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Yevhen Sahaidachyi in Ukrainian art culture

At 22th of April 2011 was 125th anniversary of renowned Ukrainian artist, pedagogue and collector of folk crafts and antiquities Yevhen Yakovych Sahaidachnyi.  In 1961 the artist passed away, leaving to us a unique collection of folk crafts, which later became the basis for the museum of folk art and everyday life of Hutsul region.
Despite the fact that the great amount of his works (over 2 thousands sketches) was kept unknown to the public, the name of Yevhen Sahaidachnyi is well worth our attention. 
Yevhen Yakovych Sahaidachnyi was born at 22th of April 1886 in the city of Kherson in the white-collar worker’s family. For a long period of time Sahaidachnyi lived in Petersburg.
After completing a course in Petersburg gymnasium, Yevhen Sahaidachnyi entered the department of law in the university. However, his attraction to art eventually made him to leave the university. He started to work under the lead of the artists D.Kardovskyi and Ya.Tsionglinskyi in their private studios and for some time studied in the baron Stiglits school, which specialized in decorative and folk art. In 1910-1912 Sahaidachnyi made several trips to Turkey, Egypt, and Italy, which became a school of mastery for him.
Yevhen Sahaidachnyi had an opportunity to get acquainted with the most up to day European art styles and create numerous sketches. In 1909-1910 he already participated in various art exhibitions (in Petersburg, Moscow, Vilnius) together with the world-famous artists.
... He was a member of the well-known Petersburg art group “Triangle” and the association “Youth Union”, which aimed to struggle with academism; participated in several neoimpressionist exhibitions; exhibited his works with the most radical avant-garde group “Jack of Diamonds” (Бубновий Валет).
In 1922 Ukrainian Academy of Art awarded Sahaidachnyi with the professor degree and offered him a vacancy. Following the graphic artist Heorhiy Narbut and Mykhailo Boichuk Sahaidachnyi deeply immersed into the treasures of Ukrainian ancient mural paintings, folk embroidery, carpets.
Kyiv period was difficult for Sahaidachnyi. In 1930’s professors of Kyiv Art Institute (the new name of Ukrainian Academy of Art), who contradicted with the official dogma, were persecuted. Thus in 1930-32 Sahaidachnyi was transferred to Luhansk, where he started to teach art courses at workers’ faculty for students, who wanted to enter Kyiv Art Institute.
For some period of time he worked in art secondary school of Dnipropetrovsk, and then moved to Luhansk again.
The long period after the World War Second for Sahaidachnyi and his wife turned to be the time of tireless and exiting work. In this period (we can call it “Kosiv period”) Sahaidachnyi’s also dedicated himself to his new hobby: collecting works of Hutsul folk art. 
In every season of the year (but mostly in summer) tens of artists, art historians, and students from every corner of USSR (Moscow, Kyiv, Yerevan, Riga, Tallinn etc) arrived to Sahaidachnyi’s apartment, full of treasures of Hutsul crafts. His visitors examined his collection not for idle curiosity: they were looking for something, which would enrich their own art.
The Ministry of Culture of USSR filmed the documentary about treasures of Sahaidachnyi’s collection. In several years after Yevhen Sahaidachnyi’s death (1969) the museum of folk art and everyday life was opened in Kosiv. In the next year it became the department of Kolomyia Museum of Folk Art of Hutsul Region. Now it is Kosiv Museum of Folk Art and Everyday Life of Hutsul Region. We hope it will be named in honor of Yevhen Sahaidhachnyi.
Yevhen Sahaidachnyi is a famous figure in Ukrainian art and culture of the 20th century. The artist’s contribution into Ukrainian art and culture is well worth the highest appraisal.

Maria Ivanchuk,
art historian, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, Kosiv.

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