The collection of Mikalai Mikhalap’s family of heirs contains a small but visually striking array of porcelain pieces. In the 1940s and 1950s, Mikalai Prokopyevich, who studied ceramics at the Stieglitz School in Saint Petersburg, and subsequently taught them at the Vitsebsk Art College, was a non-staff consultant at the newly opened Minsk Porcelain and Earthenware Factory. He taught moulding and shaping to young ceramic artists, and actively advocated for the factory’s swift opening. The artist himself, captivated by creative challenges, worked extensively on vase shapes – both triumphal and decorative, as well as simpler household pieces. He had a distinctive personal style, which had been developed before the war, gradually working on a personal concept of Belarusian national imagery. He weaved together motifs from ancient and modern classical and folk designs, creating an entire series – a unique suite of Belarusian visual “brands” – including the vases “Bulba” (“Potatoes”) “Lyanok” (“Flax”), “Corn”, “Blueberries” and “Stream”. Mikhalap expressed his heartfelt lyrical thoughts about Belarus and its nature, selecting a subtle colour scheme appropriate to the occasion: transparent, almost watercolour-like paints convey the subtle charm of a summer day, the tranquility of the fields, the misty evening twilight, and the mysterious depths of the swamps. The artist explored various tonal variations, enthusiastically experimenting with diverse moods. Mikalai Mikhalap is remarkably consistent in his devotion to celebrating the joys and the poetry of peaceful life. At the same time, one must consider the technical limitations of the then-recently opened Minsk porcelain factory, which also forced the artist to adapt his style in order to comply with them.
The artist himself never named these works or exhibited them, which means they will be on public display for the first time ever. The vases’ names were skillfully and poetically chosen by Anastasia Skepyan (PhD in History), Mikalai Mikhalap’s great-granddaughter.
The shapes of these vases are simple and smooth, fluid and charming, warm to the touch, deeply Belarusian. Mikhalap experimented with a variety of glazes, achieving a natural, earthy quality – reminiscent of the dark greens of withered grass, the soft blues of the sky, and the murky colours of marshy depths. In some works, he is clearly ahead of his time, with some of them exhibiting a previously uncharacteristic postmodernist quality. Particularly beautiful is “Lyanok”, a vase reminiscent in its shape of a sheaf of flax, tied at the base with a cord and green-blue stems, and reaching upwards to the blue flowers. “Corn” is a vase which evokes the traditions of European porcelain, which have been given Mikhalap’s personal twist.
The artist was enamoured of cobalt and other various shades of blue, as well as spherical shapes without painted designs and with pressed-on decorative elements. Such a minimalist aesthetic was something new even for the progressive 1960s.
Mikhalap’s experimental ceramics showcase their creator’s search for a uniquely Belarusian national style in its fullest expression.
The exhibition “Rhythms of Decades: Mikalai Mikhalap’s Porcelain from the Family Collection” is organised as part of a roundtable discussion celebrating the 140th birthday of the museum’s first director, the renowned ceramic artist Mikalai Mikhalap (1886–1979).
