Olena Lvivna Kulchytska ( uk, Олена Львівна Кульчицька; 15 September 1877 – 8 March 1967) was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

artist, painter, and civil activist.

Biography

Family

She was born in the town of Berezhany, Galicia in the modern-day

Ternopil Oblast Ternopil Oblast ( uk, Тернопі́льська о́бласть, translit=Ternopilska oblast; also referred to as Ternopilshchyna, uk, Терно́пільщина, label=none, or Ternopillia, uk, Тернопілля, label=none) is an obl ...

of Ukraine. Her father was Lev Teodorovich Kulchytsky (1843 – December 4, 1909), a court counselor, lawyer, public figure, and member of many societies. Her mother was Maria Yakivna Kulchytska (? – December 29, 1939).

Learning and the first steps in art

In 1894 she graduated from an 8th grade school at the monastery in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

. For several months between 1901 and 1902, she and her sister Olga attended the where she received her first lessons in

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

. Olena Kulchytska completed her art training at the private studio run by R. Bratkowski and S. Batowski-Kaczor in Lviv (1901–3) and the Vienna School of Industrial Design (1903–1908). After graduating, she took a year to travel through the major European art centres, including Munich, Paris, and London. Later in life, she worked as an art teacher at secondary schools in Lviv (Queen

Jadwiga of Poland Jadwiga (; 1373 or 137417 July 1399), also known as Hedwig ( hu, Hedvig), was the first woman to be crowned as monarch of the Kingdom of Poland. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, ...

Gymnasium, 1909-1910) and

Przemyśl Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...

girl school (1910–1938).

Privacy

The artist had no family of her own, she devoted her life entirely to art.

Work

Kulchytska’s first solo exhibition took place in Lviv in 1909. It showcased her

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

s, prints, watercolours, woodcuts, and

filigree Filigree (also less commonly spelled ''filagree'', and formerly written ''filigrann'' or ''filigrene'') is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork. In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, ma ...

s. The exhibition was celebrated by the early-modernist Ukrainian artists, for instance,

Ivan Trush Ivan Trush ( uk, Іван Труш, pronounced as ''Troosh'': 1869–1941) was a Ukrainian impressionist painter, a master of landscape and portraiture, an art critic, and active community patron of arts in Galicia or ''Halychyna'' - a historic ...

. Kulchytska’s work combined the folk art traditions of the Western Ukraine, particularly, the

Hutsuls The Hutsuls (sometimes the spelling variant: Gutsuls; uk, Гуцули, translit=Hutsuly; pl, Huculi, Hucułowie; ro, huțuli) are an ethnic group spanning parts of western Ukraine and Romania (i.e. parts of Bukovina and Maramureș). They ...

, with the stylistic innovations of the European

Secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

. Later, she exhibited her works in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, and other European cities. During 1920-1930, Kulchytska made major contribution to the Ukrainian book design. She illustrated various works by

Ivan Franko Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...

Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky Mykhailo Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky ( uk, Михайло Михайлович Коцюбинський), (September 17, 1864 – April 25, 1913) was a Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th centur ...

Vasyl Stefanyk Vasyl Semenovych Stefanyk ( uk, Васи́ль Семе́нович Стефа́ник; May 14, 1871 – December 7, 1936) was an influential Ukrainian modernist writer and political activist. He was a member of the Austrian parliament from 1 ...

, and Yurii Fedkovych, as well as more than 70 books for children for the series «For Our Littlest Ones», which included

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

’s ‘ The Star-Child’ (1920). In the field of applied arts, she designed 80

kilim A kilim ( az, Kilim کیلیم; tr, Kilim; tm, Kilim; fa, گلیم ''Gilīm'') is a flat tapestry-woven carpet or rug traditionally produced in countries of the former Persian Empire, including Iran, the Balkans and the Turkic countries. Kili ...

s in collaboration with her sister Olha.

Activism

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Kulchytska depicted the sufferings of the civilian population and refugees. Her works were reproduced as postcards by the Ukrainian Women's Committee to Aid Wounded Soldiers in Vienna. Kulchytska was part of the civil resistance movement under

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

.
/ref> She helped the families of those who were repressed and Population transfer in the Soviet Union, deported to Siberia. In 1955, Kulchytska began campaigning against the closure of the Lviv Art College. She financially supported the

Union for the Liberation of Ukraine The Union for the Liberation of Ukraine ( uk, Союз визволення України, СВУ; Soyuz vyzvolennia Ukrayiny, SVU) was a political organization that was established on 4 August 1914 in Lemberg, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.La ...

Legacy

Kulchytska donated a collection—including more than 3,000 pieces—of her own artwork to the Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art in 1950. In 1971, a memorial museum of her work was posthumously opened in Lviv.

References

External links

Olena Kulchytska in Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine

Olena Kulchytska in Ukrainian Art Library
* See an issue dedicated to Olena Kulchytska i
Halytska Brama, №9-10 (2007)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulchytska, Olena 1877 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian painters People from Berezhany Recipients of the title of People's Painter of Ukraine Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize Soviet painters Soviet printmakers Ukrainian printmakers Ukrainian women painters Burials at Lychakiv Cemetery