Collection

Peasant Woman Standing (At the Church)

Hryhorii Kruk

Basic information

ID: С-I-2288
Author: Hryhorii Kruk
Name: Peasant Woman Standing (At the Church)
Date of creation: 1938
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Culture: Eastern Europe
Technique: casting
Material: bronze
Dimensions (height x width x depth, cm): 66.5 x 20.6 x 15

Additionally

Type: sculpture
Genre: narrative art
Provenance: A gift from Tetiana Anna Tarapatska-Shafoval and Doctor M. Shafoval, 2007
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Hryhorii Kruk
Artist's lifetime: 1911–1988
Biography: Hryhorii Kruk (1911, Bratyshiv – 1988, Munich) was a Ukrainian sculptor and graphic artist who worked in Germany. He studied at the Krakow Academy of Art under Laszczka, and with the assistance of B. Lepky moved to Berlin, but was not immediately able to enter the academy there. With the help of Fedir Yemets, who worked at the Academy of Arts, he enrolled in the sculpture class of Professor Alfred Vocke. Who, after noticing the student's skills, he solicited a scholarship for him, and after his graduation, he helped with orders and commissions. In 1939, after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was allowed to remain in Berlin but lost his scholarship. Hryhorii was transferred to Arno Breker's class. He also studied with professors Otto Hitzberger, August Krantz. In 1945 he moved to Munich. Exhibited 28 sculptures and drawings in London, Edinburgh and Bonn. In 1961, 35 of his works were exhibited in New York and Philadelphia and later in Vienna.

Object description

A small bronze sculpture. It depicts a peasant woman standing in a church with a candle in her hands. Her gaze is directed downwards. Kruk's sculptures represent a "strict code of morality" of Ukrainian peasants, who work hard every day to make their way on earth. He was one of the first to introduce the rural subject (ordinary Ukrainian reality) to world art.

Peasant Woman Standing (At the Church)

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