The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 1 (187), 3—17
UDK 069:7.072.2](477.83-25)”19/20″(092)
The date the article was first submitted to the publication 20.12.2025
The date the article was accepted for publication after review 7.01.2026
The date of publication (publication)
AT THE TURNING POINT: BORYS VOZNYTSKYI IN THE SPACE OF UKRAINIAN ART HISTORY OF THE 20TH — EARLY 21ST CENTURIES
SHMAGALO Rostyslav
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9853-8989
- Doctor of Art History, Professor,
- Honored Artist of Ukraine,
- Lviv National Academy of Arts,
- Department of History and Theory of Arts,
- 38, Kubiyovycha Str., 79011, Lviv, Ukraine,
- Contacts: shmahalo@hotmail.com
Abstract. The article is a scientific contribution to honor the memory of the «star art critic-museologist» of Ukraine, Borys Voznytsky, whose 100th birthday will be celebrated on April 16, 2026 in Ukraine, which is why the chosen topic is so relevant.
The purpose of the article is to provide a panoramic definition of his activities in the context of the peculiarities of the development and social foundations of art criticism in Ukraine. It is argued that the activities of Borys Voznytsky at the post-war turn of the eras and since the independence of Ukraine attest to a qualitatively new stage of development and self-awareness of art criticism in Ukrainian culture.
The subject of the study is the personalities and stages of the formation of the Lviv school of Ukrainian art criticism around the activities of Borys Voznytsky, the connection of art criticism with the museum collections of the Lviv National Gallery of Arts named after B.G. Voznytsky, museum criticism and museology. The author also touches on the analysis of the cause-and-effect achievements of art history over the last century through the prism of this person’s professional and organizational activities.
The territorial boundaries of the voluminous material are logically determined by the starting points of formation, which direct the reader to the accents on the city of Lviv. At the same time, it should be emphasized the historical continuity of the complex of social problems that Borys Voznytsky had to face, and the personal potential associated with them, which tempered the numerous professional facets of this person’s activity as a universalist: museologist, art historian, art manager, local historian, etc. After all, in post-war Ukraine “in Voznytsky’s time” there were no specialists in the listed specialties.
Keywords: art history, museology, fine arts, decorative arts, restoration, personalities of art historians, art education.
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