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I. The Art of Fresco Painting in Ukraine
II. The Byzantine Art of Mosaic in Ukraine
III. The Timeless Art of the Ukrainian Icon
IV. Masterpieces of Rococo Architecture in Ukraine
V. The Ukrainian Classicist Painters
VI. Academism in 19th-century Ukrainian Painting
VII. The Ukrainian Realist Genre Painting
VIII. The Ukrainian Impressionist Painters
IX. Ukrainian Modernist Artists in Paris
I. THE ART OF FRESCO PAINTING IN UKRAINE
In the Kyivan Rus' the fresco was the principal method of decorating church interiors. While Byzantine-style mosaics were limited to the central part of a church, frescoes covered all the side apses, vaults, columns and walls of the side naves, and sometimes even the arch supports, galleries, niches, and external portals. In Byzantium, mosaics were never mixed with frescoes in the same building; this is a unique practice of Ukrainian church art. Harmony between mosaic and fresco was achieved by using the same dominant colors. The most famous examples of this decorative system are Saint Sophia Cathedral (1037) and the Cathedral of Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (mid-12th century) in Kyiv. After the middle of the 12th century frescoes almost completely replaced mosaics in the decoration of church interiors. The most complete set of frescoes from this period has been preserved in the church of Saint Cyril's Monastery in Kyiv... Learn more about the art of fresco painting in Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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FRESCO PAINTING. A method of painting on freshly plastered walls with powdered pigments that are resistant to the erosive action of lime. Before the colors are applied to the wet plaster the main lines of the composition are usually traced on the preceding coat. The painting is very durable and is applied to both interior and exterior walls. The origins of fresco painting in Ukraine can be traced back to the 4th century BC. Frescoes adorned the homes, public buildings, and tombs of the Greek colonists and Scythians on the coast of the Black Sea. The most interesting ancient frescoes from the 1st century BC were discovered during excavations of burial sites in Kerch in the tomb of Demeter... |
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[FRESCOES OF] SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL. Saint Sophia Cathedral is a masterpiece of the art and architecture of Ukraine and Europe. It was built in Kyiv at the height of Kyivan Rus', in the Byzantine style, and significantly transformed during the baroque period. The cathedral was founded by Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise and built between 1037 and 1044. The original building, most of which remains at the core of the existing cathedral, is a cross-in-square plan with twelve cruciform piers marking five east–west naves intersected by five transverse aisles. The cathedral's interior is decorated with magnificient 11th-century mosaics and frescoes. Exterior ornamentation of the original 11th-century walls consists of decorative brickwork, the monochromatic painting of key architectural elements, and a number of frescoes... |
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[FRESCOES OF] SAINT MICHAEL'S GOLDEN-DOMED MONASTERY. An Orthodox men's monastery in Kyiv. In the 1050s Prince Iziaslav Yaroslavych built Saint Demetrius's Monastery and Church in the old upper city of Kyiv, near Saint Sophia Cathedral. In 1108-13 his son, Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, built a church at the monastery dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. The monastery was mostly destroyed during the Tatar invasion of 1240 and ceased to exist. Written records confirm that it was reopened by 1496. Soon afterward it began to be known as Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, its name being taken from the church built by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych. Restored and enlarged over the 16th century, it became one of the most popular and wealthy monasteries in Ukraine. ... |
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[FRESCOES OF] SAINT CYRIL'S MONASTERY. A monastery founded by Grand Prince Vsevolod Olhovych ca 1140 on the outskirts of medieval Kyiv. Its church, Saint Cyril's, was built ca 1146. The church's frescoes are fine examples of 12th-century Ukrainian art and the influence of Bulgarian-Byzantine painting on it. They depict the Nativity of Christ, the Presentation of Christ at the Temple, the Eucharist, the Annunciation, the Dormition, the Last Judgment and Apocalypse, an angel gathering the heavens into a scroll, the apostles, the evangelists, and various prophets and martyrs. Murals of saints—Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, Saint John the Macedonian, Saint Euphemios—adorn its pillars, and compositions depicting Saint Cyril teaching the heretic, teaching in the cathedral, and teaching the emperor are found in the southern apse... |
II. THE BYZANTINE ART OF MOSAIC IN UKRAINE
In the 8th–9th century, the second Golden Age of Byzantine art began. During this period Kyivan Rus' actively entered the orbit of Byzantine culture and in 988 adopted Christianity through Byzantium. In fact, Byzantine influence on Ukrainian territory began much earlier and was concentrated on the northern shores of the Black Sea, in such cities as Kerch and Chersonese Taurica. The earliest Kyivan churches built in the Byzantine style (such as the Church of the Tithes) did not survive the continual invasions of nomadic hordes. However, the Saint Sophia Cathedral, begun in 1037, has been preserved in relatively good condition. It represents a masterpiece of the art and architecture of Ukraine and Europe. According to the Rus' chronicles, Prince Volodymyr the Great imported the first architects and artists from Chersonese, and these together with the artists of Constantinople were the first creators of Kyivan mosaics and frescos... Learn more about the legacy of Byzantine art in Ukraine, and in particular the Byzantine art of mosaic, by visiting the following entries:
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MOSAIC. A method of wall and floor decoration in which small pieces of cut stone, glass (tesserae), and, occasionally, ceramic or other imperishable materials are set into plaster, cement, or waterproof mastic. The earliest existing examples of mosaics in Ukraine are fragments from the floor of a domestic bath found at the site of the Greek colony of Chersonese Taurica (ca 3rd–2nd century BC). Made of various colored pebbles, the floor depicts two nude figures and decorative motifs. Mosaic was used to decorate various Rus' churches and palaces in the 10th to 12th centuries, including the Church of the Tithes (989–96), the Saint Sophia Cathedral (1037 to the late 1040s), the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyivan Cave Monastery (1078), and Saint Michael's Church (1108–13) of the Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery... |
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[MOSAICS OF] SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL. The centripetal plan of Saint Sophia Cathedral, internal volumes, and external massing reflect the hierarchical ordering of the mosaics and frescoes inside. As the surfaces of the walls advance from the floor and the narthex, the frescoes increase in size and religious significance and culminate in the monumental mosaics Mother of God (Orante) in the central apse and Christ Pantocrator in the central dome. Among the most masterful mosaics are those of the Church Fathers. The more archaic Orante in the central apse, often referred to as the Indestructible Wall, is the most famous.... |
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BYZANTINE ART. Visual art produced in the Byzantine Empire and in countries under its political control or cultural influence, among them Ukraine. The spread of Byzantine art was the result, in large measure, of its style, which had all the traits of universalism to which other cultures could easily adapt. This style began to develop in the 6th century AD during the first Golden Age under the reign of Emperor Justinian. It was based on Greco-Roman art and the art of the East—Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and Egypt. In architecture, churches with stone cupolas symbolizing the cosmos appeared, replacing the longitudinal basilicas with flat wooden ceilings... |
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[MOSAICS OF] SAINT MICHAEL'S GOLDEN-DOMED MONASTERY. The main church of the Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (built in either 1654–7 or 1108–13) is an important architectural and cultural monument. Originally it had three naves and three apses on the eastern side and was topped by a single large gilded cupola. It was rebuilt in a baroque style and expanded with a new facade and six additional cupolas in the 18th century. The most striking elements of the interior were the 12th–century frescoes and mosaics, probably done by Kyivan artisans (including perhaps Master Olimpii). Although many of these were destroyed in the 13th to 16th century, some—notably the mosaics of Saint Demetrius of Thessalonika, the Eucharist, and Archdeacon Stephen—survived and were partially restored in the late 19th century... |
III. THE TIMELESS ART OF THE UKRAINIAN ICON
With the introduction of Christianity in the 10th century, Byzantine icons and icon painters began to be imported into Ukraine. In the following century an indigenous school of icon painting developed in Kyiv. By the turn of the century the Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting Studio could boast of such renowned painters as Master Olimpii and Deacon Hryhorii, who are mentioned in the Kyivan Cave Patericon. Because of their destructibility by fire and desirability as war booty, many icons perished. No Kyivan icons from the 11th century, and only a few from the 12th, have survived to our day. With the rise of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia principality in the 13th century, a Galician tradition of icon painting arose. The chief icon painting schools in Galicia were those of Peremyshl and Lviv. Each of them had many branches scattered throughout the Carpathian Mountains region as far west as Transcarpathia. Numerous samples of their work dating back to the early 15th century have been preserved. At the beginning of the 17th century icon painting began to revive in eastern Ukraine. Its patrons were not only the church but also the rising Cossack elite. The new baroque churches in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and other centers of the Cossack Hetman state were decorated with elaborate iconostases. By the second half of the 18th century the icon evolved into an ordinary painting on a biblical theme and disappeared as a distinctive art form. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, Ukrainian icon painting was revived in a neo-Byzantine form, represented by Mykhailo Boichuk and his ’monumentalist’ school, as well as by such painters as Modest Sosenko and Petro Kholodny... Learn more about the art of the Ukrainian icon by visiting the following entries:
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ICON. An image depicting a holy personage or scene in the stylized Byzantine manner, and venerated in the Eastern Christian churches. The image can be executed in different media; hence, the term 'icon' can be applied to mural paintings, frescoes, or mosaics, tapestries or embroideries, enamels, and low reliefs carved in marble, ivory, or stone or cast in metal. The typical icon, however, is a portable painting on a wooden panel. The earliest technique of icon painting was encaustic, but the traditional and most common technique is tempera. The paint--an emulsion of mineral pigments (ochers, siennas, umbers, or green earth), egg yolk, and water--is applied with a brush to a panel covered with several layers of gesso. Gold leaf is fixed to designated areas before painting begins. The paint is applied in successive layers from dark to light tones; then the figures are outlined and, finally, certain areas are highlighted with whitener. After drying, the painting is covered with a special varnish consisting of linseed oil and crystalline resins to protect it from dust and humidity... |
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ICONOSTASIS. A solid wooden, stone, or metal screen separating the sanctuary from the nave in Eastern Christian churches. Of varying height, it consists of rows of columns and icons. It extends the width of the sanctuary and has three entrances: the large Royal Gates at the center and the smaller Deacon Doors on each side. The Royal Gates are hung with a curtain. The iconostasis evolved in Byzantium in the 9th-11th centuries. The icons of the iconostasis are separated by columns and are arranged in several rows. The number of icons and ranges can vary. Usually, a full iconostasis contains over 50 icons set in four to six rows, but simpler (one- or two-story) and more elaborate (seven-story) iconostases are known. In Ukraine the earliest iconostases were low, consisting of only two tiers. Their further development was conditioned by the development of wooden architecture and the decline of the art of mosaics. By the 14th-15th centuries the typical structure of the two- and three-tiered iconostasis was established... |
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KYIVAN CAVE MONASTERY ICON PAINTING STUDIO. Main centre of Ukrainian icon painting for many centuries. Its founding at the end of the 11th century was connected with the painting (1083-9) of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyivan Cave Monastery by Greek masters and the Kyivan artists Master Olimpii and Deacon Hryhorii. The studio developed a distinctive style that is evident in its frescoes, icons, and book illuminations. From the late 16th century, collections of prints by western and local artists and of student drawings were kept for educational purposes. The studio's finest masterpieces of the 18th century are the mural paintings of the Dormition Cathedral (1724-31) and the Trinity Church (1734-44) above the Main Gate of the Kyivan Cave Monastery, which were done by Ivan Maksymovych, T. Pavlovsky, Zakharii Holubovsky, and A. Halyk. Many noted icon painters and engravers were trained at the studio. Towards the end of the 18th century the studio gradually lost its importance in the development of Ukrainian art...
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RUTKOVYCH, IVAN, b ? in Bilyi Kamin, near Zolochiv, Galicia, d ? Icon painter of the 17th century. Most of his creative life was spent in Zhovkva (1667 to ca 1708) where, among other things, he was one of the key figures in the Zhovkva School of Artists. Some of his work has been preserved, in whole or in part, such as the iconostases of the wooden churches in Volytsia Derevlianska (1680-2) and Volia Vysotska (1688-9); the large iconostasis of the Church of Christ's Nativity in Zhovkva (1697-9, now in the National Museum in Lviv), which is considered to be the finest Ukrainian iconostasis; and separate icons, such as Supplication (1683) from Potylych (now in the National Museum) and The Nativity of Virgin Mary (1683) from Vyzhliv. Rutkovych's treatment of religious subjects was realistic and almost secular in spirit. The emotive richness of his colors and the rhythm of his lines testify to the influence of contemporary European art on his style. Vira Svientsitska's book about Rutkovych was published in Kyiv in 1966... |
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KONDZELEVYCH, YOV, b 1667 in Zhovkva, Galicia, d ca 1740 in Lutsk, Volhynia. Noted icon painter and elder of the Bilostok Monastery in Volhynia. After his training at the Zhovkva School of Artists, he probably studied painting at the Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting Studio and abroad. Some of his numerous works have survived, including a fragment of the Bilostok Monastery iconostasis; the tabernacle of the Zahoriv Monastery (1695); and the famous iconostasis of the Maniava Hermitage, painted in 1698-1705 and transferred in 1785 to the church in Bohorodchany upon the dissolution of the hermitage. In 1923 the iconostasis was deposited in the National Museum in Lviv under the name the Bohorodchany iconostasis. In 1722 Kondzelevych took part in painting the iconostasis of the Zahoriv Monastery. His last work was The Crucifixion (1737) for the Lutsk Monastery. Kondzelevych broadened the traditional scheme of the icon significantly: he devoted much attention to the surroundings, particularly to the landscape, which he filled with distinctive architectural ensembles... |
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KHOLODNY, PETRO, b 18 December 1876 in Pereiaslav, Poltava gubernia, d 7 June 1930 in Warsaw. Distinguished painter. A graduate of the Kyiv Drawing School, he began to exhibit his work in 1910. Symbolist influences are apparent in his early paintings, such as A Tale of a Girl and Peacock (1916). Attracted by ancient Galician icons in 1914, he became fascinated with the tempera technique and used it frequently. During the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917-20), Kholodny worked in the Central Rada's Ministry of Education. Leaving Ukraine with the UNR government in 1920, he settled in Lviv in 1921. The subsequent period proved to be the most productive one in Kholodny's artistic career. In 1922 he helped found the Circle of Promoters of Ukrainian Art and took part in its exhibitions. He began to paint icons and churches and to design stained-glass windows. The basic features of his work, rooted in Ukrainian artistic traditions that grew out of the synthesis of Byzantine iconography with folk art, were compositional unity, the primacy of the line, and harmonious, warm colors...
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IV. MASTERPIECES OF ROCOCO ARCHITECTURE IN UKRAINE
In some ways, rococo represented the continuation and conclusion of the baroque period in art and architecture. At the tame time, it signified a fundamental departure from the pathos and striving for the supernatural and spiritual that characterized the creative mind of a baroque artist. Rococo developed at first in a decorative art in the early 18th century in France. Lighter designs, graceful decorative motifs with many shell forms (rocaille in French) and natural patterns, as well as small-scale sculpture inspired by trivial subject matter progressively replaced the flamboyant forms of the baroque architecture, overloaded with unrestrained ornamentation. In Ukraine, where baroque influences were particularly strong and long-lasting, rococo and baroque architectural influences were often intermingled. Rococo influences in Ukrainian sculpture can be seen particularly in iconostases, where carved shell motifs and interlace patterns replaced grapevines and acanthus foliage, often without structural logic. Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli and Bernard Meretyn were among the most important rococo architects in Ukraine... Learn more about the masterpieces of rococo architecture in Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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ROCOCO. An architectural and decorative style that emerged in France in the early 18th century. Examples of the rococo style in Ukraine are Saint Andrew's Church (1747-53) in Kyiv; the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God (1752-63) in Kozelets, Chernihiv gubernia; the Roman Catholic churches of the Dominican order in Lviv (1747-64) and Ternopil (1745-9); Saint George's Cathedral (1745-70) in Lviv; the Dormition Cathedral at the Pochaiv Monastery (1771-83) in Volhynia; and the town hall (1751) in Buchach, Galicia. The iconostases of Saint Andrew's Church in Kyiv and the church of the Mhar Transfiguration Monastery (1762-5) in Poltava gubernia have delicately carved rococo surface decorations. In religious painting the rococo style had little impact in Ukraine because of the strong hold of the baroque. A few still lifes, intimate in scale, appeared for the first time, however, and rococo design and decoration left a mark on furniture produced in Hlukhiv and Nizhyn in Chernihiv gubernia and in Olesko in Galicia... |
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SAINT ANDREW'S CHURCH IN KYIV. A masterpiece of rococo architecture in Kyiv. It was designed for Empress Elizabeth I by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli and built under the direction of I. Michurin in 1747–53. Set on a hill above the Podil district on a cruciform foundation atop a two-story building, the church has a central dome flanked by four slender towers topped with small cupolas. The exterior is decorated with Corinthian columns, pilasters, and complex cornices designed by Rastrelli and made by master craftsmen, including the Ukrainians M. Chvitka and Ya. Shevlytsky. The interior has the light and grace characteristic of the rococo style. The iconostasis is decorated with carved gilded ornaments, sculptures, and icon paintings done in 1751-4 by Aleksei Antropov and his assistant at the time, Dmytro H. Levytsky. During the Seven Years' War the imperial court lost interest in the church, and it was unfinished when it was consecrated in 1767. Since 1958 the church has been a branch of the Saint Sophia Museum... |
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SAINT GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL IN LVIV. One of the finest examples of rococo church architecture in Europe. The cathedral's complex, consisting of the church, the campanile (its bell was made in 1341), the metropolitan's palace, office buildings, a wrought-iron fence, two gates, and a garden, stands on a high terrace overlooking the old city of Lviv. The church was designed by and built under the direction of Bernard Meretyn in 1744-59 and finished in 1764 by S. Fessinger, who also built the adjacent metropolitan's residence (1761-2). Built on a cruciform ground plan, the four-column church is topped by one large cupola and four small ones. The high exterior walls are decorated with simplified Corinthian pilasters, rococo stone lanterns, and a cornice. Two stairways with delicate rococo balustrades lead to the main entrance, which is flanked by statues of Ukrainian Metropolitans Atanasii Sheptytsky and Lev Sheptytsky. The cathedral serves as the seat of the Ukrainian Catholic Halych metropoly... |
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MARIINSKYI PALACE IN KYIV. Using Count Oleksii Rozumovsky's palace in Perov, near Moscow, as his model, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli designed the palace in Kyiv for Empress Elizabeth I. It was built above the Dnieper River in the Pechersk district under the supervision of the architects I. Michurin, P. Neelov, and Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky in the years 1747-55. Built in the rococo style, the palace consisted of a long central section with a stone ground floor and wooden second story (destroyed by a fire in 1819), two stone one-story wings, and a large adjacent park with an orangery and orchards. The palace was renovated in 1870 according to K. Maievsky's Louis XVI-style design for the visit of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria (hence its name). After being damaged and looted during the Second World War, it was rebuilt by 1949. Since the 1990s Mariinskyi Palace has served as the setting for high-level meetings with foreign dignitaries and it is slated to become the official residence of the president of Ukraine... |
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RASTRELLI, BARTOLOMEO FRANCESCO, b 1700 in Paris, d 1771 in Saint Petersburg. Architect of Italian origin. Having arrived in Saint Petersburg in 1716 with his father, Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who did many sculptures for Emperor Peter I, he was appointed court architect in 1730. His renovations of the Great Palace in Peterhof (1747-52; now Petrodvorets), the Catherinian Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (1752-7), the Winter Palace (1754-62), Mikhail Vorontsov's palace (1749-57), and S. Stroganov's palace (1752-4) in Saint Petersburg are the finest examples of late baroque and rococo architecture. He designed two outstanding buildings in Kyiv, Saint Andrew's Church (1747-53) and the Mariinskyi Palace (1752-5)... |
V. THE UKRAINIAN CLASSICIST PAINTERS
Politically and culturally, the period of Classicism was the time of Ukraine's national decline. The processes of Russification and denationalization, resulting from the imperialist policies of Catherine II and the dissolution of the Cossack Hetman state, embraced the potential leaders of Ukraine's cultural life: the nobility and the higher clergy. The majority of Ukrainian classicist artists worked in Saint Petersburg and had an important influence on the development of Russian painting; among these artists were Antin Losenko, who founded the historical school at the Russian Academy of Arts; Dmytro H. Levytsky, who was the leading portraitist of his time; and Levytsky's student Volodymyr Borovykovsky, who painted icons and portraits. Vasilii Tropinin (a Russian who spent many years in Podilia), M. Terensky of Peremyshl, and Luka Dolynsky and I. Luchynsky of Lviv were realist painters of the classicist school. In general, the works of the classicists are devoid of national traits. Classicism survived in Ukraine until the middle of the 19th century, when it turned into academism... Learn more about the Ukrainian classicist painters by visiting the following entries:
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CLASSICISM. In art classicism refers to a certain style, connected with classical culture and works of art, whose simplicity and severity of form contrast with the decorativeness of the baroque. Classicism came to Ukraine from central and southern Europe in the mid-18th century. Its influence was felt first in Western Ukraine, where it manifested itself mainly in the architecture of palaces and villas. Later these kinds of buildings were built in central and eastern Ukraine by Italian, French, English, and German architects. In sculpture classicism was represented by Ivan P. Martos and M. Kozlovsky, who worked in Saint Petersburg and Moscow and were the leading artists and teachers at the end of the 18th century, and by Kostiantyn Klymchenko, who worked in Rome. The masters of decorative painting, which was very typical of the period and was widely used in the palaces in Ukraine, were Hryhorii Stetsenko, Yu. Kozakevych, I. Kosarevsky, and the painter-serf M. Dykov... |
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LOSENKO, ANTIN, b 10 August 1737 in Hlukhiv, Nizhen regiment, d 4 December 1773 in Saint Petersburg. Painter; a leading exponent of historical painting in the classicist style. He was brought to Saint Petersburg to sing in the imperial court choir in 1744. After his voice changed, he was sent to study art under I. Argunov (1753–8) and at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1759–60), which gave him bursaries to study in Paris (1760–5) and Rome (1766–9). Losenko became a member of and professor at the academy in 1770, served as its director (1772–3), and wrote its textbook on human proportions (1772). His oeuvre includes paintings on biblical and mythological themes, portraits of prominent personalities, a self-portrait, and approx 200 drawings of nude figures and parts of the body, which were held up as models of excellence to students at the academy for many years... |
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LEVYTSKY, DMYTRO H., b 1735 in Kyiv, d 16 April 1822 in Saint Petersburg. The most prominent portraitist of the classicist era in the Russian Empire. He acquired his basic training from his father, Hryhorii Levytsky. In 1753–6 he helped his father and Aleksii Antropov decorate Saint Andrew's Church in Kyiv. From 1758 to 1761 he worked in Saint Petersburg. From 1762, while living in Moscow he was a portraitist in great demand among the Russian aristocracy. He moved to Saint Petersburg in 1769, and he won the highest award at the summer exhibition in 1770 held by the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts and was elected a member of the academy. Building on the baroque, classicism, and Western European traditions, Levytsky created a school of portrait painting. His portraits reveal his expert knowledge of drawing, composition, color, and the appropriate gesture... |
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BOROVYKOVSKY, VOLODYMYR, b 4 August 1757 in Myrhorod in the Poltava region, d 18 April 1825 in Saint Petersburg. Iconographer and portrait painter, son of Luka Borovyk (d 1775) who was a Cossack fellow of the banner and an iconographer. Borovykovsky was trained in art by his father and uncle and then in 1788 went to study portrait painting under Dmytro H. Levytsky at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1793 he became an academician there. Until 1787 Borovykovsky lived and worked in Ukraine. During his career he painted many churches, icons, and iconostases, only some of which have been preserved. Borovykovsky's religious art departed from the established norms of Byzantine iconography in the Russian Empire and tended towards a realistic approach. He painted about 160 portraits, among them Ukrainian public figures. Adhering to the spirit of classicism, he promoted West European traditions through his art... |
VI. ACADEMISM IN 19th-CENTURY UKRAINIAN PAINTING
In the first half of the 19th century realism began to replace classicism in Ukrainian art, but an eclectic artistic movement referred to as academism continued to flourish, as it did in other parts of Europe, almost to the end of the century. Academism was a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities. Most importantly, it was influenced by the standards of the French Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, whose representatives followed the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism in an attempt to create a synthesis of these styles and traditions. In this context, academism may also be referred to as "L'art pompier" or "eclecticism", and is sometimes linked with "historicism" and "syncretism." The period of academism in Ukrainian painting coincided with the rebirth of Ukrainian art connected with Taras Shevchenko, the national bard of Ukraine, who was a painter and engraver by profession. In the 1840s he turned away from the academism taught at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts toward a more realistic depiction of scenes from the daily life of the peasantry, Ukrainian history, and landscape. A number of his followers adopted this approach, eventually giving rise to a Ukrainian ethnographic school of art and genre painting... Learn more about the academic art in Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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ACADEMISM. Art movement based on ancient Greek esthetics and on the dogmatic imitation of classical art forms. Academism first arose in the art academies of Italy in the 16th century and then in France; later it spread to other countries. Such art schools were founded in Rome, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, Munich, Cracow, and other cities. Many Ukrainian artists graduated from these schools; for example, Ivan Buhaievsky-Blahodarny, Ivan Soshenko, Taras Shevchenko, Dmytro Bezperchy, Volodymyr Orlovsky, Apollon Mokrytsky, Ivan Aivazovsky, Kornylo Ustyianovych, and Teofil Kopystynsky. As advanced schools of art theory and practice, the academies played a positive role, but eventually their conservatism and dogmatism, their restriction of artistic freedom, and their narrow limits on the selection of theme and formal means (composition, color, technique) called forth a strong reaction among progressive artists... |
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MOKRYTSKY, APOLLON, b 12 August 1810 in Pyriatyn, Poltava gubernia, d 8 or 9 March 1870 in Moscow. Painter; full member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1849. He studied painting under Kapiton Pavlov at the Nizhen Lyceum and under Aleksei Venetsianov and Karl Briullov in Saint Petersburg (1830-9). After working in Ukraine and visiting Italy he was appointed a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1851-70). His paintings, including portraits of Yevhen Hrebinka and Nikolai Gogol, and Italian landscapes, are executed in a lucid, realist style. Mokrytsky played an important role in the process of purchasing Taras Shevchenko's freedom; he introduced Shevchenko to influential Russian and Ukrainian intellectuals in Saint Petersburg, who helped to secure Shevchenko's freedom from serfdom. Mokrytsky left a diary (published in 1975) containing information about Shevchenko... |
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SHEVCHENKO, TARAS, b 9 March 1814 in Moryntsi, Zvenyhorod county, Kyiv gubernia, d 10 March 1861 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Ukraine's national bard and famous artist. Born a serf, at the age of 14 Shevchenko became a houseboy of his owner, P. Engelhardt, and served him in Vilnius and then Saint Petersburg. Engelhardt noticed Shevchenko's artistic talent and apprenticed him to the painter V. Shiriaev. Shevchenko spent his free time sketching statues in the capital's summer gardens. There he met the Ukrainian artist Ivan Soshenko, who introduced him to other compatriots and to the Russian painter Aleksei Venetsianov. Shevchenko later met the famous painter Karl Briullov, who donated his painting as the prize in a lottery whose proceeds were used to buy Shevchenko's freedom on 5 May 1838. Soon after, Shevchenko enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts and studied there under Briullov's supervision... |
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AIVAZOVSKY, IVAN, b 29 July 1817 in Teodosiia, d 5 May 1900 in Teodosiia. Painter. Aivazovsky was descended from a family of Galician Armenians who had settled in the Crimea. He obtained his artistic education at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, becoming an academician in 1845 and an honorary member of the academy in 1887 (he was also a member of four other academies). In 1845 Aivazovsky settled in Teodosiia. A member of the Society of South Russian Artists, he exhibited his work in Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and elsewhere. Aivazovsky produced some 6,000 paintings, depicting mainly scenes on the Black Sea and turbulent seascapes. He also painted sea battles and Ukrainian landscapes. During his student years Aivazovsky often traveled in Ukraine with Vasilii Shternberg. He established an artists' studio and picture gallery in Teodosiia, which he donated later to the city... |
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KOPYSTYNSKY, TEOFIL, b 15 April 1844 in Peremyshl, Galicia, d 5 July 1916 in Lviv. Monumentalist painter and portraitist. A graduate of the Cracow School of Fine Arts (1871) and the Vienna Academy of Art (1872), he spent his life painting churches, iconostases, and icons in Lviv and the surrounding villages. He was also recognized as a restorer and conservator of old art. From 1878 to 1899 Kopystynsky restored a number of religious masterpieces. In 1888 he cleaned and restored 150 old Ukrainian icons at the Stauropegion Institute's museum in Lviv. Kopystynsky established a reputation as a master portraitist and from 1872 to 1895 he painted 17 portraits of prominent Ukrainian social and cultural figures of the 19th century. Kopystynsky was also a leading book illustrator in Western Ukraine. He taught drawing in secondary schools in Lviv and participated in the exhibitions of the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts... |
VII. THE UKRAINIAN REALIST GENRE PAINTING
Paintings depicting scenes from everyday life in Ukraine are already found in Scythian art and in the frescoes of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv (11th century). By definition, however, genre painting is associated with European easel painting, which dates back to the late Middle Ages in the West and the 18th century in Ukraine. In the late 19th century, with the rise of the Peredvizhniki society of painters who opposed the dogmatic imitation of classical art forms, genre painting came to enjoy great popularity in the Russian Empire, including Ukraine. Depicting primarily scenes from village life, the Ukrainian representatives of the Peredvizhniki, such as Kyriak Kostandi, Ilia Repin, or Mykola Pymonenko, worked in realist and naturalist styles and were more concerned with realistic portrayals than with stylistic innovation. Consequently, in the wake of formalist experimentation in the early 20th century, originally radical in nature, the Peredvizhniki society became a bastion of conservatism and opposed modernist trends in Ukrainian art... Learn more about the Ukrainian realist genre painting by visiting the following entries:
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GENRE PAINTING. A style of painting characterized by the depiction of scenes from everyday life. Ukrainian genre painting usually depicts village life. Early examples of genre painting in Ukraine include certain works by Vasilii Shternberg, Ivan Soshenko, and Taras Shevchenko. In the late 19th century, the Ukrainian representatives of the Peredvizhniki society of painters, such as Kostiantyn Trutovsky, Ilia Repin, Mykola Bodarevsky, and Mykola Pymonenko were among the more prominent genre painters. Later works depicting everyday life were painted by, among others, Porfyrii Martynovych, Ivan Izhakevych, Fotii Krasytsky, Amvrosii Zhdakha, Fedir Krychevsky, Ivan Severyn, Oleksander Murashko, and Anatol Petrytsky, many of whom were associated with the Peredvizhniki, and by the Western Ukrainians Olena Kulchytska, Ivan Trush, Mykola Ivasiuk, Yosyp Bokshai, Osyp Kurylas, and V. Yarotsky... |
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PEREDVIZHNIKI. A name applied to members of the Russian Society of Itinerant Art Exhibitions. It was founded in 1870 by Ivan Kramskoi, Nikolai Ge, and 13 other artists who had left the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in protest against its rigid neoclassical dicta. In order to reach the widest audience possible, the society organized regular traveling exhibitions throughout the Russian Empire, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa in their tours. Over the years the society attracted artists from various parts of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Among the Ukrainians who joined it were Kyriak Kostandi, Arkhyp Kuindzhi, Mykola Kuznetsov, Oleksander Murashko, Leonid Pozen, Mykola Pymonenko, Petro Nilus, Ilia Repin, Serhii Svitoslavsky, and Mykola Yaroshenko. The Peredvizhniki worked in realist and naturalist styles and concentrated on landscape art, portraiture, and genre painting... |
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KOSTANDI, KYRIAK, b 3 October 1852 in Dofinivka, Odesa county, Kherson gubernia, d 31 October 1921 in Odesa. Realist painter and art scholar. After graduating from the Odesa Drawing School (1874) and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1882), he returned to Odesa, where he painted and taught at the drawing school. In 1897 he joined the Peredvizhniki and began to take part in their exhibitions. Having helped found the Society of South Russian Artists, he served from 1902 to 1920 as its president. In 1907 he was elected full member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. From 1917 he served as director of the Odesa City Museum. Adhering to a strictly realist style, Kostandi devoted himself to genre painting, but did some landscape painting and portrait painting as well... |
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PYMONENKO, MYKOLA, b 9 March 1862 in Priorka (a suburb of Kyiv), d 26 March 1912 in Kyiv. Prominent Ukrainian realist painter; full member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1904. After studying at the Kyiv Drawing School (1878–82) and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1882–4) he taught at the Kyiv Drawing School (1884–1900) and Kyiv Art School (1900–6). He took part in the exhibitions of the Society of South Russian Artists (1891–6) and Peredvizhniki society (from 1893) and became a member of the latter society in 1899. In 1909 he was elected a member of the Paris International Association of Arts and Literatures. Pymonenko produced over 700 genre scenes, landscapes, and portraits, many of which were reproduced as postcards... |
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VASYLKIVSKY, SERHII, b 19 October 1854 in Izium, Kharkiv gubernia, d 7 October 1917 in Kharkiv. Painter and art scholar. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1876–85) and in France (1886–8). He also painted in Italy, Spain, northern Africa, and Britain. After settling in Kharkiv in 1888, he was active in Ukrainian artistic circles and headed the architectural and art society there. He produced over 3,000 realist and impressionist works. They include a few portraits; historical paintings, genre paintings, and many landscapes. He copublished, with Mykola Samokysh, an album of Ukrainian folk ornamental motifs (1912), for which he painted over 100 designs, and an album on Ukrainian antiquity (1900, text by Dmytro Yavornytsky), for which he did 27 historical portraits... |
VIII. THE UKRAINIAN IMPRESSIONIST PAINTERS
An important movement in painting that arose in France in the late 1860s and is linked with artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, August Renoir, and Alfred Sisley, impressionism had a strong influence on Ukrainian painting. The first Ukrainian impressionists appeared at the end of the 19th century and were graduates of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts. Impressionism remained a major trend in Ukrainian painting until the early 1930s and it gave rise to Neo-impressionism, which attempted to base painting on scientific theory; Postimpressionism, which cultivated the esthetics of color; and Pointillism, which broke down colors into their elementary hues and distributed them in mosaic-like patterns... Learn more about the influence of the impressionist movement on Ukrainian art and the major representatives of this style in Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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IMPRESSIONISM. The original French impressionist painters sought to capture with short strokes of unmixed pigment the play of sunlight on objects. The name of the movement was derived from Claude Monet's Impressions: Sunrise (1872). Oleksa Novakivsky, who later embraced symbolic expressionism, was one of the first Ukrainian impressionists. Ivan Trush, who preferred to work with grayed colors, adopted impressionism only partly. Mykola Burachek captured the sunbathed colors of the Ukrainian steppe, while Mykhailo Zhuk and Ivan Severyn introduced decorative elements into their impressionist works. Other leading exponents of Ukrainian impressionism were Oleksander Murashko, Vasyl Krychevsky, Petro Kholodny (landscapes and portraits), Mykola Hlushchenko, and Oleksii Shovkunenko...
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OLEKSANDER MURASHKO, b 7 September 1875 in Kyiv, d 14 June 1919 in Kyiv. Painter. He studied at the Kyiv Drawing School (1891–4), under Ilia Repin at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1894–1900), and in Munich and Paris (1902–4). In 1907 he settled in Kyiv, where he taught painting at the Kyiv Art School and at his own studio. In 1909 he exhibited his canvases in Paris, Munich, and Amsterdam, and in 1910 at the international exhibition in Venice and at one-man shows in Berlin, Koln, and Dusseldorf. From 1911 he exhibited with the Munich Sezession group. In 1916 he joined the Peredvizhniki society and became a founding member of the Kyiv Society of Artists. He was a cofounder of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in 1917 and served there as a professor and rector. Murashko's style evolved from the realism of the Peredvizhniki school into a vivid, colorful impressionism... |
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KRYCHEVSKY, VASYL, b 12 January 1873 in Vorozhba, Lebedyn county, Kharkiv gubernia, d 15 November 1952 in Caracas, Venezuela. Outstanding art scholar, architect, painter, graphic artist, set designer, and a master of applied and decorative art. Working as an independent architect and artist, he achieved a national reputation by the time of the outbreak of the First World War. During the revolutionary period he was a founder and the first president of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts. After the war he lived briefly in Paris before immigrating in 1947 to South America. As a painter Krychevsky was deeply influenced by French impressionism. The pure and harmonious colors of his south-Ukrainian landscapes or Kyiv cityscapes (done in oils and watercolors) convey a lyrical atmosphere... |
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BURACHEK, MYKOLA, b 16 March 1871 in Letychiv, Podilia gubernia, d 12 August 1942 in Kharkiv. Impressionist painter and pedagogue. Burachek studied in Kyiv and graduated from the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts in 1910. His first exhibit was held in 1907. In 1910–12 he worked in the studio of Henri Matisse in Paris. In 1917–22 he served as professor at the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in Kyiv and then at the Kyiv State Art Institute and the Lysenko Music and Drama School in Kyiv. From 1925 to 1934 he was rector of the Kharkiv Art Institute and then returned to the Kyiv State Art Institute. A master landscape painter, he rendered Ukrainian landscapes in a colorful, impressionist style... |
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HLUSHCHENKO, MYKOLA, b 17 September 1901 in Novomoskovske, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 31 October 1977 in Kyiv. Artist. A graduate of the Academy of Art in Berlin (1924), from 1925 he worked in Paris where he immediately attracted the attention of French critics. From the Neue Sachlichkeit style of his Berlin period he changed to postimpressionism. Besides numerous French, Italian, Dutch, and (later) Ukrainian landscapes, he also painted flowers, still life, nudes, and portraits. At the beginning of the 1930s, Hlushchenko belonged to the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists and helped organize its large exhibition of Ukrainian, French, and Italian paintings at the National Museum in Lviv. In 1936 he moved to the USSR, but was allowed to live in Ukraine only after the war... |
IX. UKRAINIAN MODERNIST ARTISTS IN PARIS
Painters and sculptors from Ukraine were very heavily involved in the artistic revolution that swept Europe in the first decade of the twentieth century. Many spent time in Western Europe, particularly in Paris, in the prewar years, among them Vadym Meller, Alexander Archipenko, Alexandra Ekster (Exter), Mykhailo Boichuk, David Burliuk, Sofiia Levytska, Aleksandr Shevchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, N. Altman, and D. Shterenberg. Some, like Oleksa Hryshchenko (Alexis Gritchenko), Mykhailo Andriienko-Nechytailo (Michel Andreenko), and K. Redko came to Paris after the First World War, and several of them settled there permanently. Some of these artists, such as Alexander Archipenko, exerted a profound influence on European and world 20th-century art. Learn more about Ukrainian modernist artists in Paris and view numerous illustrations of their works by visiting such entries as:
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MODERNISM. An international movement in literature and art that emphasized the sense of a radical break with the past and the possibility of a transformed world. Emerging at the end of the nineteenth century as a rejection of realism and populism, it experimented with new literary and artistic forms, often under the influence of photography, film, and new technologies. Non-traditional materials were often used in architecture and sculpture, such as new metal alloys, glass, and synthetic plastics. The focus in literature and art was often on subjective perceptions and on the inner psychological conflicts and complexes of the urban intelligentsia. Depictions of individual personalities often included the eccentric, the taboo, and the deranged. Modernism coincided with and reflected the rapid growth of capitalist production and the rise of strong feminist, political, and national movements... |
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ARCHIPENKO ALEXANDER, b 30 May 1887 in Kyiv, d 25 February 1964 in New York. Modernist sculptor, painter, pedagogue, and a full member of the International Institute of Arts and Literature from 1953. Archipenko studied art at the Kyiv Art School in 1902-5, in Moscow in 1906-8, and then briefly at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His first one-man show took place in 1906 in Ukraine. He moved to Paris in 1909. In 1910 he exhibited his works with a group of Cubists at the Salon des Artistes Independants and then exhibited his works there annually until 1914. In 1912 Archipenko joined a new artistic group--La Section d'Or, which numbered among its members P. Picasso, G. Braque, J. Gris, F. Leger, R. Delaunay, R. de la Fresnaye, J. Villon, F. Picabia, and M. Duchamp--and participated in the group's exhibitions... |
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HRYSHCHENKO, OLEKSA, b 2 April 1883 in Krolevets, Chernihiv gubernia, d 28 January 1977 in Vence, France. Modernist painter, art scholar, and author. While specializing in biology at Kyiv University and Moscow University, he studied painting with Serhii Svitoslavsky in Kyiv and K. Yuon in Moscow. During a brief stay in Paris in 1911 he met A. Lhote, Alexander Archipenko, and Le Fauconnier and became interested in cubism. From 1913 to 1914 he studied in Italy and wrote several studies of Italian primitive artists and the relation between the icon and Western art. During the Revolution of 1917, Hryshchenko became professor of the State Art Studios in Moscow and was offered the directorship of the Tretiakov Gallery, but he escaped from Russia via Crimea to Turkey... |
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BOICHUK, MYKHAILO, b 30 October 1882 in Romanivka, Ternopil county, d 13 July 1937 in Kyiv. Influential Ukrainian modernist painter, graphic artist, and teacher. Boichuk studied at Yuliian Pankevych's art studio in Lviv (1898), a private art school in Vienna (1899), and the Cracow Academy of Arts (1899-1905). He continued his studies at the Munich and Vienna academies of art and exhibited his works at the Latour Gallery in Lviv in 1905 and in Munich in 1907. While living in Paris (1907-10), Boichuk visited the Academie Ranson and P. Serusier's studio, and, in 1909, he founded his own studio-school, at which his future wife Sofiia Nalepinska, Mykola Kasperovych, S. Baudouin de Courtenay, S. Segno, J. Lewakowska, O. Shaginian, and H. Szramm studied... |
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ANDRIIENKO-NECHYTAILO, MYKHAILO (known in France as Michel Andreenko), b 29 December 1894 in Odesa, d 12 November 1982 in Paris. Modernist painter and stage designer. In 1912-17 Andriienko-Nechytailo studied with N. Rerikh, A. Rylov, and I. Bilibin at the art school of the Society for the Promotion of the Arts in Saint Petersburg. In 1914-16 he exhibited the composition Black Dome and his first cubist works in Saint Petersburg. In 1914 he participated in an international graphics exhibition in Leipzig. In 1917-24 he devoted most of his time to designing stage sets for various theaters--in Saint Petersburg, Odesa, Prague, Paris, and for the Royal Opera in Bucharest. In Paris, where he lived from 1923, he also worked on sets for the films Casanova and Sheherazade and continued to paint in the cubist-constructivist style... |
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