Volodymyr Sawchak
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Volodymyr Vasyliovych Savchak
25 May 1911
Volodymyr Sawchak | |
|---|---|
Володимир Савчак | |
 Sawchak in 2001 | |
| Born | Володимир Васильович Савчак Volodymyr Vasyliovych Savchak 25 May 1911 |
| Died | 6 March 2007 (aged 95) |
| Resting place | Goloskovskiy Cemetery, Lviv, Ukraine |
| Known for | landscapes, portraits |
| Style | watercolors, pastels, acrylics, oils |
Volodymyr Sawchak (Ukrainian: Володимир Савчак; 25 May 1911 – 6 March 2007) was a Ukrainian painter and activist based in Australia.[1] Sawchak specialized in landscape paintings of Australian nature and was involved in Ukrainian cultural organisations.
Early life
Volodymyr Vasyliovych Savchak (Ukrainian: Володимир Васильович Савчакwas) was born on 25 May 1911 to a wealthy family in Adamivka, Berezhany, Galicia in Austria-Hungary (present-day, Ukraine). His father, who was a master wheelmaker, had a workshop there as well.[2]
Education
Volodymyr attended the Brzezhany Gymnasium, a secondary school, where he learned to draw. When he later enrolled in Plast, the Ukrainian national scout organization, he drew images, made maps, and occasionally decorated for Plast holidays. He was especially interested in painting landscapes.[2]
During the Pacification of Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia by Poland in 1930, nineteen-year-old Volodymyr moved into Lviv to study philosophy, mathematics, and natural sciences. From 1934 to 1935 he studied painting at the Lviv University while maintaining contacts with the Lviv State College of Decorative and Applied Arts.[2]
In 1935, he again moved, this time to Vilnius in order to attend the Academy of Arts, where he studied and worked until 1939. During this time, he was able to attend summer art camps for landscape studies at the Warsaw Academy of Arts. During the first Soviet occupation of Ukraine, Volodymyr was working at the Brzezhany Sokil Theater, and throughout the war he taught drawing at the Brzezhany Gymnasium. In 1948, he emigrated first to Germany and then to Australia.[2][3]
In Australia
After arriving in Australia, Volodymyr fulfilled a two-year contract as an art teacher at a high school in Launceston, Tasmania.[4] In 1951, Australia celebrated the 50th anniversary of its federation. An exhibition of newly arrived artists was organized and toured each state in the country. For showing his paintings at that exhibition, Volodymyr received a diploma from Minister of Immigration Harold Holt.[3]
Seeking new subjects for his work, Volodymyr moved to central Australia in 1957 where he worked as an art teacher at the Catholic Mission of St. Teresa in Alice Springs.[4][5]
Starting in 1954, he was a member of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations and the Board of the Foundation for Ukrainian Studies in Australia. He was active in the Plast scouting organization and was a member of the Lisovi Chorty (Forest Devils) fraternity. Additionally, he was a member of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine and of the Ukrainian Community of Sydney.[3] In the 1950s he taught a course in Ukrainian studies in Melbourne. In the 1960s he taught at two Ukrainian schools: Ivan Franko in Oxley and L. Ukrainka in Brisbane.[5]
Volodymyr continued to participate in Ukrainian cultural life while in Australia, working on stage design and painting the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Melbourne.[6] For his contributions of the development of culture of his hometown of Brzezhany while in Australia, Volodymyr was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of Brzezhany".[7]
Volodymyr Sawchak died on 6 March 2007 and was buried in the Holoski Cemetery in Lviv.
