Михайло Бойчук

Activity: Culture
Date of birth: October 30, 1882
Date of death: July 13, 1937, Kyiv
Navigator: World Wars

Artist, founder of the Ukrainian school of monumental art, restorer, educator.

Mykhailo Boichuk was born into a large peasant family. He loved drawing from an early age. A local teacher noticed his artistic talent and submitted a notice to the Lviv newspaper Dilo about a gifted village boy. The announcement caught the attention of artist Yulian Pankevych—and thus, at the age of 16, Mykhailo became his student and was introduced to icon painting, book miniatures, and Byzantine art. It was truly fate: at that time, Pankevych was among the very few Ukrainian artists who dared to depart from canon and depict Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary wearing traditional embroidered shirts.
Studying under Pankevych became the first, yet extremely important step in Boichuk’s artistic education. He later continued his studies at a private school in Vienna, the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, and in Munich and Paris—centers of artistic life and innovation. Boichuk lived in Paris from 1907 to 1910, was part of the local Ukrainian community, and brought together his first circle of like-minded artists in the group Renovation Byzantine: Sofia Sahno, Sofia Nalepynska, Yanina Levakovska, Sofia Baudouin de Courtenay, Antoni Buszek, and Mykola Kasperovych. During these years, he received financial support from Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Shevchenko Scientific Society.
In France, Boichuk studied in the studio of Paul Sérusier, one of the founders of synthetist symbolism (the Nabis group). Sérusier’s creative explorations and stylization of ethnic motifs from various cultures encouraged Boichuk to turn to ancient Ukrainian artistic motifs and the Byzantine iconographic tradition. He also traveled extensively in Italy, where he studied preserved monuments of medieval art and works of the early Renaissance. To his peasant roots, Boichuk grafted artistic traditions from different countries and eras, combining them into his own distinctive style.
In May 1910, during the Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where two thousand artists presented their works, critics and the press noticed the eighteen works of the Renovation Byzantine group. Meanwhile, Boichuk himself strolled through Paris in a Hutsul sheepskin vest and sang in the Ukrainian community choir.
After returning to Lviv in 1911, he worked as a restorer at the National Museum founded by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. Boichuk also carried out commissions for Sheptytsky himself—for example, the murals of the chapel at the Deacons’ Boarding School and the monumental icon The Last Supper. Before the outbreak of World War I, he worked in various locations—among other things, restoring an 18th-century church in the village of Lemeshi near Kozelets—and continued studying ancient painting and architecture.
World War I disrupted many of the artist’s plans, as it did for countless others. However, by the spring of 1917, he actively participated in establishing the Ukrainian Academy of Arts in Kyiv—the first higher educational institution of its kind in Ukraine. Alongside Vasyl Krychevskyi, Heorhii Narbut, and Oleksandr Murashko, Boichuk was elected a professor at the academy. There, he pursued his vision of synthesizing the arts, particularly through monumental painting and the emerging avant-garde theater: he not only restored frescoes for Saint Sophia Cathedral but also designed stage sets for performances by Les Kurbas. Among his students were Ivan Padalka, Tymofii Boichuk, Vasyl Sedliar, and Oksana Pavlenko.
The most famous work of Boichuk’s school was the decoration of the Lutsk Barracks on Dehtiarivska Street in Kyiv, near Lukianivska Prison. The walls of the four-story building were adorned with what we would today call murals: The Feast, Revelry Without Restraint, Plowing, Bread Cutting. Monumentalists also created murals for the Peasants’ Sanatorium in Odesa and the Chervonozavodskyi Opera Theater in Kharkiv. All these works were soon destroyed—for “formalism.” Boichuk and his associates became increasingly objectionable to the Soviet authorities by the late 1920s. The language of his art did not fit within the permitted boundaries of the time and did not meet the propagandistic demands imposed on art.
On November 25, 1936, the artist was arrested and accused of leading a nationalist-fascist terrorist organization. On July 13, 1937, he—along with Ivan Lypkivskyi, Ivan Padalka, Vasyl Sedliar, and Ivan Orlo-Orlenko—was executed in Kyiv. On December 11 of the same year, his first wife, Sofia Nalepynska-Boichuk, was also executed. The artists were rehabilitated on February 1, 1958. Boichuk’s second wife, Alla Herburt, tried to obtain the truth from the Soviet authorities about the accusations against him, but without success. She managed to emigrate with her children to Germany, where she taught, painted, and lived until her death in 1993.
Most of Boichuk’s artistic works were destroyed during the Soviet period—even his sketches were burned. However, his artistic vision took root in monumental and easel painting, architectural decoration, and applied arts. The Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design now bears his name. His surviving works can be found in the Manuscripts Department of the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, the Stefan Żeromski Museum in Nałęczów, the Lviv National Art Gallery named after Borys Voznytsky, the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, and in private collections.

Author: Oksana Smorzhevska

Brief conclusions

Cultural figure and reformer — a monumental artist and founder of the unique artistic style known as “Boichukism,” which combined Byzantine traditions, folk art, and European innovations.
Public figure — sought to create accessible “art for the people” integrated into social life and everyday existence. He belonged to the group of artists of the “Executed Renaissance” and was a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.
Creative legacy — worked with his students to produce monumental paintings on buildings, ceramics, furniture, clothing, and books, striving to make art part of daily life.
Builder and patron — one of the founding professors of the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts in Kyiv.
Legacy — developed his own school of monumental painting, uniting many talented students and followers. The Kyiv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design is named after him.

Portal Editorial Team