Mykhailo Boichuk (30.10.1882 – 13.07.1937) was a phenomenal Ukrainian artist and the founder of "Boichukism" — an art school and modernist movement that combined Byzantine traditions with modern European styles and Ukrainian folk art. He received his artistic education in Lviv, Vienna, Krakow, Munich, and Paris. In 1909, Boichuk founded the group Renovation Byzantine in Paris, which gained vivid recognition in art circles and marked the beginning of his school. Soon after, Mykhailo Boichuk returned to Ukraine with several other members of the group "to work for the good of the Fatherland."
In 1917, Mykhailo Boichuk became one of the founders and professors of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts in Kyiv, where he established the School of Monumental Art. Boichuk sought to create a great national art that would be accessible to all and integrated into everyday life — from architecture to dinnerware. The Soviet regime made every effort to destroy the Boichukists and erase any trace of their work. In 1937, Mykhailo Boichuk, his wife Sofia Nalepynska-Boichuk, and many of his students were executed by firing squad. Numerous monumental frescoes, mosaics, paintings, and other works by the Boichukists were systematically destroyed until 1952. Only a small part of works that were successfully hidden, or black-and-white photos of some pieces in magazines or books, have survived to our time.
