Anatole Kolomayets

Anatole Kolomayets will be remembered not only as an interesting, very prolific artist, but also as a man who survived the Holodomor and Stalinism, World War II, and wandering and became a bright representative of a large generation of parents who raised children for the Ukrainian global community, descendants devoted to public work and true God’s and human principles.

Bishop Borys (Hudziak),
Exarch of the UGCC in France, Switzerland, and the Benelux countries

Anatole Kolomayets was a Ukrainian and American artist who has lived most of his life in Chicago (USA), but in his work, he has always turned to the images of his homeland.

The artist was born on February 12, 1927, in Kobeliaky, Poltava region. He spent his youth in Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro). During the Second World War in 1943, the Kolomayets family emigrated to the West and settled in Belgium. Here, Anatole worked hard in the mines and studied. He received his specialized art education at the Institute of Saint Luke (1948-1952) and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (1952-1953) in Liège. In 1953, the artist moved to Chicago (USA) for permanent residence. At first, he worked as a graphic artist, designer, and illustrator in the editorial offices of The Chicago Tribune and The Sun-Times. One of his most significant works was the creation of the iconostasis of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Milwaukee. In 1954, Kolomayets and like-minded people founded the local Ukrainian art group “Monolith.” In his work, the artist gravitated toward national themes — he created images of ethnic Ukrainians, depicted landscapes of his native Poltava region, and addressed historical themes. Kolomayets was granted the esteemed title of Honored Artist of Ukraine in 2007. The artist died on December 9, 2014, in Chicago (USA). He was buried at the local Elmwood Cemetery.