SIDAK VASYL

Honoured Master of Folk Art of Ukraine (1995), Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1999), Laureate of the Shevchenko Prize (2008). 

Vasyl Sidak was born on 10 January in 1947 in Zhdeniievo village, Volovets districts.

The first studios for the future sculptor were the learning of wood-working with his father, who gave his son the ability to feel the warmth of the wood and properly handle the instrument. In 1968, he graduated from the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts, where his teachers were V. Svyda. M. Popovych, and I. Harapko.  

In the 1970s - 1980s, he worked at the Art Foundation of the Union of Artists of Ukraine, where he made souvenir and decorative plastics.

He works in the field of decorative and applied arts – artistic wood-working. The creativity of the artist is based on traditions, customs, rituals, human morals. He created a spacious gallery of artistic images in sculptures of small forms, plot compositions made in the technique of round, high relief and bas-relief carving. The subjects of his works are quite diverse – pictures of Transcarpathian life, the perpetuation of sacred moments, etc.

The artist adheres to the traditional methods of carving in the reproduction of human figures, its original proportions, but in a plastic solution and carving methods, there is much of the academic or classical sculpture. The artist widely uses artistic heritage of the contemporary professional carving, strictly adhering to the ethical and aesthetic traditions of his region.

According to the art critics, V. Sidak's work is an example of authentic folk art, "absorbed the influence of academic sculpture, organically dissolving it in its own nature. Thus, V. Sidak steadfastly remains himself."

In 1995, he became the Honoured Master of Folk Art of Ukraine, in 4 years – a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. In 2008, he received the Shevchenko Prize.