Konash-Konashevych, Vasyl

Konash-Konashevych, Vasyl or Konarz-Konarzewski, Stanisław [Конаш-Конашевич, Василь; Konaš-Konaševyč, Vasyl'; real name Конаш, Василь; Konash, Vasyl'], b 22 January 1914 in Warsaw (according to other sources, in Kharkiv), d 1999 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Painter, graphic artist, miniaturist, and muralist. Having graduated from the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts (1936), he studied art in Munich and Paris (1936–8) and then taught drawing at the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (1942–4). Having moved to Warsaw in 1945, he was turned over to the Soviets in 1947 and sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. Released in 1956, he emigrated in 1973 and lived in Paris and Munich before settling in Montreal (1984). His works include a number of series: on the history of Jews in Poland, on biblical themes, on Polish customs and rites, on the Warsaw Uprising, on Anna Yaroslavna the Queen of France, and on the millennium of the Christianization of Ukraine. Most of his paintings take the form of large illuminations. His works appeared in many exhibitions in Europe and North America, and received wide acclaim.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]