Novytsky, Oleksii

Novytsky, Oleksii [Новицький, Олексій; Novyc’kyj, Oleksij], b 19 April 1862 in Simbirsk, Russia, d 24 September 1934 in Kyiv. Art historian; full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1914 and full member of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) from 1922. After graduating from Moscow University (1887) he worked as a librarian at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1898–1918) and was active in the Moscow Ukrainian Hromada. He organized the jubilee exhibition of Taras Shevchenko’s paintings and graphic art in Moscow (1911) and contributed to Ukrainskaia zhizn’ (1912–17) and Promin’ (Moscow) (1917). From 1922 he worked in Kyiv, where he chaired the All-Ukrainian Archeological Committee (1924–33) and headed the VUAN art section and Department of the History of Ukrainian Art. He wrote books on the art of the Peredvizhniki group (1897), the history of Russian art (2 vols, 1902–3), and wooden architecture in Ukraine (1927). He devoted himself to studying the art of Shevchenko, wrote many articles and a book about him as a painter (1914), and organized an exhibition of his works in Moscow in 1911. He was also editor and annotator of vol 8 of the VUAN edition of Shevchenko’s works (his art), which was printed but destroyed by the censors before its release, in 1932.

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