YAKIV STRUKHMANCHUK

Yakiv Strukhmanchuk

Graphic artist, painter, portraitist, caricaturist, book illustrator, scholar, and socio-political activist. Studied at the Krakow Academy of Art with T. Axentowicz (1905-1910) and the Prague Academy of Art with J. Kotera (1911-1913). Returned to Lviv in 1913, where he held his first solo exhibition in the NTSh bookshop. As a student, worked for the editorial staff of the satirical journal Komar [Mosquito], which published his caricatures. Served as a Legion Officer of the Ukrainian Sich-Riflemen during World War I, and then as a Lieutenant and aide-de-camp to General M. Tarnavskyi in the Ukrainian Galician Army, and yet again in the Red Ukrainian Galician Army. Worked at the Workers’ Club of Uman’ (1920-1923) and at the Kyiv Industrial Arts School (1924). Became a researcher and, later, assistant director of the Shevchenko All-Ukrainian Historical Museum (1930-1932), while serving as inspector for the preservation of cultural monuments in the Kyiv region (1931). Also worked as a researcher at the Science Research Institute of Polish Proletarian Culture (1932) and lectured on the history of costume at the M. Lysenko Music and Dramatic Arts Institute (1932-1933). Member of the literary organization “Zakhidnia Ukraina” [Western Ukraine] (1925) and the artistic organization AKhChU (1926). Took part in the 1st All-Ukraine Exhibition in Kyiv (1927). Published the following scholarly texts: “The Newest Modernist Direction in Painting” (1912), “Serhii Vasylkivskyi” (1913), “Haidamaky on the Stage of the Proletarian Theatre” (1920), and “Les’ Kurbas” (1921). Designed postcards and created a series of portrait-prints and drawings on historical themes for the book History of Ukraine-Rus’, as well as a series of portraits in pencil of the actors of the Kijdramte Theatre. Contributed caricatures to the following periodical publications: Zhalo [Stinger], Maiak [Lighthouse], Siaivo [Aura], Dzvin [Bell], Svit [World], Strakhopud [Scarecrow]. He was blacklisted and repressed in 1933, and later executed by the NKVD. The majority of his work created during the Soviet period was destroyed; his surviving work is housed in the National Museum of Lviv, the Museum of Theatrical, Musical, and Cinema Arts of Ukraine (Kyiv), the Ethnographic Museum in the village of Denysiv (Koziv region, Ternopil oblast), in Kolomyia, Berezhany, and in private collections.