In Solidarity With Ukraine

As Putin’s forces put Ukraine under siege, we are all recoiling from being caught blindsided by such ungiving authoritarianism — the sort one would like to believe history had beaten out of humankind.

Asked what her message to Putin was, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said: “Pretty much like that to the protesters in front of Parliament — ‘go home.’” (Source.)

This week, demonstrators took to the streets in major cities, from New York City to Berlin, to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and express solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Under a cloudy sky, the demonstrators waved Ukrainian flags, sang nationalist songs and held aloft placards demonising Putin.

As the New York Times reported yesterday, Ukrainian expatriates across Europe looked on in horror at the scenes of destruction back home, and expressed feelings of hopelessness.

Ukrainians and supporters of Ukraine outside Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office in London on Thursday protesting Russia’s invasion. Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Meanwhile, horrifying footage captured the moment a Russian tank swerved to crush a civilian car in Kyiv before revering back over the vehicle and driver.

As has been noted by the media, Ukraine and Russia’s militaries are David and Goliath, due to the enormous imbalance in the military capabilities of the two nations:

David and Goliath, by Michelangelo (1509). Courtesy michelangelo.org.

Ukraine’s soldiers have been impelled to unbelievable courage in standing up to what The Times has referred to as Putin’s “gangland bullying.” Yesterday The Guardian reported that Ukrainian soldiers who died defending an island in the Black Sea from an air and sea bombardment reportedly told an officer on board a Russian navy warship to “go fuck yourself” when asked to surrender. All 13 soldiers were killed after refusing to surrender.

Courtesy of The Week.

As I see the art world horrified and outraged, I also see artists unified in solidarity and with force. The following artworks shared across social media bear witness to this support.

Photograph credit: Waldemar Walczak. Posted on Instagram by Frank M Berndt.

Employees display Mark Rothko’s “Untitled (Yellow and Blue)” (1954) at the Sotheby’s auction house in London.

Mark Rothko’s painting, “Untitled (Yellow and Blue)” (1954, Private Collection), was posted on Instagram by Matt Carey-Williams (@matt_careywilliams) with the following caption:

“Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.”

Quote: Tennessee Williams, “The timeless world of a play” (1976).

Two giants of American art and literature died on this day by their own hands. Mark Rothko in 1970, aged 66; Tennessee Williams in 1983, aged 71. Today, I continue to pray for Ukraine and for peace.

Mary Heilman, “The Blue Mirror, Square Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Blue”, 1976, oil on canvas. Shared on Instagram by Andy Hall (@andyhall16) of the Hall Art Foundation.

The following images were shared on Instagram by Simon de Pury @simondepury).

‘Composition with Blue and Yellow,’ 1932 — Piet Mondrian, Dutch, 1872–1944.

L’Oro dell’ Azzurro (The Gold of the Azure) by Joan Miro, 1967.

Female nude (Study for ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’) by Pablo Picasso, during his ‘Black Period’ between 1906 and 1907.

‘Three Pontificators’ (1984) by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Frankenthaler, Blue Fall, 1966; Milwaukee Art Museum / Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

Amoako Boafo’s Blue Pullover, 2018, oil on canvas laid down on board, 160 x 139.7 cm.

Born in Ghana, 1984, Amoako Boafo, now based in Vienna, has become a highly regarded young public figure in African Diaspora art over recent years; primarily through his original approach to the reshaping of Black forms and their dispositions within a larger global context.

Mickalene Thomas, Don’t Forget About Me (Keri), 2009.