Kasperovych, Mykola

Kasperovych, Mykola [Касперович, Микола; Kasperovyč], b 1885 in Kozelets, Chernihiv gubernia, d 7 May 1938. Painter and art restorer. A friend and student of Mykhailo Boichuk, Kasperovych studied at Cracow Academy of Arts and, after 1909, in Paris. In 1910 he took part in a group exhibit of Boichuk's students at the Salon des Indépendants. In 1912–13 he studied art restoration under Ilarion Svientsitsky at the National Museum in Lviv. In 1913 he worked with Mykhailo and Tymofii Boichuk on the restoration of the iconostasis in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Lemeshi, Chernihiv region. In 1917 he joined M. Boichuk’s workshop at the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts. He became professor of the Academy in 1921 and obtained the title of master art restorer. Among his best-known paintings are The Creator of the Universe (1910) and The Ducks (1920s). As one of Ukraine’s leading art restorers, in 1924 Kasperovych became director of the Restoration Studio of the Kyivan Cave Monastery Museum of Cults and Customs. When the monastery was closed in 1926, he was appointed director of the Restoration Studio of the All-Ukrainian Museum Village, located on the grounds of the monastery and encompassing the collections of several important museums (this complex was later reorganized into the Kyivan Cave Historical-Cultural Preserve). Besides conserving art objects, the studio conducted systematic research in the history of Ukrainian painting. When the museum village was abolished, Kasperovych worked as art restorer in various museums in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv. His last major project was the restoration of Mikhail Vrubel’s iconostasis at Saint Cyril's Monastery in Kyiv. Kasperovych was arrested by the NKVD in March 1938 during the Stalinist terror. He was accused of counter-revolutionary terrorist activity and executed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kravchenko, Iaroslav. Shkola Mykhaila Boichuka. Trydttsiat sim imen (Kyiv 2010)

Marko Robert Stech

[This article was updated in 2012.]