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Peasant Woman Standing in Church

Hryhorii Kruk

Basic information

ID: С-I-2288
Author: Hryhorii Kruk
Name: Peasant Woman Standing in Church
Date of creation: 1938
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Culture: Eastern Europe
Technique: casting
Material: bronze
Dimensions: 66.5 x 20.6 x 15 cm (height x width x depth)

Additionally

Type: sculpture 3D
Genre: narrative art
Provenance: A gift from Tetiana Anna Tarapatska-Shafoval and Doctor M. Shafoval, 2007
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Hryhorii Kruk
Author in the original: Hryhorii Kruk
Artist's lifetime: 1911–1988
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Biography: Hryhorii Kruk (1911, Bratyshiv – 1988, Munich) was a Ukrainian sculptor and graphic artist who worked in Germany. He studied at the Krakow Academy of Art under Konstanty Laszczka and, with the assistance of Bohdan Lepkyi, moved to Berlin but was not immediately able to enter the academy there. With the help of Fedir Yemets, who worked at the Academy of Arts, the future artist enrolled in Professor Alfred Vocke's sculpture class, who, after noticing the student's skills, solicited a scholarship for him and after his graduation, helped him with orders and commissions. In 1939, after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was allowed to remain in Berlin but lost his scholarship. Hryhorii was transferred to Arno Breker's class. He also studied with professors Otto Hitzberger and August Krantz. In 1945, he moved to Munich. Hryhorii Kruk exhibited 28 sculptures and drawings in London, Edinburgh, and Bonn. In 1961, 35 of his works were exhibited in New York and Philadelphia and later in Vienna.

Object description

This is a small bronze sculpture depicting a peasant woman standing in a church with a candle in her hands. Her gaze is directed downwards. Kruk's sculptures represent a "strict code of morality" of Ukrainian peasants, who work hard every day to make their way on earth. He was one of the first to introduce the rural subject (ordinary Ukrainian reality) to world art.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Peasant Woman Standing in Church

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