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VASYL HRYHOROVYCH KRYCHEVSKY
Centennial Exhibition Catalog
December 2-9, 1973
Ukrainian Artists Association In The USA
Ukrainian Literary and Art Club
149 Second Avenue, New York
Periods of stormy development or rebirth of a people's
consciousness, national culture, or political life produce
exceptional men, "Renaissance men." These men
work and create in various fields, urgently attempting
to fill all the voids.
Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky, one of the greatest Ukrainian
artists of our time, was such a man in the life of the
Ukrainian nation. A man of outstanding individuality with
exceptionally wide-ranging artistic interests, he exerted
a profound influence on the development of Ukrainian art
and culture in the 20th century.
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V. H. Krychevsky,
1927 |
Vignette
For The Diplomatic
Document Forms
Of The Ukrainian People's Republic, 1918
Designed by V. H. Krychevsky
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Born
the son of a country physician's assistant on 12 January
1973 (n.s.) in the Kharkiv region, Krychevsky began his
artistic career at the end of the 1890's and devoted over
a half a century to his life and art, scholarship, and
teaching.
Like the great masters of the Renaissance, Krychevsky
was possessed of a highly versatile artistic talent. Like
them, he learned his profession and acquired his general
training in art in the studio of an older artist - S.
Zagoskin, a professor of architecture in Kharkiv.He followed
this with courses in ethnography and Ukrainian history
at the university, simultaneously working on his own and
perfecting his skills.
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This kind
of training, divorced from the routine traditions of academic
studies, helped Krychevsky to preserve a fresh and original
approach in all of his artistic works. His bold and innovative
work, deeply rooted in Ukrainian folk art, played an important
role in the Ukrainian cultural and national rebirth.
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An
architect by profession, Krychevsky founded the modern
national style in Ukrainian architecture, best reflected
in his 1903 design of the "Zemstvo"
(regional administrative) building in Poltava, which now
houses a regional studies museum. In it, Krychevsky successfully
recreated the spirit of ancient Ukrainian folk architecture.
In addition to his contributions to architecture, Krychevsky
was an innovator in the art of book design. In the book
covers that he designed for some 90 Ukrainian publications,
he revived an art that had been lost in Ukraine since
the 18th century. |
Book Cover
For M. Bazhan's
"Buildings", 1928 |
In 1918 he designed
the state emblem, a trident, as well as the state seals
and bank notes of the Ukrainian National Republic, the
independent Ukrainian state formed after the Russian Revolution
of 1917.
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Lozova Station,
1901
Oil On Wood
Painting, 9.5 x 13.5 cm. |
Krychevsky's
striking designs for decorative fabrics, tapestries, furniture,
ceramics, and so forth (1905), opened new avenues for
Ukrainian applied arts. He was the first to produce stage
sets for the Ukrainian theater (1907), and was the founder
of art direction and set design for the budding Ukrainian
motion picture industry (1925). His credits include over
30 state and film sets, including those for Dovzhenko's
highly acclaimed "Zvenyhora".As a painter, Vasyl
Krychevsky deserves our particular attention. He was an
outstanding landscape artist, a poet of light and air.
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His
first works, painted as early as the 1890's, show evidence
of French Impressionist influence. But he soon developed
a style of his own and went on to produce some 3,000 works
of varying sizes, mostly landscapes depicting Ukrainian
rural and urban scenes and the Crimean shore of the Black
Sea. Unfortunately, many of his works were lost during
the revolution and the Second World War. Krychevsky's
paintings, which equal the best works of Western European
masters, enchant the viewer with the transparent quality
of their colors, their light, and their ability to capture
the inherent nature of the landscape.
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Landscape
with Sheep, 1907
Left Half, Oil On Wood
Painting, 9.5 x 14 cm. |
Krychevsky began exhibiting
his works in 1897. From the very beginning, his paintings
were regarded as collectors' items. They adorned the art
galleries and
museums of all major Ukrainian cities, as well as the
private collections of leading
Ukrainian public figures. Today many of his works still
hang in state galleries across Ukraine, while a great
number of them are found in private collections throughout
the USSR, Western Europe, the United States, and the countries
of Latin America.
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A Tatar House In Alushta, 1923
Painting, Oil On Cardboard
10 x 19 cm.
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In addition
to his creative work, Krychevsky collected and studied
Ukrainian folk art - its origins, its development, and
its interrelationships with the arts of neighboring peoples.
He was one of Ukraine's foremost experts on Ukrainian
folk art.In conjunction with his scholarly work, he was
a member of institutions, societies, and commissions of
the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.As an emigre, he was
a member of the Free Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences. |
For more
than a quarter of a century, Krychevsky taught in higher
art schools. He was one of the organizers and the first
president of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts (1917).
He also wrote articles, polemical and critical notices
and reviews, and compiled the first Ukrainian textbook
on folk art (unpublished owing to W.W. II).
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A House In The Village Of Perevozy, 1942
Painting, Oil On Cardboard
17.5 x 32 cm.
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The Black
Sea. 1943
Painting, Oil On Cardboard
17.5 x 32 cm.
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Vasyl
Krychevsky's contribution to art and scholarship were
held in great esteem in Ukraine. His works served as the
subject for a number of articles and notices. In 1940
the Soviet Ukrainian Government finally named him an Honored
Worker in the Arts of the UkSSR.
Krychevsky emigrated from Ukraine in 1944. |
He died on 15 November
1952 in Caracas, Venezuela, a brief two months before
his 80th birthday.
(Article From Exhibition Catalog)
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