The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 1 (187), 66—91
UDK 730(=161.2)(430)”19″(092)
The date the article was first submitted to the publication 23.01.2026
The date the article was accepted for publication after review 26.01.2026
The date of publication (publication)
HRYHORIJ KRUK (1911—1988): CONTEXTS AND HORIZONS OF CREATIVE THINKING (in memory of Borys Voznytsky)
YATSIV Roman
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1509-5367
- PhD, professor at the Artwood department
- of the Lviv National Academy of Arts,
- 38, V. Kubiyovycha str., 79011, Lviv, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: jaciv@ukr.net
Abstract. The article is devoted to a little-known aspect of the creative biography, namely the author’s artistic journalism, of Hryhorij (Gregor) Kruk (1911—1988) — an outstanding Ukrainian sculptor, graphic artist, teacher, and art critic. In addition to a rich and significant creative heritage in terms of content and formal ideas, the artist left behind a number of valuable newspaper publications on cultural and artistic topics in terms of content and perspective. A significant part of them was published in the official press organ of the revolutionary Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the weekly «Schlach Peremohy / The Wayto Victory», in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, they are of significant scientific interest both in relation to the biography of the outstanding artist and in relation to his reception of various phenomena of art and social life of the corresponding historical time. G. Kruk’s articles are filled with valuable information about the socio-cultural and psychological context of the author’s life in the relevant period, including everyday circumstances and the general background of events in post-war Europe. The study is supplemented by the reprint of the most significant texts that were published in the magazine during 1954—1966.
The object of the study is the creative, artistic, analytical, and journalistic heritage of Hryhorij Kruk.
The subject is his views on the cultural and artistic artifacts of the past, the cultural life of the Ukrainian diaspora in Europe, critical reactions to the manifestations of modernist and postmodernist art, etc.
The methodological basis of the study is a creative-biographical, scientifically reconstructive, and cultural approach to the qualification of the creative temperament of Hryhorij Kruk.
Keywords: Hryhorij (Gregor) Kruk, Ukrainian diaspora, fine arts, sculpture, graphics, art journalism, modernism, cultural memory, museums, cultural contexts.
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