Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky

The Ukrainian Museum, New York Presents the Exhibition from the Collection of Zorya Fine Art

New York, March 23, 2007.  An exhibition entitled Works from the Estate of Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky will open at The Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street in New York City on April 13, 2007. The works – oil paintings and watercolors by the artist, are from the collection of Zorya Fine Art gallery in Greenwich CT. The exhibition will run through June 3, 2007.

Vasyl Krychevsky (1873 – 1952) is considered one of Ukraine's outstanding public figures of the 20th century - architect, artist, scholar, and educator whose remarkable accomplishments impacted greatly on the country’s cultural development in the early part of the century. A Renaissance man in effect, he was dynamic and innovative in his creativity. He pioneered a distinct Ukrainian style of architectural expression and brought new trends to the art of book design. He made notable contributions to scholarship, to the applied arts, theater production designs, and was distinguished as an art director in the Ukrainian film industry. 

As one of the principal organizers of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in 1917 (later its name was changed to the Kyiv Art Institute), its first president and a professor on the staff, Krychevsky played a major role in educating a generation of exceptional Ukrainian architects and artists

Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky was a celebrated artist. The collection of his paintings from the Zorya Fine Art gallery is presented in a most timely fashion – to run concurrently with the critically acclaimed  (The New York Times) exhibition Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930, presently on view at The Ukrainian Museum and showing until April 29th.  Here, Krychevsky’s paintings can be viewed within the context of one of the most exciting and innovative periods of art in Ukraine – the period of modernism, which is so aptly discussed in the “Crossroads” exhibition. Krychevsky, along with such illustrious contemporaries as David Burliuk, Alexandra Exter, as well as fellow faculty members of the Ukrainian Academy of Art – artists Oleksander Bohomazov, Abram Manevych, Hryhorii Narbut, Vadym Meller, and Kazimir Malevich among others, represented the vibrant voices in the Ukrainian world of art of that day.
  
A 112-page exhibition catalogue in English and Ukrainian published by Zorya Fine Art contains a comprehensive essay on the life and work of Vasyl Krychevsky by Valentyna Ruban-Kravchenko, Doctor of Art History, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ukraine. Dr. Kravchenko divides the artist’s work represented in the show into “three thematic cycles”: paintings from before World War I and from the years before the start of World War II that project the natural beauty of Ukraine in compositions that embody joy and appreciation for the majesty of nature; works the artist created during his immigration period beginning with the final months of World War II, during which Krychevsky’s longing for his homeland is expressed poignantly in landscapes of Ukraine, which he painted from memory; and works in which the artist evokes Venezuela’s natural beauty and the urban environment of Caracas, where he lived the rest of his life and where he died in 1952.

In the essay, Dr. Kravchenko best describes the essence of Krychevsky’s paintings. “In both peaceful and difficult times, Krychevsky returned again and again to the images dearest to his heart – tree-hugged peasant homes above quiet-flowing Ukrainian rivers, the changing colors of the sky above the open spaces of green fields, the powerful surge of Crimean mountains, or the boundless blue of the sea. These small-scale harmonious works are monumental in their imagery, perfect in their composition and color scheme. In them, the artist’s soul sings like an Aeolian harp, open to the expanses and colors of his native land.”

Krychevsky was a very prolific artist. According to his biographer Vadym Pavlovsky, the artist “produced close to two hundred large paintings, several hundred of medium format, and several thousand small works.”  Unfortunately, the bulk of his creative work was destroyed in a fire and only a small portion of his paintings are preserved in galleries, museums, and in private collections.

Krychevsky’s media was watercolor and oil. In describing the artist’s work, V. Pavlovsky said, “His paintings, full of sunlight and air, express the mood of the moment at which the artist captures nature and recreates it with his brush. The harmony of light and transparent hues, a joyous, rarely pensive mood, and a sense of intimacy are characteristic of almost all his landscapes.” Pavlovsky identifies Krychevsky’s style as that close to Impressionism, but says that the artist “followed his own path.”

Olha Hnateyko, President of the Board of Trustees of The Ukrainian Museum said that the Museum “is delighted to collaborate with Zorya Fine Art in displaying a selection of the vast artistic output of this distinguished artist, whose pioneering work in the name of Modernism helped change the face of Ukrainian culture in the early 20th century.”

The Ukrainian Museum’s purpose is to share the breadth and wealth of the Ukrainian culture with the public. To that end the Museum organizes exhibitions from its collections or from loans, offers educational programming, and works in concert with other museums, institutions and organizations to provide excellence in substance, visual enjoyment, and a learning experience in all its endeavors. In 2005 the Museum relocated to its newly built facility, funded in total by the generous donations from the Ukrainian community in the United States.

Exhibitions currently showing at The Ukrainian Museum:

Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine 1910-1930  until April 29
Ukrainian Sculpture and Icons; A History of Their Rescue until May 2
Pysanka: Vessel of Life until July 1

For more information please contact:

The Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10003
212.228.0110 online at ukrainianmuseum.org
contact: Maria Shust, Director

Zorya Fine Art, 38 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830, 203.869.9898 
contact:  Zorianna L. Altomaro, gallery owner 

Exhibition catalogue available for download in PDF format 2.8 MB