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Castle Chapel

Volodymyr Olkhomiak

Basic information

ID: Olkhomiak-83
Author: Volodymyr Olkhomiak
Name: Castle Chapel
Technique: photograph (printed on paper)

Additionally

Genre: architecture
Provenance: Volodymyr Olkhomiak's archive
Place: Berezhany town, Ternopil region

Information about author

Author: Volodymyr Olkhomiak
Artist's lifetime: 1929–2018
Country: Ukraine
Biography: Volodymyr Olkhomiak was born on November 25, 1929, in the village of Dobuzek, Tomaszow County (Poland). He was Ukrainian by nationality and came from a family of employees. In his autobiography, Volodymyr Olkhomiak noted: "By 1939, I had completed three grades of a Polish school (there was no Ukrainian school). In 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in our village, we moved to Soviet Ukraine, Kirovohrad. During the occupation, we lived in the same city. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, when my father returned from the battlefront in 1945, we moved to Lviv, where I have been staying to this day" (Archive of Lviv National Academy of Arts. Description 2-л. File 425. Personal file of senior laboratory assistant Olkhomiak Volodymyr Fedorovych. Page 4). From 1945 to 1949, he studied at the painting department of the Lviv Art School of Applied and Decorative Arts (he dropped out of the fourth year). From 1944 to 1945, he worked at the Kirovohrad Brewery. From 1950 to 1967 – at the Lviv Historical Museum (6 Rynok Square). From 15.05.1962 to 02.06.1963, he held the position of senior laboratory assistant at the Department of Drawing (evening classes) at the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts (he resigned due to excessive workload at his primary place of work). An essential part of his creative and archival heritage is connected with his work as a photographer at the Lviv Art Gallery (1967–1977). In addition, Volodymyr Olkhomiak is the author of numerous photographs of both the architectural and historical environment (for example, his photographs were included in Volodymyr Vuitsyk's publications) and the recordings of artists' personal creative archives (in particular, sculptural plastic, medal design, and graphics by Yurii Dvornyk). After the photographer's death (18.01.2018), on April 19, 2022, Volodymyr Olkhomiak Museum-Archive opened at the Lviv Regional Scientific and Pedagogical Library. Volodymyr Olkhomiak's works demonstrate an astute approach to composition, searching and highlighting the most expressive angles and visual characteristics. This is equally evident in his photographs of architectural objects, landscapes, works of fine and decorative arts, and portraits of national cultural figures. Thanks to Volodymyr Olkhomiak, images of numerous historical structures in their authentic state before and after reconstructions have been preserved. These photographs are a valuable part of the Gallery's archive. Due to the professionalism and expertise of this photographer, we have the opportunity to see these objects in the context of time, which, over the past half-century, and in some cases even earlier, have undergone significant, and often irreversible, transformations.

Object description

The castle chapel. Berezhany town. Defensive and representative buildings owned by magnates always reflected the artistic trends of their time, the nature of warfare, and advancements in military affairs and technologies. Attention to representing one's personal political and social status was also a force behind the construction of this type of architecture. More information on this can be found in Orest Matsiuk's publication "Castles and Fortresses of Western Ukraine" (Lviv, 2005. 192 pp.), which includes more than 200 photographs taken by Volodymyr Olkhomiak. A noteworthy phenomenon is the sacred architectural objects preserved on the territory of castles and palaces, particularly chapels, whose imaginative design demonstrates an original understanding of the landscape context and current style trends.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Castle Chapel

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