On July 27, 95 years ago, there was born Ada Rybachuk (1931-2010) — the best and driving force of the ARVM artistic duo (as said her husband and collaborator Volodymyr Melnychenko). That is how they always signed all their collaborative works — paintings, sculptures, architectural works, writings.
Ada died at the age of almost 80 years old. After her death Volodymyr wrote: «She is always beautiful: energy,will, impeccable honesty, kindness and gentleness. I don’t know her getting older — she showed no sign of fatige, lassitude, wrinkles, skin folds, even on the pictures. Her hands — work-worn hands — but how beautiful they are! Harlequin model, pencil, quill, paintbrush or surgical scalpel, when she is carving driftwood from the Barents Sea — how beautiful it is, I love it! I’m amazed by her endurance: carry colored concrete in buckets, stand on a scaffold, holding the shotcrete nozzle under a preasure of six atmospheres, creating mosaics and reliefs of the Palace of Pioneers, bus station, the Wall of Remembrance — no one can replace the Author here…»
Ada and Volodymyr were born in Kyiv. Ada spent her wartime childhood in evacuation in Kazakhstan, but Volodymyr stayed in the occupied capital. Later they attended art school and institute in Kyiv. In 1954 Ada and Volodymyr started their creative collaboration as third-year students. Then, following an inner call, they set off on an art practice trip to the lands of the Far North, to the Nenets of Kolguyev Island. They lived among them for a total 7 years during three expeditions. This gut feeling contributed to the formation of a powerful artistic and humanistic creed: the unity of humans and nature, the value of work, memory and creation, the unacceptability of any form of violence as a disruption of natural harmony. Not resistance, but overcoming, not confrontation, but inner resilience and consistency, the interconnectedness of life and death. They lived, befriended, and created by this very philosophy.
«Creativity requires courage as its material and condition. Person, and with him/her art, at a heavy price, becomes all-powerful and eternal» (А. Rybachuk).
The first conceptual collection of 118 sheets of paintings and graphics, Nothern series — Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko gifted to the local history museum in Naryan-Mar, founded in 1959. It was for the first time in the Arctic! Through years of working with artists, the museum’s collection has been enriched with 236 works and five letters from Rockwell Kent’s personal correspondence with them.
The artists’ future lives and creative work are inseparably connected to Kyiv. The most tragic and well-known story of the ARVM is connected to the Memory Park complex on Baikova Hill, to the relief shelves of a retaining Wall, which was built by hand over 13 years. The authorities at the time destroyed it, drowning in concrete. The artist’s vision was to embody in the monumental composition the emotional support for those who have experienced the painful act of loss and farewell across all times, nations, and generations.
«Listening closely, plunging into the experience of our ancestors, taking on the responsibility to trace a line across the sky and build the Temple of Memory, we became convinced that by creating a memorial architectural ensemble in Kyiv, we are doing the most important work of our life» (V. Melnychenko).
It’s not just the story of their art, love, and resilience that is striking, but also the incredible fate of the ARVM artistic heritage. After a years-long battle over copyright infringment, to secure museum status for the studio, to restore the Wall reliefs, when all hope seemed lost and even Ada had slipped beyond the edge of life, support arrived. In 2018, with the participation of Volodymyr Melnychenko, the first fragment of the reliefs was freed from concrete — 6 square meters out of a total of 2200. In February 2020, friends, active youth, and volunteers founded ARVM Fund. On the eve of the full-scale war, they managed to unveil the «Berehynia» composition — a woman with a bugle calling to defend the Motherland.
Svitlana Kutsenko, journalist, editor-in-chief of the Ukranimafilm Studio, was friends with the artists. And today she powerfully echoes from the distant 1980s, reflecting her view of the scale and significance of the creative legacy of Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko. «I keep wondering how two people can be so capable! If, many millennia from now, our descendants unearth the works of Ada and Volodya, through them they will be able to determine a slice of culture and the spiritual state of humanity. I emphasize! HUMANITY, not our society of the late 20th century. They create delicate tiny objects, and at the same time, they are taking part in the Peace Bridge project in the heart of Europe using 43 000 scrapped tanks… It feels like we have a weird take on the world, and Ada and Volodymyr have the authentic one — the way it’s meant to be».
The Bridge of Peace has not yet been implemented in the world…
The presented photos are from the collections of Olena Riabinska, funds of the Museum of Kyiv History, and the ARVM Studio-Museum.