A heroic but terrifying tribute, this painting symbolically represents Kurelek’s father, Dmytro, as a Cossack leader. The Cossacks were warrior-traders who emerged in the late 1400s and settled in the grasslands of what is today southern Ukraine.

The work references the novel Taras Bulba (1835) by Russian-Ukrainian author Nikolai Gogol, which has been interpreted as a celebration of Ukrainian nationalism and places a premium on chauvinism, physical prowess, and male bonding, values Kurelek associated with his father and that filled him with a sense of inadequacy as a child.