Музей «Писанка» м. Коломия

Author:  Я. Ткачук  (Y. Tkachuk)

Edition:  1st

Format:   Pamphlet on heavy stock

Pages: 12          

Language:  Ukrainian/English/French

Illustrations:   Yes, color photos

Publisher:  «Kоломийська Друкарня ім. Шухевича»  (Kolomyia, Ukraine)

Availability:  Yes, at museum

Acquired:  Museum

ISBN:  N/A

This is a nice souvenir booklet that can purchased at the Museum of the Pysanka in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.  It makes a nice souvenir, but is small and does not have that much in it.

The text is trilingual.  As is often true in such cases, the Ukrainian flows in a fine literary fashion, while the English is quite stilted, convoluted, and difficult to follow.  I don’t read or write French....... The text is an essay about pysanky and pysankarstvo, and, except for a few very basic facts in the first paragraphs, has nothing to do with the museum in particular.

The quality of the booklet is mixed–some of the photos are well printed, others seem a bit out of focus or have poor color balance. There are some interesting archival BW photos, but otherwise most of photos are of museum exhibitions.  There are no descriptions of the photos, so one has to depend upon memory (or knowledge of pysankarstvo) to figure out what they are meant to represent.

The centerfold of the booklet is potentially wonderful–a field full of traditional Hutsul pysanky.  Unfortunately, the photo is of poor quality, with fuzzy focus and a bluish cast. Sadly, none of the pysanky displayed here have any indication of their place of origin. 

This photo on the inside cover is a nice one, and one that I haven’t been able to capture well myself–a view of the ornamented dome and clerestory of the museum.

For two dollars, this booklet makes a nice souvenir, but there’s just not much more to it than that.

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