Was born in Vorozhba village, near Lebedyn, Ukraine, on January 12, 1873, the son of a physician's assistant. After his graduation from the School of Technology in Kharkiv, he worked for a short time as a designer in building firms and architect-designer's offices
1889-1892Krychevsky studied architecture with professor S.I.Zagoskin.
1897 Began exhibiting his works: landscapes.
1893-1902 He worked in the office of a well known Kharkiv architect, A.Beketov, designing in various styles facades of many representative buildings in Kharkiv: the District Court House, the City Library, several bank buildings, a number of apartment houses, offices, and private villas. in addition to his work for Beketov, Krychevsky created a series of independent designs.One of them, the building tor the Society of Mining industriahists in Kharkiv, won first prize in 1899.
1903 At the big architectural contest for a design for the Poltava Zemstvo (District Assembly), V. Krychevsky carried of the first prize. Among other construction in modern Ukrainian architectural style he is credited with the construction of the National home in Lokhvytsia, the schools in the Chernigiv region the buildings of D.Miloradovich, I.Schytkivsky and others;
1911-1912 he made extensive study tours to Italy, Austria and Germany.
1912-1915 Krychevsky was an instructor in a rug-weaving and cloth-printing workshop organized by Barbara Khanenko near Kiev. There he createda number of decorative designs, quite original and sometimes daringly modern. These rugs and block-printed fabrics, as well as embroideries, enjoyed great success at industrial and handicraft exhibitions (St.Petersburg, 1913; Prague, 1923; Berlin, 1923, and others) and were acquired by art dealers from abroad.
One of the organizers and elected the first President of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts on December 5th, 1917, but Krychevsky declined the post and another person was elected. He has always been considered the First President in practice.
In 1918 he was elected Director of the Ceramic Art Institute in Myrhorod
1920s V. Krychevsky was professor at the Architectural Institute and the Art Institute in Kiev, the latter renamed so after the "re-organization" of original Academy of Arts by the Bolshevik administration;
1925-1928 the artist worked in Odessa in the capacity of chief designer of architectural sceneries in the most renowned Ukrainian motion pictures.
In 1927 he was professor of architecture at the Art Institute in Odessa
From 1928 to 1941 he lectured in the Architectural Department of the Art Institute in Kyiv on Composition and Construction of architectural forms and painting and drawing for architects.
In spring 1940 a great one-man exhibition of V. Krychevskys' works was arranged which displayed 1,055 exhibits of his compositions covering the period from 1892 to 1940. During World War II, the artist left Kiev, lived in Lviv, then in Slovakia and later in West Germany;
In 1940 he received the honorific title of Emeritus Artist and Doctor in Art Sciences
From 1943 to 1944, he was one of the organizers and professor of painting of the Academy of Art in Lviv.
In 1945 he was elected honorary member of the Ukrainian Academy of Art and Sciences in exile.
1949 he immigrated to Venezuela where he passed away in Caracas on November 15, 1952 at the age of 80.
NOTE: To read more about Vasyl Krychevsky and to see photographs of some of his artistic works go to the following links:
www.artukraine.com/exhibitions/artists/krych_ex2.htmwww.artukraine.com/exhibitions/artists/krych_ex.htm
www.artukraine.com/exhibitions/artists/vhk_ex.htm