Flowers & Trees in Ukrainian Art Talk

With Dr Louise Hardiman, art historian and academic.

Ukraine is known for its fertile steppe lands and a strong agricultural tradition; a deep respect for nature is encoded in Ukrainian national identity.

Building upon the tradition of folk art, images of flowers and trees appear often in art and design, including icon painting, embroidery, furniture, ceramics and the decoration of buildings.

In this talk, Dr Hardiman will explore works of art and craft from across the centuries, taking account of both local and western European influences.

A key emphasis will be the cultural significance of plant imagery, including its folk meanings and its role in shaping Ukrainian nationhood.

Dr Louise Hardiman is an independent academic specialising in Russian and East European art. Her research and publications focus primarily on the 19th and 20th centuries, including the international Arts and Crafts movement, women’s art, landscape painting and the history of British-Russian artistic exchange. She currently teaches and lectures on Ukrainian and Russian art in a variety of settings.