Floodwaters from the Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-occupied province of Kherson in southern Ukraine are believed to have submerged the house-museum of the late self-taught Ukrainian artist Polina Rayko. The dam collapsed on Tuesday, devastating the region and raising fears of a humanitarian disaster. At least eight people have died from flooding in the region so far, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
On Tuesday, the Southern Military Command of the Ukrainian army claimed that Russian forces blew up the dam; Ukrainian President Zelensky then accused Russia of committing ecocide. Meanwhile, the Russian-installed local mayor called it a “terrorist act”. Investigations into the cause of the dam collapse are ongoing.
The museum, in Rayko’s hometown of Oleshky, contains decades of work by the artist, who overcame personal tragedy by painting fantastical visions of flora and fauna on the surfaces of his home. A video interview with Rayko in 2003, a year before his death, shows many images of the house.
“As of now (07/23/23 6:00 p.m.) I know that the house with the frescoes is under water,” wrote Simon Khramtsov, the head of a foundation that promotes Rayko’s legacy,In a Facebook post.
As floodwaters closed in on Oleshky, Ukrainian art historian Oksana Semenik wrote about the museum on Twitter“The walls, ceilings, doors of a six-room house, gates, fences and garage doors served as canvases for the rural artist. Polina Rayko liked to draw birds of different shapes, colors and species. Semenik specializes in art related to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Nova Kakhovka breach raised new security concerns about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is also in Russian-occupied territory.
Residents of Oleshky asked shelter on the roofs. A cultural activist from Kherson, Yuliia Manukian, who had championed Rayko’s work, written in a Facebook postas Alisa Gott that she “doesn’t care much about material heritage, even Raiko” until people are saved from the flood.
Rayko, born in Oleshky in 1928, began painting at the age of 69, transforming her home into picture of paradiseafter a life where she endured the Second World War, the alcoholism of her son who stabbed her after his release from prison and the death of her daughter in a car accident. She died in 2004. Her work has since attracted international attention.
The image of a dove painted by Rayko has become a symbol of cultural resistance in Kherson, a strategic port city, which was occupied shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Its cultural importance has been compared to another popular Ukrainian artist, Maria Prymachenko, whose works have been saved from a museum near kyiv which was hit by a Russian missile in the early days of the invasion.
