Women Artists at the Schools of the Ukrainian Modernist Mykhailo Boichuk

This book tells the dramatic life stories of thirteen women artists who studied at the schools of Ukrainian modernist Mykhailo Boichuk (1882 – 1937). Together, these stories provide insight into Ukraine’s only and important modern art movement ‘Boichukism’.

Boichuk started his modern art movement at the ‘medieval workshop’ he had conjured from his three-room studio in Montparnasse. Students at his ‘School for the Revival of Byzantine Art’ studied historical fresco and tempera techniques from Italy and Byzantium, and used classical recipes to make their paint, with ingredients like plant extracts and garlic juice. 


Although his school in Paris was successful, Boichuk soon returned to his homeland. He dreamed of a renaissance of Ukrainian art. In Paris, he became keenly aware of the unique qualities of his own culture, of Byzantium as the cradle of Ukrainian art. 


Boichuk and his students implemented a national style of painting in Ukraine. His modern art movement ‘Boichukism’ became a central phenomenon of the Ukrainian cultural revival of the 1920s. It flourished when Ukraine was fighting for its independence (1917-1921) and the Soviet government promoted the Ukrainian language and culture with a ‘policy of Ukrainisation’ (1922 – 1931), but failed tragically during Stalin’s regime of terror.

Boichuk and his students were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured or murdered because of their ‘formalist’ style. Their art was destroyed and murals were painted over or scraped off.

Now that Ukraine is again fighting to preserve its cultural identity, it is once more vital, in the spirit of Boichuk, to give the country back its art, to honour it and to be proud of it. This book aims to achieve this.