IEU'S FEATURED TOPIC IN UKRAINIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE

LEVCHENKO, PETRO, b 11 July 1856 in Kharkiv, d 27 January 1917 in Kharkiv. Painter and pedagogue. He studied art in Kharkiv under Dmytro Bezperchy, at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1878-83 under, among others, Volodymyr Orlovsky), and later in Paris and Rome. From 1886 he lectured at the Kharkiv Painting School. He was a member of the Society of South Russian Artists and a participant in almost all of the exhibitions of the Peredvizhniki (1886-1904), but following his visit to Paris in the 1890s, his works displayed strong influences of impressionism. Levchenko did some 800 landscapes, primarily of Ukraine (such as A Street in Putyvl or The Yard of Saint Sophia Cathedral), but also painted abroad (such as A Street in Paris and Seacoast: Naples). He also painted still lives and genre paintings and was perhaps the most accomplished master of interior art in Ukraine of his time. Levchenko was not properly recognized for his achievements during his lifetime. Only in 1919 a large posthumous retrospective exhibition of 700 of his paintings was held in Kharkiv. Monographs about him were written by M. Pavlenko (1927), Yu. Diuzhenko (1958), and M. Bezkhutry (1984)...

MURASHKO, OLEKSANDER, b 7 September 1875 in Kyiv, d 14 June 1919 in Kyiv. Painter. He studied at the Kyiv Drawing School (1891-4) and later, under Ilia Repin, at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1894-1900) where he was awarded the Academy's gold medal in 1900 for his diploma painting Burial of a Kish Otaman. As part of his prize, he was sent to study in Paris (1902-4); later he also studied at the Munich Academy of Arts. In 1907 he settled in Kyiv, where he taught painting at the Kyiv Art School (1909-12) and at his own studio (1912-17). In 1909 he exhibited his canvases in Paris, Amsterdam, and at the international exhibition in Munich where his painting A Carousel (1906) was awarded the main prize. He was a cofounder of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in 1917 and served as its professor. Murashko's style evolved from the realism of the Peredvizhniki school into a vivid, colorful impressionism. His paintings have been praised by critics for their psychological depth. Murashko established an international reputation and had a strong influence on the development of Ukrainian art in the 20th century. He was murdered in Kyiv by unknown assailants...

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 Institute in Kyiv. From 1925 to 1934 he was rector of the Kharkiv Art Institute and then returned to Kyiv. A master landscape painter, he rendered Ukrainian landscapes in a colorful, impressionist style. He also designed stage sets. As an art scholar, Burachek made a significant contribution to the study of Taras Shevchenko as an artist and wrote a monograph about his art. He also wrote a memoir Moie zhyttia (My Life, 1937) and numerous articles about Oleksander Murashko, Serhii Vasylkivsky, Mykhailo Zhuk, and other artists. He played an important role in the process of establishing memorial museums of Taras Shevchenko in Kharkiv and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky in Vinnytsia and Chernihiv...

KRYCHEVSKY, VASYL H., 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. He received little formal education. Interested deeply in Ukrainian folklore and art history, he audited Mykola Sumtsov's and Dmytro Bahalii's classes at Kharkiv University. Working as an independent architect and artist, he achieved a national reputation by the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In 1917 he was a cofounder and the first rector of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts. In the 1920s he taught at the Kyiv Institute of Plastic Arts and the Kyiv Architecture Institute. In 1927 he lectured for a year at the Odesa Art School, and then taught architecture at the Kyiv State Art Institute until 1941. After the war he lived briefly in Paris before emigrating 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 haunting lyrical atmosphere...

MANEVICH, ABRAM, b 25 November 1881 in Mstsislau, Belarus, d 30 June 1942 in New York. Painter. Born in a Jewish ghetto in Mstsislau, he moved to Kyiv in 1900 where he was discovered and supported by the Ukrainian scholar and museum director Mykola Biliashivsky who helped Manevich enrol in the Kyiv Art School. Biliashivsky also organized Manevich's first exhibition and helped to fund his studies at the Munich Academy of Arts (1905-7). Influenced by Paul Cezanne and other post-impressionists, Manevich, nevertheless, developed a uniquely individual style of landscape painting. He gained international recognition after his successful exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris in 1913, but, having declined offers to move to London or New York, returned to Kyiv. He was one of the founding professors of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts (1917-19). He had two solo exhibitions in Kyiv (1910, 1916). Manevich was noted for his masterful landscapes, particularly of Kyiv and small towns in Ukraine. He left Ukraine after his son was killed in 1919 by the troops of anarchist Otaman Danylo Zeleny. From 1920 he lived abroad and in 1922 he settled in the United States...

KRYCHEVSKY, MYKOLA, b 24 November 1898 in Kharkiv, d 11 September 1961 in Paris. Impressionist painter; son of Vasyl H. Krychevsky and brother of Vasyl V. Krychevsky. After studying art with his father, and with Yosyp Bokshai in Uzhhorod, he studied painting in Prague at the Ukrainian Studio of Plastic Arts and the School of Industrial Design (from which he graduated in 1928). In 1929 he moved to Paris. An author of over 7,000 paintings, Krychevsky is best known for his watercolors: his scenes of Paris (such as On the Seine, 1934) and Venice (such as Venice, 1949) earned him international acclaim. He also painted landscapes of Ukraine from memory (eg, Autumn Landscape with a Church or Memories of Ukraine). His work was exhibited at the Salon des Independents in Paris, and solo exhibitions of his paintings were held in Lviv, Warsaw, Prague, Rome, Brussels, as well as in the United States and Canada. Krychevsky also designed stage sets for the Ruthenian Theater of the Prosvita Society (1921-3) and Oleksander Zaharov's company (1921-5) in Uzhhorod, and the Theatre des Arts (1939) and the Theatre Hebertot (1942) in Paris...