Didyk Ivan

Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1993). Honoured Artist of Ukraine (2014). 

He was born on 31 May 1951 in Kostryno village, Velykyi Bereznyi district, Transcarpathia.  From 1966 to 1970, he studied at the Department of Art Wood Processing at the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts. His teachers were talented artists Vasyl Svyda, Viktor Demydiuk, and Hari Chuvalov.

From 1970 to 1975 Ivan Didyk studied at the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts (now – Lviv Academy of Arts) at the department “Interior and Furniture Design.” His teachers were Ukrainian impressionist artist Roman Selskyi, art critic Volodymyr Ovsiichuk, and painter, graphic artist Danylo Dovboshynskyi.

Since 1975, he began teaching at the Uzhhorod College of Arts named after A. Erdeli, later – at the Institute, and now the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts. The work of Ivan Didyk on the educational field is highly appreciated. The artist awarded the honorary title “Excellence in Education of Ukraine.”

The artist successfully combines pedagogical practice with creative activity. Since 1975, he is a regular participant of regional, national, international (Germany, Slovakia, Poland, France, and Hungary) art exhibitions and plein airs, the author of about ten personal exhibitions.

Ivan Didyk masterfully and skilfully works in many painting techniques. They are oil and acrylic painting, painting on glass, watercolour, and dry pastel. The genre preferences of the artist are urban and natural landscapes, still lifes, folk and church architecture, religious subjects, and thematic abstractions. His works have a particular recognizable style, harmonious composition and colours, imbued with the aesthetics of high modernism, warmth, serenity, and poise.

Art historian Mykhailo Syrokhman, referring to the artist's work, draws our attention to the fact that “the artist is a true master of elegant stylistics, and it does not matter whether it is pastel or oil. At first glance, it looks like a familiar landscape, but light lines and style make the work almost perfect. The creativity of Ivan Didyk is characterized by chamber and coziness. His canvases radiate peace and kindness… Ivan Didyk professes coloured faith, and his painting on canvas, on glass and pastel drawing – it is primarily endless, fanciful, subtly accented coloured parties. The plot, composition – it's rather an occasion for the deployment of colour themes, sophisticated drama.”

Ivan Didyk – twice laureate of the Regional Prize named after Y. Bokshai and A. Erdeli in the genre of easel graphics: in 2008 – for the works “Huklyvyi Village, The Church Of The Holy Spirit” and “Yellow Roses”; in 2012 – for a series of graphic works “Christmas Mood”, “Lace Of Sounds”, and “Magic Of Fire”.

The whole family of the artist – his wife Nadiia Didyk and two daughters Ivanka and Nataliia – is also engaged in painting. A creative and friendly family is practicing a joint presentation to the viewer of their creativity. One such event took place in November 2017, in which the father and daughter – Ivan Didyk and Ivanka Voitovych (Didyk) – presented a joint exhibition entitled “Synthesis” in Uzhhorod. The intrigue of the art event held in the Transcarpathian Regional Art Museum named after Y. Bokshai was the combination of works of artists of different generations, different styles, and techniques, different visions of the world.

Ivan Didyk lives and works in Uzhhorod.