Sculpture donated to Lviv gallery in memory of Danylo-Husar Struk (10/03/04)

Sculpture donated to Lviv gallery in memory of Danylo-Husar Struk

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - On the fifth anniversary of the death of Danylo Husar-Struk, professor of Slavic studies at the University of Toronto and editor of the "Encyclopedia of Ukraine," his widow, Oksana, donated a sculpture, the work of Roman Petruk, to the Lviv Gallery of Arts.

The sculpture was presented to the gallery on the exact date of Prof. Struk's death - June 19th - at a ceremony in the gardens of the gallery where the art work will stand.

About 20 persons, some of whom came from abroad - Oksana Struk, his stepdaughter Tetiana Wynnycky, his former student Dr. Yuri Boshyk and friends from Toronto Mykola and Kvitka Kondracki - were at the presentation. Zenovyi Mazuryk, assistant to the director, represented the gallery.

Prof. Struk was a native of Lviv, born in the city in 1940. He became acquainted with Mr. Petruk in the 1960s, admired his work (he owned several pieces) and had seen the plaster model of the donated sculpture "Na Mezhi" (On the Border). It depicts a human figure - or a pagan god - chained to a stone pedestal, who has cut off his own head with a sword, which he is clutching in one hand. The other hand is holding the head up to the heavens - the passage from one life to the next.

Mr. Petruk, born in the same year as Prof. Struk, graduated from the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts in 1964. He was an active member of the Lviv Shestydesiatnyky artists and writers group. He illustrated the samvydav edition of Ihor Kalynets' poetry collection "Pidsumovuyuchy Movchannia" (Summing up Silence) subsequently published by Suchasnist.

Mr. Petruk first worked as a graphic artist and a ceramist, later turning to figurative sculpture. Some of his better-known works are of religious figures, for example, the group "The Four Evangelists" at the Church St. Mykolai in Truskavets or the bronze figure of a saint, which stands in the entrance of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. But he is also drawn to traditional figures - he has done several versions of Vertep figures in wood.

Mr. Petruk said the inspiration for his art comes from ancient Ukrainian traditions and legends, and that this love of traditional Ukrainian art and of antiquity was aroused by his father's words when he left his native village: "Go, but always look back at the chimney of your house. Then you will never get lost." And, Mr. Petruk maintained, "I have continued to look back."

In his studio in Lviv, Mr. Petruk has numerous plaster models of sculptures waiting to be cast in bronze - a process that is expensive and out of reach for the artist unless a sponsor can be found.

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