The paintings in the Royal Academy’s startling new show are political refugees. They were loaded on to lorries to be driven out of Kyiv in the autumn of 2022. A Tuesday was chosen, as the Russians generally bombed the city on Mondays, but no sooner had they reached the Polish border than a rogue missile exploded on the other side. It took prolonged Ukrainian diplomacy to persuade the border guards to flag them through.
To stand in front of these wildly dynamic paintings, so filled with the spirit of freedom, is to sense both past and present danger. Some of these paintings were confiscated or hidden from Soviet censors; some of these artists fled Ukraine to escape Stalin’s purges, while others did not make it.
