Ways of Art Education Development in Kharkiv (1896–1918)

Abstract

This article analyzed the activities of Kharkiv City Art School (1896–1912) and Kharkiv Art School (1912–1918) on the basis of unpublished archival materials. The article reveals the connection of these educational institutions with the pedagogical system of Rayevska-Ivanova’s private art school (1869–1896) in Kharkiv, although the industrial art profile inhered in that school was lost. The author showed that the bureaucratic red tape on the part of St. Petersburg Academy of Arts regarding the transformation of Kharkiv City Art School into Specialized School with the corresponding rights stretched for 16 years and slowed down the development of art education in Kharkiv during that period of time. It is emphasized that the opening of Kharkiv Art School finally took place in 1912, that is, much later than other similar educational institutions on the territory of the Russian Empire. It did not have time to fully deploy its work due to the events associated with the First World War and the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine. Therefore, some talented graduates of that school were forced to emigrate and develop their creativity on other continent, becoming famous masters in the world (V. Bobrytsky, B. Tsybis). At the same time, the teachers of the school under the leadership of its director, a former student of I. Ryepin’s at St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, O. Lyubimov managed to preserve the best traditions of serious academic training in that era of uncertainty about the further development of art education. These best achievements were inherited by the higher art education of Kharkiv, whose centennial anniversary will be celebrated in September 1921. The teachers of the Art School, who themselves joined the innovative pursuits of their time, did not interfere with the “cubofuturistic” preferences of their students, which became a new sign of stylistic changes in art. Subsequently, both supporters of traditions and innovators worked together in the system of higher art education in Kharkiv. But this is the subject of some further research.