The art of malyavanka in the traditions of Jazep Drozdovich is being developed in the Sharkovshchyna region

Malyavanka is a genre of folk art that was widespread in the western part of the Vitebsk region in the first half of the last century. Its classic is recognized as Iosif Drozdovich, a native of the Glubokoye region, a researcher of national history, an ethnographer, and a writer. An upsurge in the revival of folk painting was observed in the 1970s-1980s, and today the painted carpets of the Vitebsk Poazer'e have the status of a historical and cultural value of Belarus. Iosif Drozdovich has many followers, and there are also followers in the Sharkovshchina district.

One of them is the self-taught artist Hanna Kurilovich. Her unique carpet still adorns the Sharkovshchina District Center of Crafts and serves as a model for students. Malyavanka has been practiced here since the founding of the institution, and the succession of creative generations can already be traced. Lyudmila Mayak, who taught club classes until she retired, studied with Hanna Kurilovich. The baton was passed to Olga Belosludtseva, a local native and graduate of the Mir Restoration School. When she went on maternity leave, Alexey Kravchenko, a graduate of the Vitebsk Technological College, came to the Center of Crafts by assignment.

– I love to paint, and there was a vacancy here, so I decided to try my hand at carpets. For this, you need linen canvas, acrylic paints, and imagination. The reference is the works of Iosif Drozdovich, other predecessors, but I try to reflect something of my own, to develop a personal style, – says Alexey Kravchenko, methodologist of the district cultural center. Unlike Hanna Kurilovich and Lyudmila Mayak, who usually painted flowers, he prefers plots.

Today, malyavanka is not only an exhibition exhibit or a collector's item for connoisseurs. It is purchased for interior decoration. Alexey is creating his seventh carpet. Two have been sold in Minsk – an indicator that their author is on the right creative path. A collector from the capital became interested in the Sharkovshchina masters of the genre through the book "Traditional Art of Painted Carpets of the Vitebsk Poazer'e". He plans to show Alexey Kravchenko's carpets at a private thematic exhibition, and has provided the center with canvas and paints for creating new ones.

There are people here from whom one can learn to paint, and whom one can teach.

– Under Olga Belosludtseva, the center's workshops could not accommodate everyone who wanted to learn painting. Alexey Kravchenko cooperates with the children's art school, whose teacher Viktor Kruk helps him, and both are inspired by the results of this cooperation. By the end of the year, we will invite viewers to an exhibition of painted carpets, – noted Victoria Dubovskaya, head of the Sharkovshchyna District Crafts Center.

Galina Shpakovskaya. Photo by Dmitry Osipov. "Vitebskiye vesti".