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Nocturnal Grazing

Leopold Levytskyi

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-2179
Author: Leopold Levytskyi
Name: Nocturnal Grazing
Date of creation: 1971
Technique: printmaking lithography
Material: imprint on paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 19 x 30

Additionally

Type: graphic art printmaking
Genre: narrative art
Provenance: Received from the Directorate of Art Exhibitions of Ukraine

Information about author

Author: Leopold Levytskyi
Artist's lifetime: 1906–1973
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
Biography: Leopold Levytskyi is a Ukrainian graphic artist and painter. He is also a master of printmaking. The artist had a crucial role in forming modern Ukrainian graphic art. He was born in the village of Burdiakivtsi, Ternopil region. He studied in Paris in 1930–1931, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (1931–1932). Levytskyi started his creative activity during his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, where he evolved as an artist. The artistic environment of Krakow formed the artist's worldview, system of ideals, and political beliefs, which determined the specifics of the painter's creative thinking. He was the initiator and co-founder of the Krakow Group. In 1932, he organised an exhibition closed due to its social orientation and sharp themes of works. The artist was imprisoned for three weeks and expelled from the Academy. In the 1930s, he was constantly watched by the police. From 1935, he lived in Chortkiv, Ternopil region, sometimes visiting Lviv, Krakow, and Stanyslaviv exhibitions. In September 1939, he headed the City Council in Chortkiv, collaborated with the newspaper "New Life", and worked as a decorator at the House of Officers. During World War II, the artist together with his wife Eugenia Nadliar fled to Uzbekistan. In 1946, he settled in Lviv and joined the newly formed Union of Artists of the USSR; his graphic works created in Uzbekistan served as the grounds for his joining the union. The Lviv environment undoubtedly influenced the artist's creative work. In the 1960s, Levytskyi developed a unique stylistic manner combining spontaneity and technical skills. The artist died working at his desk with a chisel in his hand on May 14, 1973. He was buried in Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. During his life, Leopold Levytskyi did not have a single personal exhibition. The first occurred in Lviv (1974), a year after the artist's death.

Object description

Landscapes, represented mainly by Carpathian themes in Leopold Levytskyi's oeuvre, take not the least place. The poetry of the Carpathians became a source of inspiration and individual creative pursuits for more than one generation of Lviv artists. During the thaw period, the study of folk culture became mainstream. Fascinated by works of folk art, artists not only saw a source of unconscious emotional perception of the world in it but also drew parallels with the ideas of formalism. In the last years of his life, Leopold Levytskyi created a series of paintings on Carpathian themes. Capturing various local ethnographic materials, the artist used traditional figurative and stylistic techniques (within standard compositions) and made his own artistic and aesthetic specifics, using mosaic composition techniques for various scenes.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Nocturnal Grazing

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