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Portrait of Theodosia Bryzh

Margit Selska (Reich)

Basic information

ID: Ж-5418
Author: Margit Selska (Reich)
Name: Portrait of Theodosia Bryzh
Date of creation: 1977
Country: the Ukrainian SSR now Ukraine
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 91 x 121 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Plot: Portrait
Provenance: Purchased from Margit Selska, 1978

Information about author

Author: Margit Selska (Reich)
Author in the original: Margit Sielska (Reich)
Artist's lifetime: 1900–1980
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
Biography: Margit Selska (Reich) (1900, Kolomyia – 1980, Lviv) was a Ukrainian artist, the wife of Roman Selskyi. She was born in Kolomyia to the family of engineer Isaac Reich. She attended the private Free Academy of Arts of Leonard Podhorodecki in Lviv (1918); her teacher was Feliks Wygrzywalski. In 1921, Margit Selska graduated from the State Industrial School in Lviv, then studied painting at the Krakow Academy of Arts (1921–1922) under Wojciech Weiss and Wladyslaw Jarocki, and from 1922 to 1923 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1924, the artist moved to Paris, where she visited exhibitions of modern artists, became interested in cinema and photography, and studied at the Académie Moderne, a private art school of Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. The artist participated in the Salon des Indépendants (Paris, 1926). The following year she had her first solo exhibition in Lviv. She was a member of the artistic association "Artes" (1929–1935) and the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists (1931–1939), participated in the activities of the "New Generation" (1932–1935) and the Lviv Professional Union of Plastic Artists (LZZAP, 1932–1939). During the Holocaust, Margit Selska was imprisoned in the Yaniv concentration camp, from which she managed to escape to Krakow with the help of friends. In 1943, the Selski couple returned to Lviv. In 1978, for the first time after the war, the artist presented her works in an exhibition at the Lviv Art Gallery. Margit Selska authorises numerous portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Constructivism strongly influenced her oeuvre. Her works are characterised by a particular colouristic and compositional solution, especially her early works Hel (1932), Woman with a Cat (1960s), Crimea. Uiutne Village (1962), Carpathian Landscape (1965), Near the Sea (1964), Grape Harvest (1968), Old Ash Tree (1976), etc.

Object description

Theodosia Bryzh was one of the brightest Lviv sculptors of the second half of the 20th century. She created more than 200 sculptures, 32 of which were performed in life-size. Theodosia Bryzh was one of the first in Ukraine to create modern works of art in the 1960s. The sculptor as well as other artists of the time had the desire to move beyond Socialist Realism; thus, she was interested in the works of world avant-garde artists and followed the traditions of Ukrainian modernists. However, the total state control over the cultural sphere resulted in a situation where it was difficult to fulfill the intentions.

Portrayed person