OBITUARIES: Hryhory Lohvyn, leading historian of Ukrainian art and architecture, 90 (05/13/01)

OBITUARIES

Hryhory Lohvyn, leading historian of Ukrainian art and architecture, 90

by Ika Koznarska Casanova

KYIV - Hryhory Lohvyn, one of the leading art and architectural historians in Ukraine, whose lifelong commitment to the study and documentation of Ukrainian art and architecture in the restrictive conditions of the 1960s-1980s under the Soviet regime, died on March 7 at the age of 90. Throughout his career, Dr. Lohvyn had to contend with what he termed the "policy of socialist vandalism" as brought to bear upon Ukraine's historical and cultural monuments and on its art.

A prolific writer, Dr. Lohvyn authored many books both in Ukrainian and Russian, among them "Sofia Kyivska" (Kyiv's Cathedral of St. Sophia , 1971), which was translated into English as "Hagia Sophia: State Architectural-Historical Monument, (Mystetstvo Publishers, Kyiv).

His best-known book is "Po Ukraini: Starodavni Mystetstki Pamiatky" (Throughout Ukraine, 1968), which documents the country's many architectural and art treasures covering the period from the 10th-18th centuries. The work was critically acclaimed as an "encyclopedia of Ukraine's artistic patrimony."

Dr. Lohvyn was born on May 22, 1910, in Kosivka, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. He graduated from the Kharkiv and Moscow art institutes and received his doctorate in 1968.

He co-authored a book on Ukrainian painting of the 14th through 17th centuries with Liudmyla Miliaieva (1963), and on medieval Ukrainian painting (1976), with noted art historians Dr. Miliaieva and Vira Svientsitska. He also contributed chapters to volumes 2 and 3 of the six-volume History of Ukrainian Art (1967-1968) published by the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and was the editor of volumes 3 and 4 of the four-volume guide in Russian to the monuments of urban construction and architecture in Ukraine (1985, 1986).

In 1990 Dr. Lohvyn was invited to give a series of lectures at The Ukrainian Museum and at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York; among the topics presented were "The Development of the Ukrainian Icon," "Early Kyivan-Byzantine Architecture: The Church of the Tithes and Kyiv's St. Sophia" and "The Art and Architecture of the Ukrainian Baroque."

A photographic exhibition titled "Guardian of the Past Hryhory Lohvyn: Architectural Monuments of Ukraine in Photographs by H.N. Lohvyn" was held at The Ukrainian Museum in New York on October 3 to November 21, 1999.

The exhibit was subsequently shown in Kyiv in May 2000 at the Muzey Shistdesiatnykiv (The Museum of the '60s Generation), held in conjunction with the celebration of the scholar's 90th anniversary.

Dr. Lohvyn was a founding member of the Ukrainian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Landmarks and of the Ukrainian Association for the Preservation of the Historical Environment.

Dr. Lovhyn was buried in Kyiv's Baikove Cemetery.

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