Retrospective Exhibition of Mikola Duchyts Featuring Wartime and Post-War Cityscapes Opens in Minsk

Мікола Дучыц. На руінах Мінска. 1944. Фота: сацсеткі

An exhibition titled “Mikola Duchyts. The Beauty of the Ordinary,” dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the Belarusian artist’s birth, has opened at the National Library of Belarus in the Labyrinth Gallery.

The exhibition features landscapes and still lifes created over four decades, from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Mikola Duchyts. House on M. Astrowski Street. 1943. Photo: social media.

A highlight of the exhibition is lithographs and paintings created in Minsk during the German occupation, as well as post-war images of the city. During the bombing of the capital, a large number of artworks were destroyed, making these views of the city from that period particularly valuable.

Mikola Duchyts was born in Liubcha. He was the grandson of a migrant from Serbia, Samuel Duchyts, who fought in the ranks of the 1863 uprising in the vicinity of Mir.

He was unable to complete his artistic education at the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Petrograd, where his teachers included Roerich and Benois, as he was mobilised into the tsarist army in 1916. He fought in both the First World War and the Civil War. After demobilisation, he returned to Belarus and from 1921 lived in the capital, documenting distinctive corners of the city in his many works.

Mikola Duchyts. Minsk Courtyard. 1943. Photo: social media.

His first solo exhibition took place in 1935, but in the late 1930s Soviet press began criticising the artist for focusing excessively on depicting old architecture instead of concentrating on proletarian themes.

During the Second World War, the artist remained in occupied Minsk.

Mikola Duchyts. Minsk. Ruins. 1943. Photo: social media.

Artistic life did not stop during the war, and exhibitions continued to be organised. For example, in February 1942 the first exhibition of Belarusian artists who found themselves in German-occupied Minsk took place. It was organised by the arts department of the Minsk city commissariat. Over two months, it was visited by 1,800 people. Contemporary press wrote about how difficult it was to engage in creative work at the time due to a lack of necessary materials.

A second art exhibition was planned for autumn 1942 and became a significant event in the cultural life of the capital. Duchyts’s sketches were noticed and positively received. At that exhibition, Valiantsin Volkau, the author of the iconic work depicting the liberation of Minsk by the Soviet army, presented a portrait of Kastus Kalinouski.

Mikola Duchyts. Ruins on Kirova Street toward Karla Marksa Street. 1940s. Photo: social media.

Duchyts took part in commissions deciding the fate of historical monuments. At the same time, he was arrested and interrogated by the Nazis several times.

More than 200 of the artist’s paintings and graphic works are dedicated to Minsk. Duchyts always carefully dated all his works, allowing not only to see how the city looked at different times but also to trace its history.

Mikola Duchyts. Spring Motif in the Zaslauskaja Street Area. 1944. Photo: social media.

These works are valuable for researchers because much of Minsk’s architecture was destroyed during and after the war.

Today, the collection of the National Art Museum includes 79 works by Mikola Duchyts — both paintings and graphics. Most of the artist’s works are small-format pieces, studies that are complete works in themselves.

The exhibition at the National Library will run until April 20.