ART COLLECTION OF UKRAINIAN MASTERS

YURI YUROVSKY COLLECTION

Artist and Art Collector (1913–2008)

We are Jay Janco and Len Yurovsky, founders of the America-Eurasia Art Foundation (AEAF), and we are raising funds to preserve and share three extraordinary Ukrainian art collections that together represent a century of creativity, resilience, and cultural heritage:

Preserving Three Exceptional Collections of Ukrainian Art

Today, this collection remains in Ukraine — at risk from war, instability, and lack of proper preservation conditions. Our goal is to safely transfer the entire Yurovsky Collection from Ukraine to Europe and the United States, where it can be preserved, exhibited, and shared with the public.

We are seeking support to preserve and relocate three exceptional art collections from Ukraine — each representing a vital part of the region’s modern and spiritual heritage:

We are raising funds to cover:

• Secure and safely relocate these collections to museum-level storage and restoration facilities in Europe and the United States;

• Digitally document and catalog each artwork for academic access;

• Organize public exhibitions and publications to share this important heritage with global audiences.

This is not just about saving one artist’s work — it is about protecting a piece of cultural history that connects generations of Ukrainian and Eastern European artists.

Every contribution — no matter how small — helps us take a step closer to ensuring that these artworks survive and are seen by future audiences around the world.

Thank you for your support in helping us preserve this important legacy of art, memory, and humanity.

We are seeking support to preserve and relocate three exceptional art collections from Ukraine — each representing a vital part of the region’s modern and spiritual heritage:

The Yuri Yurovsky (1913–2008) Art Collection — one of the most significant private archives of Ukrainian and Russian 20th-century art.

The Parajanov–Kadochnikova Collages Collection — a rare body of works by the legendary filmmaker Sergey Parajanov and his muse, actress Larisa Kadochnikova.

Gary Goryany: Cosmic Vision — a visionary exploration of art, science, and spirituality.

For the past five years, we have been seeking ways to preserve and exhibit these extraordinary collections. Despite many efforts, we have not yet secured sustainable institutional support. Today, as we face financial and logistical challenges, we are reaching out to those who can help ensure the preservation and public access of this irreplaceable cultural heritage.

Due to the war, a large part of the Yurovsky Collection has to be evacuated from Kyiv to protect it from destruction. The situation remains critical — relocation would mean not only the rescue of these works, but also a new cultural beginning for this historic archive.

The Yuri Yurovsky Collection

The story of the Yuri Yurovsky Art Collection began when Yurovsky was a young student of Kazimir Malevich. Over the decades, he developed an extensive collection of collages, drawings, and paintings reflecting a lifetime of artistic exploration and collaboration.

Comprising over 900 works, the collection includes 248 landscapes and still lifes, as well as more than 600 original theatrical sketches by Yurovsky’s remarkable contemporaries — Fedor Nirod, Tatiana Bruni, Anatoly Petritsky, and others.

Yuri Yurovsky, a leading figure of the Kyiv School of Painting, was celebrated for his luminous color palette and refined technique. A student of Malevich, he later became a mentor and colleague to such artists as Nikolai Glushchenko, Tatyana Yablonskaya, and Semyon Guetski. From the 1930s to the 1990s, he assembled a museum-quality collection that captures the creative and intellectual spirit of his era.

We are now seeking opportunities to bring this collection to life — through curated exhibitions, research partnerships, or acquisition by an institution or collector who recognizes its artistic and historical importance.

The Parajanov–Kadochnikova Collection: Collages as Cinematic Poetry

The great masters of world cinema — Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra, and Andrei Tarkovsky — admired the boundless genius of Sergey Parajanov. His imagination transformed everyday life into art, each object into a symbol, and each gesture into poetry.

During the years when Parajanov was forbidden to make films, he turned to collage, calling his creations “compacted films.” Each collage condensed a cinematic vision into a single frame — rich in rhythm, metaphor, and emotion. Many of his later film scenes were born from these collages, their compositions alive with movement and symbolic power. Parajanov was a master of transformation — turning life into theatre and friendship into art. His close collaborator and muse, Larisa Kadochnikova, recalled his secret visits to Kyiv, his gifts of collages and mementos, and his unwavering belief in beauty even through exile and imprisonment.

Parajanov once said: “Amid the Soviet dullness, stagnation, and moss, in this sandy mud, a shell opened — and from it was born a beautiful pearl, the diamond purity of the mind.” That pearl was his art — radiant, defiant, and eternal. His collages remain a living symbol of inner freedom, where poetry, cinema, theatre, and painting converge.

Gary Goryany: Cosmic Vision

The Ukrainian artist Gary Goryany unites art, science, and spirituality in a body of work that explores the mysteries of the cosmos and humanity’s place within it. Through meditative symbolism and cosmic imagery, Goryany invites viewers to reflect on the origins of life and the harmony hidden within chaos. His vision of the universe echoes a philosophical curiosity — a quest for understanding that connects art to exploration, imagination, and discovery.

A Convergence of Creative Forces

Together, these three exceptional collections — Yurovsky, Parajanov–Kadochnikova, and Goryany — form a dialogue between eras and generations, celebrating artistic freedom, imagination, and resilience. They reveal how artists of Ukraine and the broader Eurasian world responded to oppression with creativity, turning adversity into vision and isolation into light.

We invite you to join us in preserving, protecting, and sharing this legacy — so that these masterpieces can continue to inspire audiences around the world.