Topic: Art in Ukraine (Painting)

Artistic traditions of Ukraine have a very ancient history. The oldest surviving paintings are frescoes and murals found on the northern Black sea coast, where they were preserved on the walls of tombs fragments of frescoes from the medieval Rus period have been found in the Cathedral of Transfiguration in Chernihiv (11th century) and the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv (early 11the century). Portable icons were already being painted in the 10th and 11th centuries, but none so old have survived to our time.

In the 15th and 16th centuries there appeared a Galician school of icon painting. During the Renaissance icons gradually lest their rigidity and became more realistic. In Ukraine portrait painting as a separate genre emerged during the Renaissance (16th century) and was strongly influenced by the icon tradition.

Many Ukrainian painters were attracted to the newly established Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (1757). The emigration of the Ukrainian artists to St. Petersburg deprived Ukrainian painting of its most creative talents. The exception was T.Shevchenko, who devoted most of his painting (like his writing) to Ukrainian interests.

In the last few decades of the 19th century Ukrainian painters studying art in Russia were influenced by the Peredvizhniki society, formed in 1870 is St.Petersburg. Artists of Ukrainian origin who became active in the society were I.Repin, I.Kramskoi, A.Kuindzhi, R.Kuznetsov, K.Kostandi and many others.

During the brief period of Ukrainian independence the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts (1917-22) was established in Kyiv. In 1920s in Soviet Ukraine a variety of styles flourished. Cubo-futurist painting were produced by V.Yermilov in Kharkiv and O.Romazov, V.Pavlov and A.Petrystsky in Kyiv. In the 1930s all avant-garde activities in Soviet Ukraine came to a halt with the introduction of socialist realism as the only literary and artistic method permitted by the communist regime.

Changes brought about in the second half of 1980-s resulted in greater creative freedom and a proliferation of styles and manners of depiction. Many painters showed great inventiveness, including H.Romanyshyn from Lviv, R.Popov from Kharkiv, O.Tkachenko from Dnipropetrovsk and R.Tetianych, V.Budnykov, H.Heiko and O.Babak from Kyiv. After decades of restraint and isolation artists in Ukraine are now free to continue the development of various artistic traditions.

Topic: Our college

I study at Kolomyia College of Economy and Law. It is the branch of Kyiv Trade and Economy University. Our college is situated in Khmelnytskoho Sreet, in a large 3-storeyed building. It faces the stadium and the town lake.

Our college is a public school, though the students have to pay their tuition fee. It was founded in summer 1996. The college was registered by the Order of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education. In October it is supposed to get the license for educational activity.

Now there are about 600 students who study at 4 departments: accounting and audit, economy of enterprises, commercial law management of non-productive sphere. 560 boys and girls are full-time students. About 60 people are part-time students, who have their exam session twice a year.

The teaching process is divided into 2 stages. Students who started their study after graduating form the incomplete secondary school, are accepted for the 1-st course. The complete secondary school leavers will be the students of the 2-d cours. After graduating from the college students get the diploma of a junior specialist or a bachelor.

As for me, I am going to be a manager in tourism business. We study various subjects: Economy, History, Philosophy, English, Marketing, Management and others. It is sometimes very difficult for us, but we do our best to master the knowledge. Our teachers on the whole are good specialists. Now in the college there are teachers. There are 4 masters of science. 4 teachers are post-graduates. A lot of them are high category specialists.

Now we have 6 classrooms, a library and a gymnasium in our college. There is the computers classroom. Some students live in the hostel. Unfortunately, this year there is not enough room for all students, and that is why we study in two shifts.

I think we will have good knowledge after finishing the course of study.