Heorhiy Yakutovych, Serhiy Yakutovych

Abstract

Heorhiy and Serhiy Yakutovych were father and son, both outstanding Ukrainian artists, winners of the Taras Shevchenko Prize, Ukraine’s most prestigious, and corresponding members of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine, who became famous for their works in film and book graphics.

Heorhiy Yakutovych (1930–2000) was the production designer for the landmark Ukrainian film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964) directed by Sergiy Parajanov, who praised the artist’s contribution thus: “He is not just an artist, but a thinking artist. [...] He saved us from the paisanism, from falsity.” He also became the production designer for another film of Ukrainian “poetic cinema”, Zakhar Berkut (1971), directed by the legendary Ukrainian director Leonid Osyka.

In addition, Heorhiy Yakutovych was an artistic consultant for Leonid Osyka’s most famous film, The Stone Cross (1968), as well as for his film Hetman’s Kleynodes (1993). In his work, he relied on the principles of folk art of the Ukrainian artist Mykhailo Boichuk, who was murdered by the Soviet regime in 1937. The only lifetime exhibition of Heorhiy Yakuvych’s works took place in 2000, the last year of the artist’s life.

Serhiy Yakutovych (1952–2017) was the co-creator of the feature film Prayer for Hetman Mazepa (2001) by the Ukrainian film director Yuriy Illienko. In 2005, he joined the work on the film Taras Bulba (2009) by the Russian director Volodymyr Bortko, for which he received the Golden Eagle Award (Moscow) in the same year for the “best work of an art director”.

The artist has designed about 200 books.

Serhiy Yakutovych’s works are kept in such places as the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv), the Museum of Books and Printing ofUkraine (Kyiv), the Museum of Literature (Odesa), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Altes Museum (Berlin), the Museum of Catania (Italy), the Ukrainian House in America (New York), the SmithsonianMuseum (Washington), and the White House (Washington).

After losing his only son Anton Yakutovych (1975–2014), and his wife Olha (1950–2009), the artist passed away at the age of 64.