Ukrainian Paper-Cutting Art Pieces as One of the Branches of Paper Decorations in the European Countries

Author

Kosytska Zinaida

a Ph.D. in Art Studies, a research fellow at Fine and Decorative Arts Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6416-5037

Ukrainian Paper-Cutting Art Pieces as One of the Branches
of Paper Decorations in the European Countries

Abstract

The main stages of development of the paper-cutting art pieces in Europe from the 14th century are described in the article. This is the period when lively trade with the East has contributed to the spread of paper and the introduction of various decorative finishing from the new material in the cutting technique on European lands. Paper books of the 16th century have been preserved till nowadays with the illustrations and fonts that are cut into the pages and have sheets of contrasting color underneath for the reading expressiveness. The silhouette images cut out of black paper have become popular in France in the 18th century. They have been displayed on a white background the most often. The tradition of making “Liebesbriefe” (German: love letters) is typical for Switzerland, Austria, Germany of the 18th and early 20th centuries, where these messages have been often made in the form of a rosette, square or rectangle, decorating along the edge with cut-out lace or various glued-on elements: flowers, leaves, hearts often colored according to personal aesthetic tastes.

The village houses have been decorated with colorful paper-cutting art pieces – “wycinanki” (Polish) in Poland since the mid- to late-19th century. This fact brings together the traditions of folk craftsmen of Ukraine and Poland. Paper decorations have also been known since the 19th century on the territory of Ukraine. Today, after various stages of development, paper-cutting art pieces have been transformed into easel-style works gaining equal appreciation along with painting and graphics.

The first thorough studies on the evolution of the paper-cutting technique in the European countries have been published in the mid-20th century, and their results are not analyzed in the Ukrainian scientific community yet. An attempt to fill this gap is made in the article, as well as to consider similar and distinctive features of typical processes typical for the evolution of this type of creativity in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and among the Jewish population of Europe. The submitted material is used to demonstrate the original artistic solutions of masters from various countries and also the mutual influence of European practices. Attention is drawn to the asynchronous course of cultural processes in the context of the development of this type of art, which is connected with the history of separate regions and depends primarily on economic and social changes in the society.

Keywords

paper-cutting art, European countries, European masters, Ukrainian paper-cutting art pieces, Art Studies analysis, comparative analysis, artistic solutions.

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