Society for the Advancement of Ruthenian Art

Society for the Advancement of Ruthenian Art (Товариство для розвою руської штуки; Tovarystvo dlia rozvoiu ruskoi shtuky). The first Ukrainian organization in Galicia concerned with the development of ‘Ruthenian art in general, and painting, sculpture, and jewelry-making in particular,’ the financial well-being of its members, and the organization of exhibitions. The society was founded in 1898 in Lviv. Its board of directors was headed by Vasyl Nahirny, and Yuliian Pankevych headed its executive. The artists who participated in its first exhibition (1899) were Pankevych, A. Pylykhovsky, Ivan Trush, Oleksa Skrutok, and Kornylo Ustyianovych. The participants in the society's second exhibition (1900) included the aforementioned and Oleksa Novakivsky, Osyp Kurylas, Teofil Kopystynsky, Antin Manastyrsky, Mykola Ivasiuk, Ye. Turbatsky, Yaroslav Pstrak, O. Kosanovsky, and the wood sculptor I. Kavka. The third exhibition was held in 1903. The society continued to function until the First World War, but after it began accepting folk artisans as members, many of its original members left to join the Society of Friends of Ukrainian Scholarship, Literature, and Art.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]