odesa Art and made possible thanks to the financial support of the Culture of Solidarity Fund powered by the European Cultural Foundation.