Lubomyr Medvid: ‘Ukraine Can Become Europe’s Teacher, Not Its Stepchild’

As Russia’s full-scale invasion forces Ukrainians to reconsider history, identity and freedom, the work of artists who have spent decades examining those questions has gained renewed urgency. Among them is Lubomyr Medvid, one of Ukraine’s most prominent contemporary painters, a People’s Artist of Ukraine, a Shevchenko National Prize laureate and a member of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Over more than six decades, Medvid has developed a distinctive artistic language combining biblical symbolism, philosophy, history and psychological insight. His landmark series – “Evacuation, Emigrants, Galician Destinies, Ecce Homo, Terra Incognita, Parables and Reminiscences” – examine freedom, responsibility, faith and the moral choices that define human existence. Working across painting, graphic art, monumental sacred art, poetry and drama, Medvid has consistently returned to one central subject: the human being. The artist turned 85 on July 10. His retrospective exhibition, “With Stroke and Spirit,” opened at Lviv’s Lozinski Palace on July 7 and runs through Aug. 9, bringing together work from the 1960s to the present. Medvid continues to paint, support Ukraine’s Armed Forces and reflect on the moral challenges confronting Ukraine and the wider world. Kyiv Post presents his intellectual monologue, edited for length and clarity. Opening of Lubomyr Medvid’s anniversary exhibition in July 2026. (Image via Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery) Other Topics of Interest Boris Johnson Goes ‘Into Ukraine’s Kill Zone’ for New Documentary A recently released documentary follows the former British prime minister as he travels through Zaporizhzhia, meets drone units, and reflects passionately on a war he describes as “good versus evil.” ‘I don’t like the word artist’ I do not like the word “artist.” Nor do I like the word “creator.” Yet we have no better words. There is only one Creator. We merely work within His world. The world is not chaos. It is God’s world. We are the ones trying to turn it into chaos. Humanity now stands at a crossroads. We believe we are triumphant when, in fact, we are living through a profound defeat. Humanity lost precisely when it possessed everything necessary for victory – and then discovered that its achievements had begun working against it. How can we explain the catastrophe of Russia’s war against Ukraine? Or the Second World War? Europe’s greatest thinkers wrestled with the same question: How could such tragedy become possible despite the apparent triumph of civilization? Writers including Albert Camus and Eugène Ionesco confronted it in works such as “The Plague,” “The Stranger” and “Rhinoceros.” UNESCO itself emerged from the conviction that peace must be built not only through political agreements, but also through culture, education and the human mind. ‘Evacuation’ as a state of mind I was born in 1941, at the beginning of the German-Soviet war, in Variazh in western Ukraine. Before I was born, a drunken German officer pointed a pistol at my pregnant mother’s head because he mistakenly believed she was Jewish. My father, who spoke German, spent what felt like an eternity persuading him not to shoot. A few days later, I was born. Soon afterward came another tragedy: forced resettlement. In 1946, my family was expelled from the territory transferred to Poland and resettled in Soviet Ukraine. The following year, during Operation Vistula, Poland’s communist authorities forcibly deported more than 140,000 Ukrainians and scattered their communities across western and northern Poland in an attempt to erase their identity and prevent them from living together. As a small child, I remember fear, crying and wagons creaking beneath families being driven away by soldiers. Most vividly, I remember our white German shepherd chasing the train that carried us away. She ran after us for miles. Perhaps that was where my lifelong theme began. Evacuation is not merely the movement of people. It is a state of the human soul. Humanity is always evacuating As a young man, I believed the world was God’s forgotten periphery. Later, I realized there is no periphery in God’s universe. Everything matters. That realization transformed my art. Human beings are always living in evacuation. As Franz Kafka wrote: “There is a goal, but no path. What we call the path is hesitation.” That idea inspired my cycles “Evacuation, Emigrants, Ecce Homo and Reminiscences,” all rooted in the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son. They concern spiritual evacuation – an evacuation into the future. Ukraine at a crossroads Ukraine now faces two opposing possibilities: defeat and a great, decisive victory. Both are real. I believe we are closer to victory. The war has radically transformed Ukrainian society. Everyone has been forced to reconsider who they are. Such upheaval resembles a boat caught in a violent storm. The terrible evil Russia has unleashed against Ukraine may ultimately heal the Ukrainian nation. Perhaps we are already approaching that recovery. If Ukraine awakens as a spiritually renewed nation rooted in its ancient traditions, it will no longer be Europe’s stepchild. We can become Europe’s partners – perhaps even its teachers. Highly developed societies increasingly live off achievements created by previous generations without renewing them. Perhaps Ukraine’s victory will remind Europe of the values that once made Europe truly Europe. Culture will rebuild Ukraine I place my hope in young people. I enjoy working with students, and they seem to enjoy working with me. We rarely experience generational conflict. Culture will become one of the principal forces rebuilding Ukraine – perhaps the principal force. If culture shapes human beings, then human beings will rebuild the country. I trust art. I believe it can resist evil and help shape humanity’s highest moral ideals. At Lubomyr Medvid's exhibition at Lviv Art Palace. (Image via Lviv Art Palace) Earning the right to create All my life, I have struggled to earn the right to live. The right to create. The right to say something capable of breaking through human inertia, illusions and myths. Today, I ask the Creator for only one thing: to allow me to complete my journey with dignity – and to finish what I have not yet had time to accomplish.