Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv consists of two buildings. The main building located at 20, Svobody Avenue features unique treasures of Ukrainian art from the Middle Ages to Art Nouveau. The museum takes special pride in presenting the world-class collection of medieval sacral art of the 12th-18th centuries: written and published manuscripts, sculptures, decoratively carved pieces of art, metal decorations and embroidered church fabrics. However, the most valuable collection is that of icons painted in the 14th-18th centuries (over 4,000 exhibits) which for many years has been gleaned from all over western Ukraine.
The museum's permanent exposition features the best examples of Ukrainian folk and professional engraving of the 17th-18th centuries. The museum's office in Svobody Avenue holds a collection of secular paintings of the late 17th-early 20th centuries. It comprises western Ukrainian portraits of the late 17th-19th centuries and the works of Ukrainian classics such as Kornylo Ustyyanovych, Teofil Kopystynsky, Mykola Murashko, Mykola Pymonenko, Sergiy Vasylkivsky, Fotiy Krasytsky and others.
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A collection of Taras Shevchenko's original paintings is also on display here. Many connoisseurs of Ukrainian sacral art visit the museum specially to see a unique relic of the Ukrainian baroque style, the famous iconostasis of the Manyava Hermitage painted by Yov Kondzelevych and later transferred to a church in Bohorodchany.
The second building of Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv is located close to the city center in a quiet residential area at 42, Drahomanova Street. If you are a fan of Ukrainian fine art of the 20th century, this place is definitely worth a visit.
Sunset in the Forest by Ivan Trush. 1904
The updated permanent exhibition "Ukrainian Art of the 20th Century" follows up on the Ukrainian art of the 12th-19th centuries presented in the main building of the museum. This exhibition recaps the development of the national modernist art in a wide range of artistic trends and manifestations. It also reflects the cultural and artistic processes, which were taking place in Ukraine in the 1940s-1970s.
Here you can see the best works of Ukrainian impressionists and modernists such as Oleksa Novakivsky, Ivan Trush, Olena Kulchytska, Roman Selsky, Oleksandr Murashko, as well as of those artists whose names have long been banned from the Ukrainian art history, such as Mykhaylo Boychuk, Modest Sosenko, Lev Gets and Petro Kholodny. Although the second building of the museum is off the tourist trail, it is undoubtedly worth the time spent on getting there. This part of the museum impresses visitors with its beautiful architecture and a carefully curated collection of Ukrainian art.
Author: Iya Stepaniuk
Photos: provided by Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum, shutterstock.com. All images belong to their rightful authors.
