Andrusiv, Petro

Andrusiv, Petro [Андрусів, Петро], b 2 July 1906 in Kamenobrid, Yavoriv county, Galicia, d 29 December 1981 in Riverhead, New York State. Painter and graphic artist. Andrusiv studied at the Warsaw Academy of Arts, where he was a co-organizer of the artistic group Spokii (1927–39). From 1947 he resided in Philadelphia, where he worked as a city artist from 1955 to 1972. In 1952 he helped found the Ukrainian Artists' Association in the USA. Andrusiv’s work was shown at exhibitions arranged by Spokii in Warsaw (1928–33), by the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists in Lviv, by the Ukrainian Artists' Association in the USA, and by other groups. He created large compositions based on Ukrainian Princely era and Cossack period history, and illustrations for children's books and historical publications. He painted murals in a number of churches in the United States in a Byzantine-like style (see Neo-Byzantinism). His last major work was The Baptism of Ukraine-Rus'. A monograph on Andrusiv by Sviatoslav Hordynsky was published in New York in 1980.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]