Borodai, Vasyl

Borodai, Vasyl [Бородай, Василь; Borodaj, Vasyl'], b 18 August 1917 in Katerynoslav, d 19 April 2010 in Kyiv. Sculptor. Borodai studied at the Kyiv State Art Institute (1947–53). In 1966 he became lecturer, and in 1971 professor, at the institute. He was a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR from 1973 and was chairman of the Union of Artists of Ukraine from 1968 to 1973. Among his sculptures are the following compositions: Youth (1951), Ivan Bohun (1954), Lesia Ukrainka (1957), and Bandura Player (1960). He also sculpted portraits of Petro Panch (1960), Pavlo Tychyna (1963), Lev Revutsky (1963), and Tetiana Yablonska (1974), as well as the series Through Egypt (1961–4) and some monuments—busts of Juliusz Słowacki in Kremianets (1969) and of Taras Shevchenko in Arrow Park, New York State (1970), and Lesia Ukrainka’s monument in Kyiv. Borodai’s works usually meet the demands of socialist realism; a good example of that is his giant monument Motherland (1981) in Kyiv. His monument depicting the legendary founders of Kyiv, Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv, and Lybid, has become one of the symbols of Kyiv. Borodai’s perhaps most interesting sculptures are adaptations of the ancient Egyptian style (eg, Silence). Monographs on Borodai by B. Lobanovsky (Kyiv 1964) and Z. Fogel (Moscow 1968) have been published.

[This article was updated in 2018.]