Description:
Visual Description: This horizontal oil painting depicts an agricultural landscape with a poultry farm viewed from an elevated perspective. The composition is divided into horizontal bands of color and form that recede into the distance.
In the foreground, a bright green field spreads along the lower edge, with a dirt path curving through it on the left. Beyond, a flock of poultry rendered in small white brushstrokes, is kept within a large rectangular fenced pen. Behind a gray-roofed structure in an “L” shape a keeper a red headscarf, white shirt, and brown skirt looks like feeding the fowl as they flock around her.
A large beige field dominates the center of a middle ground, with a flow of chickens spilling down towards a body of water water that forms a horizontal bend across the middle ground. Further to the right of the poultry farm area delineated on the top by a row of coops, the sloping fields reflect their brown contours in the dark green mass of water.
Behind the farm are green fields that spread across the picture background and toward the horizon, marked by a row of village houses with terracotta-brown roofs and a cloudless sky above. (Alexandra Kukulina '26; Voice: Robyn Rubin-Valverde '26)
Label Text:
Soviet agriculture relied on state and collective farms, which were imposed on rural communities under severe duress and led to multiple famines—most notably the Holodomor, which killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s and left deep historical trauma. Despite the violence behind their introduction and their economic inefficiency, collective farms are often depicted as idyllic, with happy farm workers and healthy livestock under sunny skies. This vision also applies to Kostiantyn Moskovchenko’s painting, though the artist offers little narrative or detail. Instead, his focus is on color harmony and the sense of immediacy created by thick, expressive brushwork.
MT, 2025
Tags:
painting; landscapes; hills; fields; ponds; agriculture; farms; birds; people Subjects:
Mountains; Painting; Farmers; Landscapes; Canvas Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2020.13 |
