Liuboslav Hutsaliuk with a portrait of Ivan Drach. 1960s. Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archive
Born in Ukraine, he divides his life between New York and Paris, and one might ask whether Hutsaliuk is Ukrainian, American, or French. He is first and foremost a human being in the most universal sense of the word
Pierre Imbourg, journalist “Journal De L`Amateur D’Art”
Liuboslav Hutsaliuk is a Ukrainian artist, graphic artist, and art historian. He is an honorary member of the Campanella Academy in Rome, a member of the Audubon Artists (USA), La Société des Artistes Indépendants de Paris (France), and the Ukrainian Artists’ Association in the USA.
Hutsaliuk was born in Lviv in 1923. The artist spent his youth during the Second World War. After graduating from high school, the future artist was taken to Germany for forced labor. He was involved in strenuous physical work at the camp, where he was rebuilding the German railroad. He suffered a severe leg injury from shrapnel during the bombing of Germany by the Allied forces. The artist was operated on by a doctor who lived in the camp.
After the war ended, Hutsaliuk was sent to the Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Berchtesgaden, where he spent four years. There, he met the famous Ukrainian artist and publisher Edward Kozak and studied at his art studio from 1946 to 1949. In 1949, Hutsaliuk emigrated to New York. At first, he worked in a factory and a bakery, and later, he started attending evening studies at the Cooper Union School of Art, graduating in 1954. One of the artist’s first professional works was the creation of illustrations for the children’s edition of the magazine Humpty Dumpty.
In 1956, the artist visited France. He organized his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Ror Volmar. During 1956-1966, he had ten individual exhibitions in galleries in New York, Milan, Paris, and Toronto. As a result, Hutsaliuk gained worldwide recognition, and his works became highly sought after by collectors and art enthusiasts.
The artist’s last exhibition was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in 1999. After losing his wife Renata and son Yarema, Hutsaliuk stopped creating art. On December 16, 2003, the artist passed away. He was buried at St. Andrew Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.
Liuboslav Hutsaliuk’s creative heritage includes more than two thousand paintings, watercolors, and drawings. His works are kept in museums and galleries in California, Rome, Vermont, Paris, and Toronto.
