MYKOLA BUTOVYCH

1895–1961

Mykola Butovych

Mykola Butovych

Theatre designer, industrial designer, caricaturist, and military officer of UNRA. Descended from a long line of Cossack military leaders. Completed the Military Cadet School in Poltava (1913); served as an officer in the Russian Army during World War I and was captured and held as a prisoner of war (1916-1917). Served as an aide-de-camp of the Gray Division of the UNRA (1918-1919). Emigrated in December 1919. Studied at the Academy of Arts and the Higher Industrial Arts School in Prague (1920-1921); at the Charlottenburg Industrial Arts School in Berlin (1921-1922); and the Academy of Graphic Arts with W. Tiemann in Leipzig (1922— 1926). Received a scholarship from the Ukrainian Research Institute in Berlin (1926-1928). In the decade preceding the outbreak of World War II, lived primarily in Prague, but also in Paris, Berlin, L’viv, in the villages of Snovydiv (Ternopil’ oblast’) and Kosmach (Ivano-Frankivs’k oblast’), Transcarpathia, and Yugoslavia. In L’viv, worked at the Higher Visual Arts Studio (1939-1944) and conducted classes on the graphic arts at the Ukrainian State Industrial Arts School (1942-1944). At the end of 1944, left for Germany, then Austria, and in November 1947, emigrated to the United States’ Belonged to ANUM (1930s) and OMUA (1952). Created numerous book covers, illustrations, ex libris, corporate and publisher logos such as the emblem to Vistnyk [Herald]. Designed the iconostasis for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in New York. Author of poetic and artistic caricatures of notable figures of Ukrainian culture which are collected in Epigrams of Butumbas (1995). His independent artworks tend to be small in scale and focus on Ukrainian folk mythology. Completed cycles of woodcuts on mythical fables under the series title “Ukrainische Geister” (1924) and illustrations to the works of N. Gogol, I. Kotliarevs’kyi, P. Kulish, V. Stefanyk, and others. Also designed costumes for the ballet “Lado” [Treasure] (1951).

Ukrainian Artists

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