April Day

Matvii Kohan-Shats was a renowned Ukrainian painter who frequently depicted Ukrainian landscapes in his work.

Matvii Kohan-Shats's art is part of various collections, both museum and private. His works are held in the collections of museums in Borshchiv, Berdyansk, Poltava, Mykolaiv, and other cities.

The artist was born in 1911 in Vinnytsia Oblast. His father was an actor at a small theatre. After Matvii was born, the family moved to Odesa.

The future artist was involved in the creative field even before his studies began — he worked as a decorator in a theatre. He enrolled at the Odesa Art Institute, which was later merged with the Kyiv institute. His teachers included such masters as Pavlo Volokydyn and Oleksandr Shovkunenko.

1939 was a landmark year in the artist's career: he completed his studies, and that same year began participating in exhibitions. Matvii Kohan-Shats's original paintings were featured in both domestic and international exhibitions. For example, in 1968 his works were shown at an exhibition in Yugoslavia, and in 1970 — in Japan.

The artist's career was interrupted by World War II. Kohan-Shats held the rank of lieutenant in the quartermaster service and served as an artist on the staff of the 20th Army.

After demobilization he returned to Kyiv, initially living with his family in a basement. In 1946 he was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR, but almost immediately a case was opened against him — he was labelled a "decadent and slanderer of Soviet power" and grouped among the "Sosyurists," as his landscapes "did not depict industrial and agrarian reality." However, in the 1950s, during the campaign against "rootless cosmopolitanism," Kohan the "Sosyurist" was left alone.

He lived and worked in Kyiv, creating primarily in the landscape genre. The artist passed away in 1989.

Throughout his entire creative career, Kohan-Shats painted landscapes — without any trace of human industrial or agrarian activity. Yet he was constantly interfered with, given recommendations on what exactly to paint and which objects of Communist construction to depict. For this reason, most of Matvii Borysovych's works were so-called "hack jobs" — the artist was handed "masterpieces" to reproduce.

Among his well-known landscape works are Morning on the Dnipro (1947), Autumn (1962), August Heat (1962), On Taras's Hill (1964), May Rain (1968), and others.

UFDA digitized two works by the artist from the collection of the Regional Communal Museum of Local History in Borshchiv: April Day(1985) and Dnister Meadows (1985). These paintings are now available for viewing on the fund's website.

The artist was a master of lyrical landscape, working in realism with vivid elements of impressionism. His works are distinguished by a lively manner of painting, free and textured brushstrokes, and a close attention to light and atmosphere. He had a masterful ability to convey the interplay of light and shadow, creating rich yet soft and harmonious compositions.

The artwork of Matvii Kohan-Shats was rooted in the classical realist school, yet never felt "dry" or academic — always retaining deep emotional resonance.