Andriienko-Nechytailo, Mykhailo

Andriienko-Nechytailo, Mykhailo [Andrijenko-Nečytajlo, Myxajlo] (known in France as Michel Andreenko), b 29 December 1894 in Odesa, d 12 November 1982 in Paris. Modernist painter and stage designer. In 1912–17 Andriienko-Nechytailo studied with N. Rerikh, A. Rylov, and I. Bilibin at the art school of the Society for the Promotion of the Arts in Saint Petersburg. In 1914–16 he exhibited the composition Black Dome and his first cubist works in Saint Petersburg. In 1914 he participated in an international graphics exhibition in Leipzig. In 1917–24 he devoted most of his time to designing stage sets for various theaters—in Saint Petersburg, Odesa, Prague, Paris, and for the Royal Opera in Bucharest. In Paris, where he lived from 1923, he also worked on sets for the films Casanova and Sheherazade and continued to paint in the cubist-constructivist style (eg, Composition [1924], Construction [1924], or A Person [1926]). In the 1930s Andriienko-Nechytailo produced a series of surrealist paintings (eg, A Fair Stall [1933]). He switched to neorealism in the 1940s and painted a number of portraits as well as a series the cityscapes Disappearing Paris (such as Rue Carpeaux [1946], Rue Paul Barruel [1954], Rue Cambronne [1954], and Paysage du Cycle [1956]). From 1958 he returned to constructivism and abstraction. Andriienko-Nechytailo's work is characterized by a precision of composition that harmonizes subtly with color. His stage sets are remarkable for their laconic quality and architectural schematism, and his costume designs, for their richness. His paintings can be found in the City Museum of Modern Art and the Arsenal Library in Paris, the National Library in Vienna, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Museum in Lviv, and Ukrainian émigré museums and private art collections. Andriienko-Nechytailo is also the author of several short stories and articles on art.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sichyns’kyi, V. Andriienko (Lviv 1934)
Popovych, V. Mykhailo Andriienko (Munich 1969)
Marcadé, J.-Cl. and V. Andreenko (Lausanne 1978)
M. Andriienko. Kataloh vystavky v Ukraïns'komu instytuti modernoho mystetstva (Chicago 1979)

Sviatoslav Hordynsky

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