Illustration

Pavlo Bedzir

Pavlo Bedzir (January 26, 1926 – July 10, 2002) was a Ukrainian painter and graphic artist. He studied at the Mukachevo Commercial Academy while attending the studio of the graphic artist Vilmos-József Berecz. Later, he entered the Painting Department of the Uzhhorod School of Applied and Decorative Arts, where his teachers included Adalbert Erdeli, Andrii Kotska, Fedir Manailo, and Ernest Kontratovych. He was a laureate of the Yosyp Bokshai and Adalbert Erdeli Prize.

  • Bedzir worked in the production workshops of the Art Fund, and together with Ferenc Seman decorated bus stops. He was a member of the Art Fund’s Artistic Council and of the youth work committee of the Zakarpattia branch of the Union of Artists. In the 1950s–1960s, an informal avant-garde club formed around him in Uzhhorod — it became a gathering place for painters of Zakarpattia and artists from Lviv, Kyiv, Riga, and Leningrad. Pavlo Bedzir befriended Serhii Paradzhanov, Hryhorii Ostrovskyi, Heorhii Yakutovych, Tetiana Yablonska, among others. He was married to the artist Yelyzaveta Kremnytska.
    Bedzir’s artistic path began with realistic painting and drawing, but later evolved toward graphic symbolism. His most famous and long-lasting series — From the Life of Trees — established him as an outstanding master of Ukrainian graphic art.
    His works are preserved at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Yosyp Bokshai Zakarpattia Regional Art Museum, and in private collections. The Pavlo Bedzir Museum-Workshop has been established In Uzhhorod. In 2001, Lesia Kesheliia directed a documentary film Four Elements about Pavlo Bedzir.

Gallery

Illustration

From the Life of Trees series