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[VASYL KASIYAN] Vasyl’ Kasiian = Wassyl Kassian

Chukin, D.

Item #2802

Kharkiv: Rukh, 1931. 59 pp., 20 ills. 21x15,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Small tears and lost fragments of edges of oversized wrappers, fragments of spine lost, some stains on covers, otherwise very good and clean internally.

First and only edition. One of 2000 copies. Very rare.

First monograph about one of the most celebrated Ukrainian graphic artists.

Vasyl Kasiyan (1896-1976) was born in a village which is now located in the Ternopil Oblast of Ukraine. After the First World War, he went abroad to study at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1926. Returning to Ukraine in February 1927, he began his long teaching career as a professor at the Kyiv Art Institute (now the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture). He was among artists who illustrated “Ruku bratam” [A Hand to Brothers], rare almanac of literary works by members of the group ‘Zakhidna Ukraina’ [i.e. Western Ukraine], an organization that operated in 1925-1933. In 1930, he moved to Kharkiv, where he helped organize the Ukrainian Polygraphic Institute that followed the principles of VKHUTEMAS. During these years, he produced numerous illustrations for the works of Ukrainian literary classics.

When the Second World War broke out, Kasiyan was evacuated along with the institute to Samarkand where created patriotic posters. Returning to Kyiv in 1944, he resumed his professorship at the Kyiv Art Institute.

The introductory article was written by Ukrainian art historian Stefan Taranushenko (188?–1976). He was head of the Republican Museum of Ukrainian Art in Kharkiv (1920–1933), head of the monumental architecture section of the Kharkiv provincial preservation commission (from 1920), chair of the All-Ukrainian preservation committee's architectural study commission (from 1922), and professor at the Kharkiv Art Institute (1924–1929). Taranushenko was among the first scholars in Ukraine to earn a doctorate in art history and the title of professor — a testament to his pioneering work in the field. Along with his friend, historian Mykola Makarenko, Taranushenko was arrested on fabricated charges of "counter-revolutionary activity” in 1933 and was imprisoned in the BAMLAG camp in 1934-1936.

Not found in Worldcat.

Price: $1,200.00