The exhibition unfolds the story of an immigrant artist, from his early years of professional training in Ukraine and Leningrad to displaced persons (DP) camp in Germany after WWII, immigration to the US, and a successful professional career in Minneapolis, MN. The display will include over 40 paintings.
Born in 1916, Olexa Bulavitsky spent his early years in the Ukrainian town of Uman. He received his art training in Odessa and Kiev and perfected his skills at the prestigious USSR Academy of Arts in Leningrad, returning to Ukraine to complete his education at the Kiev Art Institute. Drafted into the Soviet Army at the outbreak of WWII, he was captured by the Germans, but escaped and returned to Kiev. The end of the war found him and his young wife, Nina, in Bratislava with a newborn son, Vasil. For several years after the war, the family stayed at a DP camp in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.
Olexa Bulavitsky and his family immigrated to the US in 1950 and settled in Minneapolis where he painted, taught, and exhibited until the end of his life in 2001. His paintings include still lifes, landscapes, and portraits in realist style. Exploring his Ukrainian heritage, he often visited old immigrant settlements in Manitoba, Canada. Fascinated by the old-world charm of shingle covered cottages, he went there often to paint the old houses, barns and wooden churches of Ukrainian settlers.
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