Prince Vsevolod Karmazyn-Kakovsky scientist, teacher, artist

Abstract

The article is devoted to the creative work of the Ukrainian Diaspora scientist, teacher, historian of art, architect and graphic artist, Prince Vsevolod Karmazyn-Kakovsky (1898–1988), about whom there is very little information in Ukraine. The study emphasizes his Ukrainian roots. The publication is based on materials from the home archive of Ph.D., sculptor and artist Kristina Kishakevich-Kachaluba from Switzerland. Prince Vsevolod Karmazyn-Kakovsky studied and lived in Ukraine until 1944. In 1944 he left Ukraine for permanent residence in Romania. As a teacher he organized faculties of landscape architecture in universities in Ukraine (Odessa, Kharkiv) and Romania (Iasi). From 1978, professor lived and worked in Italy, then in France, Germany, lectured on the history of Ukrainian art, cooperated with Ukrainian research institutions in Western countries. As an artist he created and implemented the projects of health and recreational complexes on the Black Sea coast in Ukraine and Romania, which combined architecture with natural landscape, contributing to human health and longevity, and embodied the principles he established for enriching the expressiveness of landscapes. The Prince founded the Research Institute of Landscape Architecture (1921–1981), which worked in Ukraine, and then in Romania. This institution was focused on combining and harmonizing endogenous (internal) factors of human longevity with exogenous (external) factors — the synthesis of nature with art. The scientist argued that the tree crown shapes (triangular, ellipse-like, round) differently influence the mood and psychological state of a person, therefore, developed special health boxets in sanatorium complexes. This method of healing people, proposed by V. Karmazyn-Kakovsky in 1971–1981, was adopted in Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, and the United States of America. As a scientist he published more than 200 scientific works, including Monographs devoted to Ukrainian art, Lemkivska and Boykovska churches, art of Ukrainian houses, Ukrainian books. He designed his own works and covers for his books. He was skilled in the technique of pencil, sepia, watercolor, skillfully conveyed the space in the landscape, was perfect in the technique of pen and ink. The artist’s graphics is dominated by subjects closely related to his scientific works in the field of art history. Karmazyn-Kakovsky supplements almost all of his works with illustrations, headpieces, stylized folk motifs, architectural historical monuments of Romanian and Ukrainian cultures, valuable for the history of Ukrainian art, and landscape projects. V. Karmazyn-Kakovsky made more than 1200 drawings of wooden Ukrainian churches. He had personal exhibitions in Warsaw, Rome, Paris, Munich.