Novakivsky Art School

Novakivsky Art School [Мистецька школа Олекси Новаківського; Mystetska shkola Oleksy Novakivskoho]. A private school of drawing and painting founded on 23 March 1923 by Oleksa Novakivsky at his studio in Lviv. It was the first art education institution in Western Ukraine to promote national artistic styles and traditions and to lay foundations for Ukrainian art education in Galicia. From its inception, the school received generous support from Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky and benefitted from the presence in Lviv of numerous refugees from Bolshevik-controlled central and eastern Ukraine, including distinguished artists such as Petro Kholodny, Pavlo Kovzhun, Mykola Butovych, Leonid Perfetsky, Robert Lisovsky, and Volodymyr Sichynsky. These refugee artists, some of whom had studied at the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in Kyiv, had a significant influence on the development of Ukrainian art scene in Lviv. At the same time, Ukrainian youth faced exclusion from the city’s Polish educational institutions, while the number of Ukrainian schools was greatly reduced by the interwar Polish authorities. In 1922 Ukrainian artists in the city formed the Circle of Ukrainian Art Workers to advocate for the establishment of a Ukrainian art academy but the idea of establishing such an institution without the necessary financial support from the state was soon abandoned. As an alternative, Metropolitan Sheptytsky proposed establishing a private school led by Novakivsky, then the leading Ukrainian painter in Lviv, whose exhibitions were widely acclaimed by Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish art critics and who was equally admired by the Ukrainian creative youth.

The school operated in Novakivsky’s residence, purchased by Metropolitan Sheptytsky in 1907 and later endowed to the National Museum to support Ukrainian artists. Novakivsky lived there from 1913, offering private instruction in drawing and painting to several students, including Roman Selsky in 1919. Novakivsky regarded the school as a temporary transitional institution until the establishment of an art academy in Lviv. Initially (until 1925) it was associated with the Board of Ukrainian Higher Schools as a separate art faculty of the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian Higher Polytechnical School. Oleksa Novakivsky was named dean of the faculty. Although the school lacked a formal curriculum and awarded no diplomas, its enrollment expanded rapidly. Besides practical training its students were offered lectures (1925–9) on art styles and color chemistry by Volodymyr Peshchansky, Ukrainian and world art history by Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky and, later, by Ilarion Svientsitsky, drawing by Osyp Kurylas, anatomy by Stepan Balei, cultural history by Ivan A. Rakovsky, and perspective by Yevhen Nahirny. After completing a course in L’Académie Moderne in Paris under Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant, the Novakivsky schools student, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, in 1929 offered his schoolmates a course in modern ‘constructivist’ drawing and applied graphics. In 1926, 1928–9, 1930, 1932, and 1934 exhibitions of students’ works were held.

Oleksa Novakivsky’s principal teaching approach centered on individual art workshops led by authoritative instructors with distinct formal, stylistic, and figurative methodologies. This model mirrored the professional artistic training offered at the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in Kyiv, where instruction was organized around individual workshops rather than traditional faculties. Novakivsky emphasized the importance of mastering classical painting and drawing before pursuing experimental approaches. Every summer he traveled with his students to the Hutsul village of Kosmach for plein airs funded by Metropolitan Sheptytsky.

In 1929 Novakivsky resisted the calls from students and Metropolitan Sheptytsky to expand the school’s curriculum and hire Petro Kholodny as teacher of monumental painting. As a result, the school lost much of its public and financial support. Around 1935 it was dissolved because of insufficient community support and declining student interest. More than 90 young people from regions across Ukraine, including Galicia, Bukovyna, Volhynia, and central Ukraine, attended the Novakivsky School for various periods of time. While most students were ethnic Ukrainians, there were also several Jews and Poles. Among the school’s students were later distinguished artists and art scholars, such as Roman Selsky, Sofiia Zarytska, Hryhorii Smolsky, Mykhailo Moroz, Vasyl Diadyniuk, Antin Maliutsa, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, Stefaniia Gebus-Baranetska, Ivanna Vynnykiv, Olha Pleshkan, Stepan Lutsyk, Mykola Anastaziievsky, Volodymyr Lasovsky, Ivan Keivan, Mykhailo Dragan, Edvard Kozak, and Myron Levytsky. A number of them later left Ukraine and worked in émigré communities, primarily in the United States of America (Moroz, Hordynsky, Kozak, Anastaziievsky), Canada (Keivan, Levytsky, Perfetsky), and France (Zarytska, Ivanna Nyzhnyk-Vynnykiv, and Leopold Kretz).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Voloshyn, Liubov. ‘Mytropolyt Andrei Sheptyts'kyi iak metsenat Oleksy Novakivs'koho i ioho shkoly,’ Zapysky Naukovoho tovarystva im. Shevchenka: Pratsi sektsiї mystetstvoznavstva, vol. CCXXVII (Lviv 1994)
Voloshyn, Liubov. Mystets'ka shkola Oleksy Novakivs'koho u L'vovi: Biohrafichnyi slovnyk uchniv (Lviv 1998)
Voloshyn, Liubov. Mystets'ka shkola Oleksy Novakivs'koho u L'vovi: Do 75-littia zasnuvannia (Lviv 2000)
Voloshyn, Liubov. Mystets'ka shkola Oleksy Novakivs'koho 1923–1935: Zhyttia u perspektyvi chasu (Lviv and Drohobych 2024)

Serhiy Bilenky

[This article was updated in 2026.]