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Fedor
Grigorievich Krichevsky

Ukraine • 1879−1947
Fedor G. Krichevsky (May 22, 1879, Lebedin - July 30, 1947, Irpen, Ukrainian USSR) - Ukrainian and Soviet painter, professor, prominent figure in the reform of art education, first rector of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts.

Features of the artist Fedor Krichevsky: lover of a creative experiment, Krichevsky introduced into his work a variety of styles. In his paintings there is a place for impressionism and symbolism, and even for the avant-garde - however, all these are only additions to the main direction - realism. Throughout his entire creative life, Krichevsky paid special attention to the portrait genre. It was in the portraits that the individual peculiarities of the painter’s painting manner, his humanism, the integrity of the perception of reality, the strength and beauty of the human person were most clearly reflected. Fyodor Krichevsky is rightfully considered one of the founders of modern Ukrainian art.

Famous paintings by the artist Fyodor Krichevsky: triptych "Life", "Bride", "Dovbush", "Three Ages","Winners of Wrangel", "Funny milkmaids", "Miner's love".

Fedor Krichevsky was born in the Kharkiv region to a large family of a local paramedic. The future artist spent his childhood in the village of Vorozhba, soaking up ancient folk customs and traditions. The boy drew in charcoal, sculpted, and still very fond of embroidery and himself invented ornaments for his works.

Krichevsky received his primary art education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he entered at the age of 17; here he was equal to outstanding mastersValentina Serova and Abram Arkhipova. In the summer months, Krichevsky spent in Poltava region in the village of Shishaki, where he later acquired a small house. He adored the Ukrainian national life, perfectly understood embroideries, collected utensils, icons, ceramics, woven carpets.

In 1903, the young man went to the capital and entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied in the studioIlya Repin and Dmitry Kardovsky, and later - from the famous battle Franz Roubaud. The program academic picture “The Bride” brought Krichevsky great success and confirmed his creative individuality. The strength and significance of folk images became characteristic of the artist’s further creative journey. For many years, another picture of Krichevsky graduate remained in the shadow - “Lamentation of Christ” (1910), which was not exhibited in Soviet times. Having received an academic pension, Krichevsky went abroad, visited Rome and Venice, Paris and Berlin, studied in Vienna with Gustav Klimt.

Upon his return, Fyodor Krichevsky settled in Kiev, in 1913 began teaching at the Kiev Art School, which he headed a year later. After the revolution of 1917, Krichevsky took an active part in the formation of a new Ukrainian art school. He became the first rector of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, where he taught from 1918 to 1922. The artist led intense controversial creative debate with a colleagueMikhail Boychuk and his students, defending easel painting in contrast to the ascetic monumental painting of Boychuk. Pictures were born in the dispute"Komsomolskaya Pravda (Girl with a book)" and"A boy with a bird" (1923-1924), in which Krichevsky applied the Boychuk technique - both works are written in tempera on a board.

After a short break, Krichevsky continued to teach - already at the Kiev State Art Institute. His students were later famous artists such as Vladimir Kostetsky, George Melikhov, Evgeny Volobuev, Peter Slyota, Sergey Grigoriev, Anatoly Petritsky, Tatyana Yablonskaya. In the 1930s, Krichevsky founded the association of Ukrainian masters "UMO". Given that the artist did not particularly like the Soviet power, and did not write portraits of the leaders, in 1940 Krichevsky was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR.

During the Great Patriotic War, Krichevsky and his wife remained in the territories occupied by the Germans. In 1944, the artist tried to go abroad, but to no avail. He was arrested, deprived of all titles, the ability to teach, and released from the dungeons of the NKVD only after the request of Maxim Rylsky. In recent years, the artist spent in Irpen near Kiev, where he died in 1947 from starvation and disease.
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