He acquired his first skills in Kyiv: On April 2, 1883, the artist Oleksa Hryshchenko was born

Oleksa Hryshchenko was a Ukrainian artist, writer, and art critic. He was one of the most famous representatives of the Paris School. His work combined elements of Byzantine art, iconography, and European modernism.

Oleksa Hryshchenko not only painted but also researched art. He wrote several important works and memoirs, including Ukraine of My Blue Days, Two Years in Constantinople, and My Meetings with French Artists.

Education

Oleksa Hryshchenko was born in the town of Krolevtsi, Chernihiv province. He studied at Kyiv University, Moscow’s K. Yuon Art School, and a local university. He studied philology and biology in Kyiv, and later in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

He graduated from the Academy in St. Petersburg. He was a student of the famous Kyiv landscape painter Serhii Svitoslavskyi. He worked for two years in Kyiv from 1906 to 1908. Later, he decided to go to Moscow in search of a real “artistic life,” but he did not achieve much success there.

In 1909-1910 he worked at the Moscow School of Arts. He lived in France since 1922.

Life in France and famous works

It was in France that the artist managed to prove himself the most. Fernand Leger was the first to notice his work.

He lived and worked in Paris since 1921. In the French capital, the Ukrainian artist managed to change the Cubist style to a more dynamic expressionism.

Hryshchenko held exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, Stockholm, and Madrid. His favorite themes for his works were Mediterranean countries – Greece, Turkey (Constantinople), Italy, and Spain. At the same time, the artist had certain literary talents and preferences, and also published essays on the history of art.

The Ukrainian artist often traveled not only to France but also to Italy, where he was engaged in painting, in particular cubism.

In 1931, he became a representative of the Autumn Salon in Paris. His work could be seen in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Madrid, Strasbourg, and Moscow.

The most famous collections in the world hold Hryshchenko’s paintings. In particular, they could be seen in the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Royal Museums in Copenhagen and Brussels, the Bernays Foundation in Philadelphia (USA), the Kerrigan Collection in New York, the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Montreal Museum of Canada, etc.

Oleksa Hryshchenko was the author of art studies “On the Relationship of Russian Painting with Byzantium and the West” (1913), “My Meetings with French Artists”, books of memoirs “Ukraine of My Blue Days”, “Russian Icon as an Art of Painting” (1917), “Years of Storm and Pressure”, “Two Years in Constantinople”.

Hryshchenko’s exhibitions

In 1919, at the height of the Civil War, Oleksa Hryshchenko exhibited his still lifes and landscapes. In 1920, he organized an exhibition in Athens.

Exhibitions by Grishchenko:

Salon des Tuileries and Salon d’Automne

Musée National d’Art Moderne

The Royal Museum in Copenhagen

The Museum of Montreal

Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art

Legacy

Oleksa Hryshchenko died in the French city of Vence on January 28, 1977.

After Hryshchenko’s death, his works were kept at the Ukrainian Institute of America. They were moved to New York.

The artist’s paintings are also kept in museums and private collections in Lviv, Paris, Oslo, Strasbourg, Moscow, Brussels, Stockholm, Madrid, Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other cities.

In 2004, Oleksiy Hryshchenko’s unique collection of paintings was returned to Ukraine in accordance with his will.

They were transferred to the National Art Museum in Kyiv. A total of 67 paintings and the artist’s archive were transported by Aerosvit-Ukrainian Airlines on a free flight from New York to Kyiv. It took 12 years to get them back to Ukraine.

According to expert estimates, the value of all Oleksa Hryshchenko’s works exceeds 700 thousand dollars.