Olga Novokhatska

She will forever remain the eighteenth portrait artist of the Jacques-Goddet Prize and the eleventh portrait artist of the Denis-Lalanne Prize. Recognition, of course, for Olga Novokhatska, an Ukrainian artist born in Kharkiv in 1979. An artist whose works, always painted in broad brushstrokes, already hang in three museums, in Berdyansk, Sambir and the town of Aloupka, on the southern Crimean peninsula. Because, of course, for Olga Novokhatska and all those who believe in freedom, Crimea remains Ukrainian. She is yellow, she is blue — just like the two hearts she proudly pinned on Jacques Goddet’s shirt. In the dramatic context of the invadio of Ukraine by Russian army, on Febraury 24, 2022, the Jacques-Goddet Prize had to do just that: support the genius of this battered country, which is defending a certain idea of democracy and Europe under the bombs.