Nova Kakhovka is a young town in southern Ukraine built in the 1950s. All the buildings here were built to a unified plan, constructed in haste, and turned out to be monotonous and unexceptional. Then artist Hryhoriy Dovzhenko, an artist and follower of the Boichukist artistic school, came to the town. Together with his colleagues, Dovzhenko created 80 unique carved panels which would come to decorate the walls of every building and change the face of the town. Later the Soviet press would criticize Dovzhenko for “architectural excesses.” Today his pieces are considered to be an artistic phenomenon which contemporaries named “stone vyshyvankas,” referring to the traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt with its varied, colorful ornaments.
Today, the ornaments are under threat — not just from the passage of time, but from building insulation and the modernization of the facades as well. Thanks to the actions of local activists, however, the “stone vyshyvankas” are gradually being restored in the town.
"I felt sorry for these buildings. There’s a district where the new residential buildings have already been built, while these beautiful buildings were being set on fire and demolished to make room for boxes of autoclaved aerated concrete lined with styrofoam and reinforced plastic. This is truly an architectural marvel, and, in the 1980s, it had already been listed as a historic settlement. For some reason, people could appreciate it then, but now we’ve forgotten this, even though it’s a world-class landmark."
Tetiana is convinced that the ornamental panels deserve to be recognized as landmarks of national importance. Together with her colleagues, she is preparing the documents to have this landmark registered since it is the only one of its kind in southern Ukraine.
