Mykola Hlushchenko (; 17 September 1901 – 31 October 1977) was a Ukrainian artist. He was a winner of the

Shevchenko National Prize Shevchenko National Prize (; also ''Shevchenko Award'') is the highest state prize of Ukraine for works of culture and arts awarded since 1961. It is named after the inspirer of Ukrainian national revival Taras Shevchenko. It is one of the five ...

in 1972.

Biography

Hlushchenko was born in Novomoskovske,

Yekaterinoslav Governorate Yekaterinoslav Governorate} was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yekaterinoslav. Covering an area of , and being composed of a inhabitant of 2,113,674 by the census of 1897, it bordere ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Novomoskovsk is known for the fact that in the 17th century the site was occupied by several villages of

Zaporozhian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks (in Latin ''Cossacorum Zaporoviensis''), also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossa ...

. At the early age Mykola moved to Yuzivka where he attended classes in drawing and became fond by artwork of Illia Ripin and Vasilkivsky. After escaping a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland during World War I he made his way to Germany where his love for art brought him to the private studio of Hans Baluschek in Berlin. Mykola Hlushchenko was noted by critics who reviewed several of his paintings submitted to the Kasper Art Gallery in Berlin in 1924. A graduate of the Academy of Art in Berlin (1924), from 1925 he worked in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where he immediately attracted the attention of French critics. From the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

style of his Berlin period he changed to

post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

. Besides numerous French, Italian, Dutch, and (later) Ukrainian landscapes, he also painted flowers, still life, nudes, and portraits (such as of

Oleksandr Dovzhenko Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko, also Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko (, ; November 25, 1956), was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Ukrainian origin. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei ...

and

Volodymyr Vynnychenko Volodymyr Kyrylovych Vynnychenko (; – March 6, 1951) was a Ukrainian statesman, political activist, writer, playwright and artist who served as the first List of prime ministers of Ukraine, prime minister of the Ukrainian People's Republic.< ...

, as well as portraits commissioned by the Soviet government of the French writers

Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse (; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist, short story writer, journalist, poet and political activist. He began his literary career in the 1890s as a Symbolist poet and continued as a neo-Naturalist novelist; i ...

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

, and

Victor Margueritte Victor Margueritte (1 December 186623 March 1942) was a French novelist. He was the younger brother of Paul Margueritte (1860–1918). Life He and his brother were born in Algeria. They were the sons of General Jean Auguste Margueritte (182 ...

and the painter

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, with Georges Seurat, helped develop the artistic technique Pointillism. Biography Paul-Victor-Jules Signac was born in Paris on ...

).'Hlushchenko, Mykola'
in ''

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...

'' Through his relationship with businessman André Mirabeau, he allegedly obtained over two hundred drawings of military equipment which he supplied to Soviet intelligence. At the beginning of the 1930s, Hlushchenko belonged to the ''Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists'' and helped organize its large exhibition of Ukrainian, French, and Italian paintings at the National Museum in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

. In 1936 he moved to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Working for the Soviet Union secret service, he was among those who warned the Soviet government about the German plan to attack ahead of time. In 1944, he moved to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and created a series of paintings of the post-war Kyiv, as well as many landscapes he saw while traveling to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and other countries.Matoshko, A. ‘By Ways of Travels’
in ''

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden. In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, foun ...

'' Jul 23, 2009 online. In the 1960s, having come into close contact with new artistic trends on his trips abroad, he revitalized his paintings with expressive colors, and assumed a leading position among Ukrainian colorist painters. Hlushchenko's work was exhibited in Berlin (1924), Paris (five exhibits 1925–34), Milan (1927), Budapest (1930, 1932), Stockholm (1931), Rome (1933), Lviv (1934, 1935), Moscow (1943, 1959), Belgrade (1966, 1968), London (1966), Toronto (1967–9), and Kyiv (over 10 exhibits). He died in Kyiv,

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. He was buried at

Baikove Cemetery Baikove Cemetery () is a historic cemetery memorial in Holosiivskyi District of Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a National Historic Monument of Ukraine and is known as a necropolis of distinguished people. History The cemetery was established in 1833 a ...

Awards

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(24.11.1960) * People's Artist of Ukraine (1944) * People's Artist of the USSR (1976) *

(1972) — for a series of paintings "On Lenin's places abroad", "Landscapes of Ukraine" (1969-1971).

References

Bibliography

* Kovzhun, P.; Hordyns'kyi, S. ''Mykola Hlushchenko'' (Lviv 1934) * Shpakov, A. ''Mykola Petrovych Hlushchenko'' (Kyiv 1962) * Buhaienko, I. ''Mykola Hlushchenko'' (Kyiv 1973) *
The catalog of the exhibition of M. Glushchenko's graphics (1930s–1970s)
' / Kyiv National Museum of Russian Art. Kyiv :

Golden Section In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their summation, sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities and with , is in a golden ratio to if \fr ...

, 2012. 128 p.
Igor Bugaenko. Mykola Hlushchenko: Biographical sketch

A set of postcards by Mykola Hlushchenko. Kyiv, 1976.

12 Nudes by Mykola Hlushchenko. Exclusive by Ukrainian Art Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hlushchenko, Mykola 1901 births 1977 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian painters 20th-century Ukrainian male artists People from Samar, Ukraine People from Yekaterinoslav Governorate People's Artists of the USSR (visual arts) Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize Soviet spies Soviet artists Ukrainian male painters Burials at Baikove Cemetery Ukrainian avant-garde Members of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists