Demydiuk Viktor

He was born on 22 October 1925 in Zhytomyr region. He showed his artistic abilities in childhood, painting Ukrainian houses with floral ornaments. At the age of fourteen, the boy was a participant in the Republican exhibition of young artists in Petrozavodsk (1939). A year later, after passing the competitive examinations, he was enrolled at the Kyiv Art School named after T. Shevchenko.

In the post-war years, after completing his studies at the Kyiv School of Applied Arts, a young artist was sent to Transcarpathia by the Art Committee. Therefore, in 1952, Viktor Demydiuk began his many years’ pedagogical activity at the Uzhhorod College of Applied Arts, teaching art techniques in the applied and monumental arts.

Ivan Manailo, who at that time was the director of the school, called the author's works those that reveal the creative face of the artist – rich in thoughts and palette, diverse with his themes and compositions.

Among the artist’s masterpieces, there is a considerable number of still lifes, genre scenes, colourful landscapes of Transcarpathia, which became native to the artist, as well as the nature of Central Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Karelia.

In addition to oil painting, the artist paid a lot of attention to easel graphics and book illustrations. He was fond of it so much that in his 44 he entered the Faculty of Graphics and Book Illustrations of the Ukrainian Printing Institute named after Ivan Fedorov and graduated in 1969. Among the dozens of publications illustrated by Viktor Demydiuk, there are a book Ilia Shulha “My Brother”, the work of Ivan Olbrakht “Sorrowful Eyes of Anna Karadzhycheva”, the collections of Transcarpathian folk fairy tales “Magic Heart”, songs and kolomyika “Our song is our destiny”, “Trembita”, proverbs and sayings “Treasures of people's wisdom.”

The range of the artist's graphics is also impressive. These are works created in pencil, charcoal, ink, etchings, linocuts, monotypes, watercolours. The artist also performed decorative and monumental works, among them there are sketches of the painting of the café “Bilochka” in Uzhhorod (1967), sgraffiti “Hutsul dance”, “Roksolana”, “Triumph of labour” – in Ivano-Frankivsk region (1969), sketch of the stained glass “Strange light” (1971) in Uzhhorod.

In 1977, at the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, it was held a solo exhibition of the artist's works. The artist's works were also selected for the exposition in Japan.

Viktor Demydiuk died in Uzhhorod in 2004.