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Portrait of a Decadent

Yaroslava Muzyka

Basic information

ID: ФМз-Г-V-125
Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Name: Portrait of a Decadent
Country: the USSR
Technique: drawing
Material: paper pencil
Dimensions: 14.5 x 15.1 cm (height x width)

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 work is a frontal portrait of a young man with somewhat feminine features, a long, thin neck, and short, thick hair. Two rounded lines resembling feathers extend from the right side of the hair. The man's expression conveys a sense of frustration and hopelessness.

Inscriptions

On the reverse, the number "101" is written in pencil in a triangle at the top left. Next is an inscription in pencil: "Y. Muzyka. Portrait of a decadent; paper, pencil, 14.5 х 15.1".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Portrait of a Decadent

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