KONDOR YULII

He was born in Radvanka village near Uzhhorod. The father of the future artist painted well too – he made copies of the world known works, but he connected his life with forestry. He studied at the Russian Real Gymnasium in Uzhhorod (since 1938), where he got acquainted with Yosyp Bokshai. In school years he not only painted but also sang in the choir, played the violin and mandolin in the orchestra of folk instruments, danced, took part in a drama club. After graduation, he served in the army, and afterwards, he studied at the evening classes of music school. Then he entered the university. He finished the Kyiv Higher School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the end of 1961, he was added to the lists of the Communist Party, but he was against it. As a "reward" for his resistance to the regime, Kondor was sent to work in the Uzhhorod Detention Unit, which he headed for a long time. Thus, he regulated the children's colony, where he created a small workshop and taught drawing, carving and the like to the juvenile violators.

Moreover, he himself studied the basic working methods of the world artists, copied their pictures, and then began to create his own. He was especially interested in the style of the Wanderers, in particular, Ivan Shyshkin.

In 1978, he accepted the offer to take the post of the executive secretary of the Transcarpathian Organization of the Union of Artists of Ukraine, and at the same time - continued his training in working with paints.

Since 1984, he served as director of the Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore named after T. Lehotskyi and for a short period (4 years) he made a significant contribution to the promotion of its restoration.

According to critics, in the works of Y. Kondor, one can easily notice the influence of Bokshai, Erdeli, Kashshai, but at the same time, each of his works has something own, original, individual. "Thanks to him (Bokshai. - Auth.) I became a person who perceives the world not only with the eyes but with heart and soul. It was he who first saw something attractive in me ... And it was he who brought out a deep love for painting in me," said Yulii Kondor in one of his interviews. All his work is a love of the Carpathians beauty and people of his native land, it goes with him side by side from his young age.

In 1997, the artist was awarded the Certificate of Honour for active participation in the development and propagation of fine art from the Department of Culture of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration.

The artist held 3 personal exhibitions, participated in republican and all-Union exhibitions. His works were exhibited in Ukraine, Slovakia, Russia. Now Yulii Kondor's works are kept in the museums of Transcarpathia, private collections of Slovakia, Hungary, the USA, Russia, and North Ossetia.

The fact that the artist is not a member of any creative association is a conscious decision. "Creativity is beyond the regalia and badges. And it makes the activity successful and life - inspired" the artist thought.

Yulii Kondor was the witness to numerous events, learned and saw a lot, got acquainted with the leading figures of the Transcarpathian school of painting –memories of his life and work, as well as of people he met, he set out in the book "Life of my rainbow", published in 2005. The book was published to the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Transcarpathian school of painting. It is valuable not only for information about the Transcarpathian artists but also for rare illustrative material - photographs, information from catalogues, booklets, publications in the press from the artists’ and the author’s personal archives.

Honoured Artist of Ukraine Vasyl Betsa once said: "It is not an easy thing to collect so many facts about individual artists and the school as a whole and to present them interestingly to the reader. Yulii Kondor is an artist with great natural talent given us by God. And what an erudite! A walking encyclopaedia of fine art... "