Kulchytsky, Yurii

Kulchytsky, Yurii [Кульчицький, Юрій; Kul'čyc'kyj, Jurij], b 15 December 1912 in Pidbuzh, Drohobych county, Galicia, d 24 January 1993 in Mougins, France. Graphic artist, painter, and ceramicist. While studying at the Cracow Academy of Fine Art (1933–8), he belonged to the Zarevo art group and took part in its exhibitions. Immigrating to Austria (1945) and then Paris (1948), in 1960 he settled in Mougins near Cannes and set up a modern ceramics atelier with Ivanna Vynnykiv. Until the mid-1950s Kulchytsky did mostly woodcuts, including prints such as Three Cossacks, The Pursuit (1948), Kozak-Mamai, and Fist Fight, and illustrations to Konstantyna Malytska’s Harfa Leili (The Harp of Leila, 1953). By linocut he produced prints such as The Collectivization. He has also done some woodcut bookplates. In ceramics he has introduced new modern forms based on elements of Ukrainian folk ceramics, an art particularly rich in linear rhythm, which can be described as musical. His fantastic depictions of birds, animals, and human beings are almost surrealistic, but preserve that esthetic quality characteristic of folk art.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]