Vasyl Hudak
Vasyl Hudak (June 11, 1941 – January 23, 2023) was a Ukrainian master of decorative ceramics, art historian, and educator. He was PhD in Art History (1985), a Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (since 1992), and a Professor of the Department of Art Ceramics at the Lviv National Academy of Arts (1995). He also was a Recipient of the Incentive Award in the category Philosophy of Clay at the 3rd All-Ukrainian Symposium on Monumental Ceramics in Opishnia (1999). Hudak was honored with the honorary distinction For Contribution to the Development of Ukrainian Ceramology by the Precarpathian University (2017).
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Hudak worked in decorative ceramics, easel art, and graphics, combining folk motifs with modern forms. He developed a passion for drawing in his school years, inspired by folk traditions and pottery techniques.
From 1960 to 1963, he studied at the Kosiv College of Applied Arts in the Department of Artistic Ceramics. From 1963 to 1968, he continued his education at the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts (today Lviv National Academy of Arts), where he prepared his diploma project Spheres of Human Activity under the supervision of Zenovii Flynta.
After graduation, Hudak completed an internship at the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after Mukhina, at the Department of Ceramics and Glass (1968–1969). In 1985, he defended his PhD thesis Folk Ceramics of the Eastern Podillia Region of the Ukrainian SSR (Artistic Features) at the Stroganov Higher School of Art and Industry in Moscow.
From 1968 to 1991, Hudak worked as a lecturer at the Department of Art Ceramics at the Lviv National Academy of Arts. In 1991, he became an associate professor, and in 1995, a professor. From 2008 to 2017, Hudak served as professor at the Department of Decorative and Applied Arts of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. In 2018, he began teaching specialized courses at the Lviv Professional College of Construction, Architecture, and Design.
Hudak was the author of nearly 130 works on ceramology. He regularly presented papers at scholarly conferences in Lviv, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Kamianets-Podilskyi, and Opishnia. Since 1965, he actively participated in numerous regional, republican, all-Union, and international exhibitions and symposia. His solo exhibitions were held in Lviv in 1992, 1995, and 2001.
Among his key works are: the decorative compositions Hutsul (1968) and Construction (1977); the triptych Energy (1989), Carpathian Suite (1990), Creation (2001); ceramic tiles Deer (1974), Folk Still Life (1975), Theatrical Masks (1984), Blossoming (1993), City (1997); ceramic plates Still Life with Easter Eggs (1976), Requiem (1993), Wild Bird (2000); decorative ceramic panels Echo of the Ages (1986), Resonance of the Centuries (1995), Easter Egg Trinity (1996), Marks of the Ages (2002).
Hudak’s works are held in the National Museum-Reserve of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishnia, in museums of Lviv, and in private collections in Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. His research and artistic practice laid the foundations of contemporary Ukrainian ceramology and continue to inspire new generations of artists.