Levytsky, Leopold

Levytsky, Leopold [Левицький, Леопольд; Levyts'kyj, Leopol'd], b 7 August 1906 in Burdiakivtsi, Borshchiv county, Galicia, d 14 May 1973 in Lviv. Painter and graphic artist. He studied at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts (1925–32) and its Paris branch (1930–1). For his involvement in the Communist Party of Poland and his political artwork he was expelled from the academy and twice imprisoned (1932, 1935–6). From 1944 Levytsky worked in Lviv, where he became head of the Union of Artists of Ukraine branch in 1949. He created hundreds of linocuts, etchings, monotypes, and lithographs; several linocut series, including the large ‘From the Tales of My Father’ (1946–7), ‘From My Memories’ (1946–8), ‘Women’ (1905–6), and ‘Carpathians’ (1968–72); over 30 oil paintings (eg, the socialist-realist Ivan Franko in His Father’s Smithy [1953]); the watercolor series ‘Village Vrasiv in Lviv Oblast’ (1955–6); and illustrations for editions of works by Western Ukrainian Communist writers, such as Yaroslav Halan, Stepan Tudor, Oleksander Havryliuk, and Petro Kozlaniuk. Many of his early works show the influence of cubism and expressionism. A book about him by G. Ostrovsky was published in Moscow in 1978.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]