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Based on data from Scopus and Google Scholar, materials physicist Borys Grynyov ranks among the 30 most cited scientists in Ukraine. An academician of the National Academy of Sciences, director of the Institute of Scintillating Materials, and Ukraine’s representative at CERN, he is also one of Ukraine’s most prominent art collectors. The Grynyov family collection—Borys and his wife Tetiana—has today become an institution in its own right. The collection comprises over 4,000 works spanning from the late 19th century to the present day.

Throughout the years of the full-scale Russian invasion, Borys Grynyov has remained loyal to his native Kharkiv, returning there from international scientific trips and cultural events. Scientific and artistic life in this proud city has not stopped, and Academician Grynyov is among those who sustain its energy.

What is cultural life like in Kharkiv today?

One of the most important pillars supporting Kharkiv is its culture. After surviving the spring of 2022, when most people were focused on survival, defense, and volunteering, the city gradually and persistently began to revive its cultural life. Today, it largely takes place in underground spaces. Some institutions remain closed to visitors, but even during the full-scale war, new venues have emerged.

Kharkiv constantly adapts to new challenges: bombings, power outages, lack of heating, and so on. Yet artists continue to work, new projects emerge, including those involving the broader international art community. The art scene does not focus on the limitations imposed by life in a frontline city, but rather seeks new opportunities. We, as a collection, are active participants in these processes. For example, in 2024, we supported the major international project Sense of Safetyat the Yermilov Centre. The co-curator of the exhibition was Marina Koneva, the art manager of Grynyov Art Collection. Participants included Ahmet Öğüt, Borys Mykhailov, and Andreas Angelidakis—31 artists in total from various countries. Thomas Hirschhorn attended the opening and gave a lecture the next day after a severe air attack in Kharkiv. Fortunately, the Yermilov Centre is a certified bomb shelter. For the exhibition, we provided works by the cult Kherson artist Stas Voliazlovsky and by Dmytro Kolomoitsev, who is currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. His Moleskins are a unique surrealist artistic document of this war.

Contemporary art collecting in Ukraine has gone through several stages. During the Soviet era, nonconformist art, which the state ignored or sometimes even persecuted, was collected by people who valued creative freedom—writers, scientists, doctors. The collapse of the USSR triggered a brief Western interest in artists from our region. Many works by 1990s Ukrainian artists ended up in foreign collections. Demand for contemporary art in Ukraine developed unevenly. I remember how gallery owners emphasized the economic attractiveness of investing in art, even though it is actually a rather unpredictable process. What stages have you gone through as collectors?

Collecting has always been part of our family experience. For example, we have an interesting collection of postage stamps. Collecting artworks entered our lives in the 1990s. At that time, there was a trend for antiques, which we followed. However, we quickly realized that this field was full of fakes. We experienced unpleasant situations ourselves. At the same time, we were already immersed in the art environment, and a desire arose to deepen our knowledge in this area. Therefore, we turned our attention to works by contemporary artists.

Firstly, this allowed direct communication with artists, visiting their studios, and gaining a deeper understanding of the works themselves, which ensured the authenticity of the works we acquired. Secondly, in the 1990s, the art market was still forming. Artists were seeking new patrons after the fall of the Soviet system, and we had the opportunity to support them. Even then, it was clear that there were significant gaps in museum collections, and private initiatives could help fill them while keeping unofficial art in Ukraine.

Of course, specialists with whom we collaborated over the years also influenced the development of our collection. Initially, we consulted extensively with Kharkiv museum professionals. This led to a strong collection of the Kharkiv graphic school and mid-20th century art. Later, we began collaborating with young art historians and curators, and the collection increasingly incorporated contemporary art.

Russia’s war against Ukraine causes massive cultural losses—artists who joined the army are killed, museums and art centers are destroyed by bombings, and cultural assets are taken from temporarily occupied territories to the aggressor country. At the same time, you continue acquiring contemporary art and supporting international exhibitions, including the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024. How has your foundation’s strategy changed since 2022?

In March 2022, during the bombardment of Kharkiv, we had to evacuate part of our collection: first from the city (about 2,000 works) and later from the country (900 works). Since then, our activity has split into two main directions.

The first is international. The primary goal here is to spread knowledge about the war in Ukraine and promote Ukrainian culture, showcasing its uniqueness to the world. We implement our own projects based on evacuated works and provide artworks for display in foreign museums and galleries. Within this framework, we supported the national project at the Venice Biennale. Currently, works from the Grynyov Art Collection are on display in two exhibitions in Germany. Works by the significant Ukrainian New Wave artist Oleh Holosiiv are presented in the Landscape project at Münster’s Meancult gallery alongside works by Joseph Beuys and Jürgen Kramer. Sergei Parajanov’s collage Orpheus is shown at the exhibition A Beating Heart: Focus on Ukrainian Queer Art at Berlin’s Schwules Museum. Due to public interest, the exhibition has already been extended for the third time.

The second direction is activity in Ukraine. Here, we focus on projects related to cultural identity and national memory. We continue to create our own projects and support the initiatives of others. A sketch by Vasyl Yermilov, a legend of Ukrainian and global avant-garde art from our collection, is currently on display at the Cultural Suitcase exhibition at Kyiv’s central railway station. The project is dedicated to the memory we must preserve during the difficult times Ukraine has repeatedly faced. Among other exhibits provided by collectors, some resonate with Lithuanian history—for example, a fragment of the sarcophagus of Haji Girey, founder of the Crimean Khanate and ally of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Kazimierz Jagiellończyk.

In recent years, the Grynyov Art Collection has acquired several works directly related to the war, including war photographs by Vladyslav Krasnoshchok and Stanislav Ostrous, and art books by Dmytro Kolomoitsev. I would also like to mention graphic works purchased from David Chichkan when he was preparing to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. From his youth, he was interested in anarchist ideas and the figure of Nestor Makhno, who attempted to implement an anarchist peasant republic in Ukraine. Tragically, our collaboration with David ended prematurely—he was killed in August 2025 defending Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Today, our collection not only preserves art but also serves as a testimony to the era in which Ukraine lives and fights.

You were among the collectors and patrons who donated works to the Pompidou Center, forming a separate Ukrainian collection within the institution. In Ukraine, this initiative received mixed reactions—some criticized that works by 1990s Ukrainian artists, already scarce in the country, were again going abroad. What were the goals of this donation?

This event was preceded by several years of negotiations, a complex transfer process, and multiple postponements of the presentation. Ultimately, the exhibition of Ukrainian artists took place in Paris in the fall of 2022, during the full-scale invasion. It was a powerful gesture of cultural diplomacy, demonstrating to the world a culture that was being destroyed at that very moment. Additionally, this initiative prompted a review of the attribution of certain works in the Pompidou Center, which had previously been considered Russian, although they were created by Ukrainian artists.

Regarding criticism, for example, our collection donated photographs, which are reproducible works. Similar prints exist in Ukrainian collections, so the country did not actually lose them. At the same time, the visibility of Ukrainian art increased, along with its value and recognition internationally.

Do you use art in communication with the scientific community at CERN?

In spring 2022, I invited Kharkiv photographer Oleksandr Osipov to the Institute of Scintillating Materials. He documented how scientists lived and worked in basements with their families. The photos show makeshift beds, dining areas set up in laboratories, pets, and children among production workshops. Based on these images, we created the project Shelter for Science, which we present at international conferences and scientific institutions across Europe, including CERN in 2024. The project clearly demonstrates the conditions under which Ukrainian physicists work during the war and raises questions about the participation of Russian representatives in the international scientific community.

Which Ukrainian research is currently in demand at CERN?

Various detector materials developed in Ukraine are currently used at CERN, including perovskites and plastics. Particularly important are 3D printing technologies developed in Ukraine, necessary for the detectors of future colliders. Many experiments also use microcables developed by Ukrainian scientists and engineers. Ukraine has a functioning grid cluster that has continued to operate even during the war.

Your collection is notable for its openness—it is accessible for research and collaboration. Have you considered creating a contemporary art museum based on it?

No. I am often asked this, but we are specifically interested in the family collection format. We focus on collaboration with cultural institutions, researchers, and curators, and we believe this format offers fewer limitations. All works from our collection are available on the website http://grynyov.art/, which is convenient for all participants in the art process. At the same time, we regularly donate works to Ukrainian museums and understand that in the future, a large portion of our collection will become part of national museum holdings.