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Credits: Margarita Polovinko via Instagram
The Ukrainian artist Margarita Polovinko has died at the age of 31 while serving in her country’s forces in the war against Russia.
Polovinko was serving as a combat medic in the Ukrainian armed forces when her death was announced by her sister on Instagram on April 8th, where she wrote: “Margarita died defending Ukraine.”
The artist, whose works often shone a light on the reality of life in the post-Soviet era of Ukraine, proved vital in depicting the horrors of war after the country was invaded by Russia in 2022.
Regarding this, she told the native news outlet Suspilne Kultura the following year: “In art, what was interesting for me was that I started drawing and realised that such primitive themes [like war] require primitive means. Drawing is primitive not in the sense of ‘simple’, but in the sense that it just goes intuitively. This became a lifeline for me.”
Polovinko, hailing from the inner city of Kryvyi Rih, was highly interested in exploring the industrial life of Ukraine prior to the war. This landscape hugely informed her working subjects and niches, as she explained: “I am [interested in] the post-industrial city, post-industrial nature, and the place of man in this environment. This topic has taken various forms, but it seems unlikely that I will ever finish it.”
She frequently chose to display scenes cast away from the mainstream world, including mines, quarries, waste heaps, as well as areas that drug users congregated in, never shying away from the bleakness of the subject matter but always portraying it with dignity.
In addition to the human cost of life throughout the war, it is estimated that Russia’s invasion has impacted the country’s cultural scene to a recovery total of $9 billion, also accounting for the losses of irrecoverable monuments, museums, and artistic sites.
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