Chereshnovsky, Mykhailo

Chereshnovsky, Mykhailo [Черешньовський, Михайло; Čerešn'ovs'kyj, Myxajlo], b 5 March 1911 in Stezhnytsia, Lisko county, Lemko region, Galicia, d 20 July 1994 in New York. Sculptor and wood carver. Chereshnovsky graduated from the School of Plastic Arts in Cracow in 1939. After the Second World War he emigrated to Germany and then to the United States. He did decorative wood carving (for example, the iconostasis of Saint John the Baptist Church in Hunter, New York State), sculpted busts of a number of prominent Ukrainians (including Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych, Dmytro Dontsov, Oleh Olzhych, Yosyp Hirniak, Valentyna Pereiaslavets, and Roma Pryima-Bohachevska), and produced several monuments in bronze (such as the Monument to the Heroes at the resort of the Ukrainian Youth Association in Ellenville, New York State, and the Lesia Ukrainka monuments in Cleveland, Toronto, and at the Ukrainian resort in Kerhonkson, New York State). Chereshnovsky's work is characterized by a classical simplicity and a monumental style. He served as president of the Ukrainian Artists' Association in the USA from 1973 to 1994. An extensive catalogue, with a text by Bohdan Pevny, accompanied a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Ukrainian Museum in New York in 1991. A study of Chereshnovsky’s life and work, by Dmytro Stepovyk, appeared in 2000.

[This article was updated in 2014.]