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Boy Learning to Write

Yaroslava Muzyka

Basic information

ID: ФМз-Г-IV-138
Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Name: Boy Learning to Write
Country: the USSR
Technique: linocut
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 25.6 x 22.5

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: portraiture
Provenance: Yaroslava Muzyka Fund

Information about author

Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Artist's lifetime: 1894–1973
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
Biography: Yaroslava Muzyka (Stefanovych) was born in Zaliztsi in Ternopil region on January 10, 1894. She died on November 24, 1973, in Lviv. She was an artist of diverse preferences and talent. She turned to graphic art – linocuts, woodcuts, drypoint, monotype; painting – oil, tempera, gouache, encaustic; mosaic and enamel, on glass, grattage on gold or silver foil, batik, embossing on leather, embossing on metal. She studied drawing and painting at Leonard Podhorodecki Free Academy of Fine Arts in Lviv and André Lhote Academy in Paris. In 1928, she trained as an art restorer at the Central State Restoration Workshop of Ihor Grabar in Moscow. She also worked at the National Museum in the restoration workshop. Yaroslava Muzyka was one of the founders of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists (AIUA), a Ukrainian public art organization that operated in Lviv from 1931–1939. In 1937, the artist learned the difficult technique of burning enamel objects by attending Mariia Dolnytska classes in Lviv. In addition, she studied on her own using French and German enamelling manuals. The artist worked in the technique of bulk (scenic, painted) and cloisonne enamel. Her favourite subjects in the enamel works were Hutsul demonology, pagan mythology, beliefs of ancient Slavs, the works by Taras Shevchenko, images of animals, and female portraits.

Object description

The image depicts a black-and-white print on a yellow background in the centre of the sheet. It portrays a bust-length figure of a boy at a table. His arms, bent at the elbows, lie on the table; the boy holds a pencil in his left hand. To his left in front of him is an open book. The boy has short hair, drooping eyelids and plump cheeks; he wears a colourful shirt with a dark collar.

Inscriptions

At the left below the print is an inscription in pencil: "’Portrait’ (pencil)". On the back is written in pencil: "Y. Muzyka. A boy is learning to write".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Boy Learning to Write

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