 | Boris KRIUKOW 1895 — 1967Борис КРЮКОВ • Борис КРЮКОВBORIS KRIUKOW was born in Orgiyev (Bessarabia), in 1895. Graduated from Kiev Art School in 1918, in the twenties he worked as a stage designer at the Kiev Opera House. Until World War Two, he was active in book illustration (up to 500 books, among them works by Shevchenko, Franko, Dickens, Pushkin, Jack London, Antonenko-Davydoych, etc., as well as books for children by N.Zabila, O. Ivanenko, Pervomaysky and many others). In 1943, Kriukow moved to Lviv (where he exhibited two of his genre oil paintings with great success), from there to Cracow, and in 1944 to Gmunden, Upper Austria (exhibitions in Innsbruck, Salzburg, etc.). In 1948, he emigrated to Argentina and settled in Buenos Aires, where he continued to exhibit in the most renowned art galleries, such as Mueller, Witcomb, and Van Riel. At the same time, Kriukow worked as a book illustrator for both Argentinian and Ukrainian publishing houses. From 1950 until his death, he was the only illustrator of the great series “The Unforgettable Classics” of the famous El Ateneo publishing firm, (Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio, Edgar Allan Poe, Anatole France, Emile Zola, etc.). His paintings were also exhibited in USA and Canada, although he never visited those countries (New York, 1963 and 1965; Toronto, 1956). In 1965, he was invited to exhibit at Buenos Aires Town Hall, after having received two important awards: in 1964, for his drawing Don Quixote, presented at an international art competition of the “Codex” publishing house, Madrid, and for his drawing Don Segundo Sombra, from “Codex” Argentina. Kriukow is the author of a large oil picture of Cardinal Josyf Slipy, and of two Argentine heroes: General José de San Martín at the battle of Chacabuco, and Admiral Guillermo Brown. Before his death, he executed a large apse mosaic, The Virgin Mary and Child, for the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedaral in Buenos Aires. Boris Kriukow died in Buenos Aires in 1967. Posthumous exhibitions were held in New York and Toronto in 1969, in Munich in 1977, and in Bad Aibling ( Bavaria) in 1980. In 1970, a monograph “Boris Kriukow” was published in Buenos Aires. |
