Mykhailo Yakymovych Kozyk (Ukrainian: Михайло Якимович Козик; 20 September 1879, in Semenivka – 2 January 1947, in Lviv) was a Ukrainian painter and art teacher.

Biography

He was born into a large peasant family. His father noticed and encouraged his artistic skills so, from 1897 to 1904, he was able to study at the icon painting school in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The primary teacher there,

Ivan Yizhakevych Ivan Sydorovych Yizhakevych ( uk, Іва́н Си́дорович Їжаке́вич; January 18, 1864 – January 19, 1962) was a Soviet and Ukrainian painter and writer, People's Painter of the Ukrainian SSR (1951). Life, education and work Yi ...

, selected him to work on the

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at the . In 1904, he passed the entrance exam for the , where he studied with and

Mykola Pymonenko Mykola Kornylovych Pymonenko ( ua, Микола Корнилович Пимоненко) 9 March 1862, , near Kyiv, Russian Empire; ow Kyiv, Ukraine">Kyiv.html" ;"title="ow Kyiv">ow Kyiv, Ukraine6 March 1912, Kyiv, Russian Empire) was a Ukraini ...

. During the

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, he passed out revolutionary leaflets. Later that year, he was expelled from school, due to his participation in a student strike. He returned to his home town and, the following year, was arrested at a

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

rally. He managed to escape from prison and went into hiding. When it was relatively safe, he joined a group of artists who were decorating in

Bila Tserkva Bila Tserkva ( uk, Бі́ла Це́рква ; ) is a city in the center of Ukraine, the largest city in Kyiv Oblast (after Kyiv, which is the administrative center, but not part of the oblast), and part of the Right Bank. It serves as the admi ...

. In 1907, he was allowed to return to the art school, where he studied with

Ivan Seleznyov Ivan Fyodorovich Seleznyov (russian: Иван Федорович Селезнёв; 3 January 1856, in Kiev – 31 March 1936, in Kiev) was a Russian Empire and Soviet painter and art teacher, known mostly for his historical paintings. Biography ...

, in addition to Dyadchenko and Pymonenko. Two years later, he was awarded a certificate for teaching art in secondary schools. He then went to Moscow, where he enrolled at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His primary instructors there were Konstantin Korovin and

Leonid Pasternak Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (born ''Yitzhok-Leib'', or ''Isaak Iosifovich, Pasternak''; russian: Леони́д О́сипович Пастерна́к, 3 April 1862 ( N.S.) – 31 May 1945) was a Russian post-impressionist painter. He was the f ...

. He graduated in 1913 as an "Artist of the First Degree". That same year, he began participating in exhibitions. From 1915 to 1925, he was a teacher at his alma mater, the Kyiv Art School. After becoming a Professor, he worked at the

Kyiv Art Institute Kyiv Art Institute (KHI) uk, Київський художній інститут, russian: Киевский художественный институт (1924-1930) was the Ukrainian state art and technical high school which is the historical inh ...

until 1932. He then moved to the Kharkiv Art Institute, where he taught until 1941. During Operation Barbarossa, the Institute was relocated to

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, but Kozyk remained in Kharkiv, taking charge of what was left in an effort to preserve it. In 1943 he left Kharkiv to teach at the . He spent his final years in Lviv,

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for remaining in Kharkiv during the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. His reputation was not fully rehabilitated until 1973. The Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art held a major retrospective of his work in 1979, and a street in Lviv has been named after him.

Sources

"Mykhailo Kozik: Years of Creative Development"
by Lyubov Voloshyn @ the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine
"Mykhailo Yakymovych Kozyk is Our Outstanding Compatriot"
a detailed biography @ the Semenivka-Chernihiv website.

External links

Brief Biography and notes
by L.V. Voloshyn and V.M. Hanko @ Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine {{DEFAULTSORT:Kozyk, Mykhailo 1879 births 1947 deaths Ukrainian male painters Landscape painters People from Chernihiv Oblast

Biography

See also

Sources

External links