Halyna MAZEPA  1910 — 1995

Галина МАЗЕПА • Галина МАЗЕПА

Halyna Mazepa was born in Petersburg, Russia in 1910. From 1915 Mazepa lived in Katerynoslav (Dnipropetrovsk). The father of Halyna Mazepa, Isaak Mazepa, in 1919 became the prime-minister of The Ukrainian National Republic. In 1921, escaping Bolshevism, the family moved to Kalish, Poland. In 1923 they moved to Prague. In 1929 Mazepa entered the State School of Applied Art in Prague. She visited Paris in 1933 where she met Vasyl Diadyniuk, a pioneer of neo-Byzantine style. Upon graduation from the Art School, Mazepa entered Prague Art Academy, where she studied in the studio of professor Villi Novak. In 1933 Mazepa exhibited for the first time in Berlin and Prague. In 1935 she exhibited at the National museum in Lviv. In 1939 Mazepa married Volodymyr Koval. Shortly before the war ended, in 1945, Halyna’s mother walking in Prague with her two young grandsons was killed by a Nazi air bombing. This event has devastated the artist. She left Prague with her husband and moved to Germany. In 1947 they immigrated to Venezuela. In 1965 and 1973 Mazepa travelled through Western Europe. She died in Caracas in 1995.