On March 2, 2018 an opening of a theme exhibition “Life and oeuvre tragedy of the artist Yosyp Vaisblat” took place in O.O.Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum.
    The exposition of the exhibition contains works of the artist – student of the professor of painting O.O.Osmerkin, painter, graphic artist, sculptor Yosyp Naumovych Vaisblat (1897-1979), which were given to the museum collection by PhD in Technical Sciences, researcher of the problem of historical topography of Babyn Yar, Kyivan L.Ye. Drobiazko in 2012, in the year of 120th anniversary of O.O.Osmerkin’s birth. Paintings and graphic works from the museum collection are complemented by the posters with photo and documentary materials of Yosyp Vaisblat’s criminal case, which was opened against him by the Soviet punitive agency in 1951. Grand-nephew of the artist, historian of art and publisher Artur Rudzitskyi was studying the materials in the FSB archives of the Russian Federation and represented his notes in the article “To search, to dare, to think. Case of the artist Yosyp Vaisblat by materials of the archives of NKVD-FSB”, published in the magazine “Antykvar”, №1, 2014.
    The oeuvre of Yo.N.Vaisblat has been forgotten for a long time. Only after the collapse of the USSR and consolidation of independent Ukraine and free art space, the works of the artist took rightful place in art and were exhibited in Kyiv and at the exhibition “Jewish culture in Ukraine” in London. In December 2001, the exhibition of paintings and graphic works of Yo.N.Vaisblat from the private collection of L.Ye.Drobiazko were successfully presented in the museum before the 109th anniversary of the artist and pedagogue O.O.Osmerkin’s birth. Lev Yevhenovych came together with his wife Nellia Aronivna to the opening and presented to the museum a linocut by Yo.N.Vaisblat “His destiny is in God”, 1962.
    During the preparation of the current exhibition to Yo.N.Vaisblat’s anniversary sad news was conveyed that Lev Yevhenovych passed away. That is why it was decided to dedicate the exhibition “Life and oeuvre tragedy of the artist Yosyp Vaisblat” to the first researcher of his art Lev Yevhenovych Drobiazko who took a lot of efforts to revive the artist’s name, repressed by the Soviet regime, in the modern world. A special gratitude from the museum staff to Lev Yevhenovych’s wife Nellia Aronivna who gave photo-documentary materials about the artist and reproductions of his rare works for the exhibition.