Kyiv Art School

Kyiv Art School (Київське художнє училище or KХУ; Kyivske khudozhnie uchylyshche or KKhU). A secondary art school that operated in Kyiv from 1900 to 1920. During its first year it offered temporary classes in painting, drawing, and sketching. In 1901 the classes were reorganized into a regular program and the school was placed under the control of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. In September 1902 the school moved into a privately owned house located at 2 Bulvarno-Kudriavska Street. It was organized on the basis of Kyiv Drawing School (1875–1901) founded by Mykola I. Murashko, and it attracted both students and teachers of the older school, reaching an enrollment of over 500 by 1902. Unlike Kyiv Drawing School, Kyiv Art School had an official status and rights. It was open to young men and women of all social estates. The curriculum included general education classes and special subjects. The latter were taught in three departments—painting, sculpture, and architecture—according to the program approved by the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. The school was managed by Vladimir Nikolaev (director until his death in 1911), Vladimir Menk, Volodymyr Orlovsky, Mykola Pymonenko, Khariton Platonov, and Ivan Seleznov. After Nikolaev’s death, a scholarship was established in the school in his name. The KkhU pedagogical council included former teachers of Murashko’s Drawing School, which ceased to exist in 1901: Hryhorii Diadchenko (1901–20, school’s director 1917–18), Menk (1901–20, director 1918–20), Pymonenko (1901–6), Platonov (1902–7), and Seleznov (1901–20, director 1911–14). Its faculty included Mykhailo Boichuk, Mykhailo Kozyk, Fotii Krasytsky, Fedir Krychevsky (director 1914–17), Oleksander Murashko, and Ivan Makushenko (department of painting), Fedir Balavensky and Elio Sala (sculpture), and Vladimir Nikolaev, Eduard Bradtman, Ipolyt Nikolaev, and Valerian Rykov (architecture). Among its graduates were Oleksander Bohomazov, Oleksander Lozovsky, Ivan Padalka, Abram Manevich, Mykhailo Kozyk, Aleksandr Volkov, Anatol Petrytsky, and Vasyl Sedliar in painting, Alexander Archipenko, Ivan Kavaleridze, Natan (Antoine) Pevzner, Petro Snitkin, and Oleksander Teremets in sculpture, and Kostiantyn Yelieva, Oleksander Marynchenko, Noi Pidhornyi, and Yosyp Shpinel in architecture. Among its auditors were Alexandra Ekster, Vadym Meller, and Olga Forsh.

In 1920, the KkhU was transformed into the School and Arts and Crafts, which later moved to a different building. In 1924–25, the building at 2 Bulvarno-Kudriavska Street housed Kyiv Art Institute and earlier (1917–18), the Second Ukrainian Gymnasium named after Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, with many of its students participating in the Battle of Kruty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bilokin', Serhii, and Mykhailo Kal'nyts'kyi, ‘Khudozhnie uchylyshche, 1901–1902,’ Zvid pam’iatok istoriї ta kul'tury, vol 1, part 1 (Kyiv 1999)

Serhiy Bilenky

[This article was updated in 2026.]