Oleksa Novakivskyi: Unknown pages of study and life from Archival Materials of the Krakow Academy of Arts

Abstract

The paper aims to study and publicize educational activities and exhibitions in Krakow by Oleksa Novakivskyi (1872– 1935), an outstanding Ukrainian artist — symbolist, expressionist, graphic artist, and educator, who over 20 years lived in Krakow (1892–1913) and Lviv (1913–1935) and founded his own art school in Lviv (1923–1935) for 100 students. The archival documents of the 1890s–1900s from the Archives of the Krakow Academy of Arts about Oleksa Novakivskyi’s studies in 1892–1904 were investigated. Oleksa Novakivskyi’sreport cards of 1892–1904 from the Krakow School and the Academy of Fine Arts were first introduced into scientific circulation. It was discovered that in 1892–1898 Oleksa Novakivskyi studied at the Department of Drawing of the Krakow School of Fine Arts (with a pause in 1893–1895) and received an “award in the competition” (1896), silver medals on July 15, 1897 and July 23, 1898 at the course of prof. Unierzyski, Stanislawski. In 1898–1901 Oleksa Novakivskyi studied at the Department of Fine Art, where he received a silver medal (1899) and a gold medal on July 15, 1900, on the course of Prof. Wyczółkowski, Stanislawski. In 1901–1904 Novakivskyi continued his studies at the Department of Fine Art at the School of Prof. Wyczółkowski at the Krakow Academy of Arts. It was established that Novakivski’s teachers in Krakow were the professors Florian Cynk, Jozef Unierzyski, Leon Wyczółkowski, Jan Stanislawski. In addition, personal documents of the painter’sspouse (whom the researchers previously listed as Anna-Maria) from the archives of Lviv and Krakow were introduced into scientific circulation (the identity card of Maryanna Rozalia Nowakowska, 1916; Birth Certificate of Maryanna Rosalia Palmowska, 1888), as well as the Polish specialized and popular periodicals of the 1890s–1930s that mentioned Oleksa Novakivskyi’s exhibitions participation in Krakow and Warsaw.