Fedir Krychevsky

Infobox Person
name = Fedir Krychevsky


image_size = 180px
caption = Self portrait, 1923-24
birth_date = birth date|1879|5|22|mf=y
birth_place = Lebedyn, Kharkiv Guberniya, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
death_date = Death date|1947|7|30
death_place = Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine)
occupation = Painter
spouse =
parents =
children =

Fedir Krychevsky ( _uk. Федір Кричевський; May 22, 1879 in Lebedyn, Kharkiv Guberniya - d. July 30, 1947 in Irpin, Kyiv Oblast) was an influential Ukrainian early modernist painter. He was the brother of graphic designer Vasyl Krychevsky.

Biography

Krychevsky was born in Lebedyn to the family of a Jewish country doctor who converted to Orthodox Chritianity and married a Ukrainian woman. He graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in [901 and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1910. He traveled in Western Europe for a year, and studied briefly with Gustav Klimt in Vienna. He moved to Kyiv, where he served as professor and director at the Kyiv Art School from 1914–18.

In 1917, he was one of the founders and a rector (from 1920–22) of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts. When the academy was abolished, he worked as a professor at the Kyiv State Art Institute, eventually becoming the rector. He remained in Kyiv at the onset of the Second World War, and kept his position at the Institute, trying to save it in difficult conditions during the German occupation of Kyiv. He served as the chairman of the Union of Ukrainian Artists that tried to improve the conditions of artists during the occcupation. He was extremely popular among the artist-colleagues, faculty at the institute and the students, and no one betrayed his Jewish origins to the German authorities, saving him from the Babi Yar massacre.

He moved to Königsberg in the summer of 1943, to join his brother Vasyl. He attempted to flee west to escape the advancing Soviet troops, but the train in which he was traveling was overtakehn. Krychevsky was arrested by the NKVD as a collaborator, but his interrogations have elicited nothing that could incriminate him, so he was stripped of all his titles and honors and sent to internal exile to the village of Irpin near Kyiv where he died of starvation during the famine in 1947, despite the food help that was receiving from his student Tetyana Yablonska.

Twelve years after his death Krychevsky was "rehabilitated." In 1959 the first exhibition of his works was held in Kyiv, and information about his work began to be published." [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkPath=pagesKRKrychevskyFedir.htm Fedir Krychevsky] " at the "Encyclopedia of Ukraine"]

Works

In total, he produced close to a thousand works, including compositions, portraits, landscapes, drawings.His early work remains the most valuable and appreciated part of his ouevre. It was formed under the influence of Gustav Klimt and Ferdinand Hodler and combined Secessionist aesthetic principles with folk and Icon sensibilities. Krychevsky draftsmaship is considered to be equal to that of Adolph Menzel. His later work, although solid in execution, suffered from ideological constraints of Socialist Realism.

For 30 years Krychevsky was one of the leading figures in Ukrainian art. [http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en/publish/printable_article?art_id=7339437 Ukrainian government portal] "Famous people of culture and art"] In 1911 and 1913 he organized the first strictly Ukrainian art exhibitions. Beginning in 1897, his work was exhibited at over 34 shows in and outside Ukraine. He was also a successful teacher, whose students included many famous Ukrainian artists.

Krychevsky's triptych "Life" remains one of the iconic examples of Ukrainian modernism.

Influence

Krychevsky had many students throughout his long career, notably Tetyana Yablonska. There is a street in Kyiv named in his honor.

References