Biletsky, Platon

Biletsky, Platon [Білецький, Платон; Bilec’kyj], b 11 November 1922 in Kharkiv, d 6 May 1998 in Kyiv. Painter, specializing in portraits, and art scholar; son of Oleksander Biletsky. In 1949 Biletsky graduated from the Kyiv State Art Institute and in 1959 began to teach there. In 1971 he was promoted to professor. His main works are a monograph on Heorhii Narbut (Heorhii Ivanovych Narbut, 1959), Kozak Mamai—ukraïns’ka narodna kartyna (The Kozak-Mamai—A Ukrainian Folk Image, 1960), Ukraïns’kyi portretnyi zhyvopys XVII–XVIII st. (Ukrainian Portrait Painting of the 17th–18th Century, 1969), Mova obrazotvorchykh mystetstv (The Language of the Pictorial Arts, 1973), and Skarby netlinni: Ukraïns’ke mystetstvo v svitovomu khudozhn’omu protsesi (Unperishable Treasures: Ukrainian Art in the World Art Process, 1974). He has also written studies of Chinese and Japanese art. Among his paintings are portraits of Ivan Franko, Nikolai Gogol, and Yurii Shumsky.

[This article was updated in 2013.]