Friends!

Friends! Today is the day of memory of Vasyl Krichevsky, Ukrainian painter, architect and graphic artist. It is he who is the author of the Ukrainian state emblem, adopted by the Central Rada, the person who designed money and state signs UPR. Vasyl Krichevsky is a man who revived the art of decorating the Ukrainian books, which has been lost since the XVIII century. He was a talented architect and painter, a representative of "Ukrainian Impressionism".

Vasyl was born on January 12, 1873 in the village of Vorozhba (now - Sumy Region). He was the oldest of the 8 children of the burgher Grigor Krichevsky and his wife Praskovya. Vasyl Krichevsky studied in Kharkiv, at the railway and technical college. At the end of the study he assisted the city architect's assistant.

Krichevsky began his artistic activity in the late 1890s and devoted more than fifty years to artistic scientific and pedagogical work. He was a distinct landscape painter. Currently, a significant part of his works are abroad, most of them in the Ukrainian Museum of New York. In 2003, the granddaughter of Vasyl Krichevsky, Oksana de Linde, donated approximately 300 his works to Kharkiv, Poltava, Lebedin and Kiev as a gift to Ukrainian museums. In particular, up to 40 works are in the collection of the Kharkiv Art Museum. A unique collection of paintings by the artist is kept at the Museum of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Kyiv.

In 1903, his construction plan won the competition at the home of Poltava Zemstvo. It became an example of a new architectural style - Ukrainian Architectural Modern. Till 1908, Vasyl Krichevsky has participated in the management of the construction and design of this building. Krichevsky was involved to the construction of various interesting buildings, in particular, the home of the writers "Rolit", the Literary and Memorial Museum of Shevchenko on Taras’s Hill, the Profit House on the street. Streletskaya, 28 in Kiev and others.

In 1912-1913 Vasyl Krichevsky led carpentry workshops of Khanenko and ceramic school in Mirgorod. For the order of the famous patron of the millionaire Bohdan Khanenko, Vasyl Krichevsky made sketches of carpets on the themes of Ukrainian folk art. Olenivska studio wrapped those carpets for the Khanenko spouses.

Krichevsky was one of the organizers and the first rector of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. For many years, Vasyl collected items of Ukrainian folk art. He was the author of the first textbook in Ukrainian folk art, which, unfortunately, did not manage to publish. The collection of Krichevsky, which was in the house of Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, was burned down during the artillery shelling by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

The time has come for the Ukrainian People's Republic. Vasyl Krichevsky was in good relationship with Mykhaylo Hrushevsky. It was he who was asked to make the first state seals. Then the task was to develop the coat of arms. Several ideas were discussed - "a sign of obscure meaning, something like trident" from the coins of Prince Vladimir, the crossbow - the old emblem of Kiev, and a Cossack with a musket, which was the coat of arms of the Hetmanate in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Galician Leo, and the Kiev Archistrateg Mikhail. Finally, Mala Rada approved the large and small state emblems, as well as the large and small stamps of the UPR. The trident sign of Volodymyr the Great emphasized the heredity of the new state from Kievan Rus. "This decoration is petty, not borrowed, it is connected with our millennial state political and cultural history", - noted Mykhaylo Hrushevsky. The stylized olive wreath that surrounded Tryzub in both coats of arms, executed by Krichevsky, symbolized the peace policy of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Vasyl Krichevsky also directed the artistic part in the production of the great Ukrainian films "Taras Shevchenko", "Taras Treyaslo", "Borislav Laughs", "Zvenigora", "Nazar Stodolya" and the first Ukrainian color film "Sorochinsky Fair".



During the Second World War Vasyl Krichevsky with his wife and daughter moved to Lviv, where he was the rector of the Highest Fine Art Studio. In autumn 1943 Krichevsky family emigrated firstly to Czechoslovakia, then to Austria, Germany, France. In early 1948 they settled in Venezuela. Eminent artist and architect died on November 15, 1952, exactly 65 years ago in the city of Caracas. In 1975, Krichevsky was reburied at the Ukrainian cemetery of St. Andrew in Bowden Brook, New Jersey, USA.