Vasyl Krychevsky

Vasyl Krychevsky
File:Krychevsky Vasyl 1928.jpg Krychevsky in 1928
Born	Hryhorovych Krychevsky (1873-01-12)January 12, 1873 Vorozhba, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	Caracas, Venezuela
Resting place	Saint Andrew Cemetery, South Bound Brook, New Jersey
Nationality	Ukrainian
Education	Railroad school, Kharkiv, Russian Empire
Known for	Painting, drawing, architecture design, graphic design, film
Notable work	Poltava Governorate Administration building; Shevchenko Museum in Kiev; Coat of arms of Ukraine, 1918; Writers' building Rolit;
Movement	Ukrainian Impressionism, Ukrainian Art Nouveau

Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky (Ukrainian: Василь Григорович Кричевський; January 12, 1873 in Vorozhba, now Lebedyn Raion - November 15, 1952 in Caracas, Venezuela) was a Ukrainian painter, architect, art scholar, graphic artist, and master of applied art and decorative art. He is a designer of the 1918 Ukrainian coat of arms. He was the brother of Ukrainian painter Fedir Krychevsky.

Life

Vasyl Krychevsky was born in the village of Vorozhba, near Lebedyn, to a family of eight children where he was the eldest. His father Hryhoriy Yakymovych Krychevsky was a county state doctor of Jewish descent who converted to Orthodox Christianity and married a Ukrainian woman, Praskovia Hryhorivna.

Krychevsky had little formal education, but a deep interest in Ukrainian folklore and art history. During the First World War, he was one of the founders and rectors of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts. In the 1920s he taught at the Kiev Institute of Plastic Arts, the Kiev Architectural Institute, and the Odessa Art School. He then served in the architectural department of the Kiev State Art Institute until 1941.

Krychevsky moved to Lviv in 1943 where he was appointed a rector of a new Ukrainian art school, the Higher Art Studio. After the World War Two, he lived briefly in Paris before immigrating to South America in 1947. He died in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela on November 15, 1952.

Artistic career

Krychevsky first gained public recognition in 1903 when he won the architectural competition to build the Poltava Zemstvo Building (now the Poltava Regional Studies Museum). His design of the building was based on the traditions of Ukrainian folk architecture.

As a painter, he created a total of about 300 paintings. His work was influenced by French impressionism.

It was at the request of President Mykhailo Hrushevsky that Krychevsky designed the state emblems and seals of the Ukrainian People's Republic as well as the Republic's bank notes. Krychevsky was a collector and student of Ukrainian folk art, and promoted such handicrafts among common people.

From 1907 to 1910, Krychevsky designed sets and costumes for over 15 plays and operas including Mykhailo Starytsky's Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Bedřich Smetana's The Bartered Bride. From 1917–18 he worked with the Ukrainian National Theater.

On several projects Krychevsky worked along with another Ukrainian architect Petro Kostyrko who in 1960 did reconstruction of the former Poltava Governorate Administration building.

Gallery

• Полтавський краєзнавчий музей.jpg

  Poltava Governorate Administraton building, 1903

• 

  Coat of arms of Ukraine, 1917

• 2-hryvnia-1918-front.png

  Two hryvnia banknote, 1918

• Khmelnytskoho B. St., 68 Kyiv 2012.JPG

  Rolit building of writers, along with Petro Kostyrko

See also

• Ukrainian Venezuelan