Artdependence Magazine Purchases The Original Seated Ballerina

By Kitty Jackson - Thursday, December 28, 2017
Artdependence Magazine Purchases The Original Seated Ballerina

A piece of beautiful Soviet-era porcelain, depicting a ballerina adjusting her footwear whilst sitting on a stall, became one of the most talked-about pieces of Ukrainian art from the last decade in 2017.

A piece of beautiful Soviet-era porcelain, depicting a ballerina adjusting her footwear whilst sitting on a stall, became one of the most talked-about pieces of Ukrainian art from the last decade in 2017. Created by Ukrainian sculptor Oksana Zhnykrup, the piece is known as ‘Ballerina Lenochka’ and was created at The Kiev Experimental Ceramic-Art Factory.

Following several months of negotiations, Artdependence co-founder, Dirk Vanduffel, is happy to announce that the magazine was able to purchase the original piece from the Voloshyn Gallery of contemporary art in Kiev, who had procured the piece from a private collector in the city. Located in the cultural centre of Kiev in a historic building, the gallery promotes Ukrainian art on the international art scene and champions new and developing artists from the region.

‘Ballerina Lenochka’ was made famous worldwide this year after Jeff Koons created an enlarged copy of the work using inflatable material and installed it at Rockefeller Center in New York. Koon’s claimed that his sculpture sought to bring awareness to the International Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He named the piece ‘Seated Ballerina’. Koons did not credit Zhnykrup when he released the work, although her family later revealed that Koon’s representatives had bought the rights to the sculpture back in 2010.

Artdependence were one of the first to reveal the striking similarities between the two works, sparking an international debate around whether the work was in violation of copyright laws. The article was a very well read piece of 2017 and later on the story became one of the biggest art debates of the year.

Oksana Zhnykrup (1931-1993) was a renowned Ukrainian porcelain artist. In 1955-1987, she worked at the Kiev Experimental Ceramics and Design Plant, creating designs and decals for tableware. She created lyrical female figurines, sketching them from contemporary life and literature. Her works were exhibited at republican shows of decorative arts in the USSR, as well as at international art fairs in Leipzig, Chicago, Zagreb, Thessaloniki, Turkey, and Canada. Her works can now be seen at the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk and Decorative Art.

“The statue will be a lasting memory of the year 2017,” says Vanduffel. “I am curious as to what 2018 will bring. Happy New Year to all.”

 

Kitty Jackson has worked as an arts journalist and writer for more than 10 years. She began her career as an Editorial Assistant at WhatsOnStage.com before moving to IdeasTap to become Assistant Editor. After four years Kitty moved towards digital content and began working with leading PR firm PHA Media, helping them to establish a digital department before moving to iProspect, where she was embedded within the digital content team creating content for leading brands including The Body Shop, Thomas Cook and British Gas. Kitty is now excited to return to the world of arts journalism at ArtDependence.
Stephanie Cime

ArtDependence WhatsApp Group

Get the latest ArtDependence updates directly in WhatsApp by joining the ArtDependence WhatsApp Group by clicking the link or scanning the QR code below

whatsapp-qr

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Image of the Day

Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.

Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.

Search

About ArtDependence

ArtDependence Magazine is an international magazine covering all spheres of contemporary art, as well as modern and classical art.

ArtDependence features the latest art news, highlighting interviews with today’s most influential artists, galleries, curators, collectors, fair directors and individuals at the axis of the arts.

The magazine also covers series of articles and reviews on critical art events, new publications and other foremost happenings in the art world.

If you would like to submit events or editorial content to ArtDependence Magazine, please feel free to reach the magazine via the contact page.