Ukrainian Studio of Plastic Arts

Ukrainian Studio of Plastic Arts (Українська студія пластичного мистецтва; Ukrainska studiia plastychnoho mystetstva). A private postsecondary art school established in Prague in late 1923 by the émigré Ukrainian Society of Plastic Arts. Dmytro Antonovych, the society’s president, was the studio’s director. Graduates of its four-year program received the degree of master of arts. Enrollment reached its peak in 1925 (67 students). Until 1930 the studio received a small subsidy from the Czech government. From 1932 it was registered in the name of Ivan Kulets. The faculty, who taught for free, consisted of Ivan Mirchuk (esthetics), S. Litov and, from 1925, Yurii Rusov (anatomy), Fedir Sliusarenko (classical archeology), Antonovych (art history), Serhii Tymoshenko (architecture, to 1929), Volodymyr Sichynsky (perspective), Kostiantyn Stakhovsky (sculpture), Serhii Mako and, from 1924, Kulets (drawing, painting) and Ivan Mozalevsky and, from 1929, Robert Lisovsky (graphic art). From 1925 the studio held annual exhibitions of its students’ works (13 by 1939). It continued operating even under the German occupation. Its more noted graduates include Kateryna Antonovych, Yurii Vovk, Pavlo Hromnytsky, Sofiia Zarytska, Ivan Ivanets, Vasyl Kasiian, Mykola Krychevsky, Oksana Liaturynska, Halyna Mazepa, Petro Omelchenko, Ivan Palyvoda, Petro P. Kholodny, Vasyl Khmeliuk, Viktor Tsymbal, and Yeva Biss. The studio was closed down by the communist regime in 1950.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]