Well-known Ukrainian artist Serhii Yakutovych dies

Serhii Yakutovych, a well-known graphic artist and painter, has died aged 64 in Kyiv.

It is Olena Fadieieva who reported about his death on her Facebook page. “Serhii’s heart stopped last night,” she wrote. The woman tended the artist for several years.

The artist was seriously ill in the past few years after the death of his wife and son.

Serhii Yakutovych was born in 1952 in Kyiv to the family of artists. His father Heorhii Yakutovych, an outstanding mid-20th-century Ukrainian graphic artist, is also known for his work in cinema, particularly on the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by Serhii Parajanov. His mother Oleksandra Pavlovska was an artist and a teacher. Many children’s books with her illustrations were put out by Veselka Publishers. She taught at the Republican Secondary Art School.

The outstanding master’s heritage includes 160 publications, including 17 volumes of modern Ukrainian literature, and a considerable contribution to cinema.

He took part, as chief production designer, in making the feature film “Prayer for Hetman Mazepa” directed by Yurii Illienko, and television films “When We Were Still Cossacks” and “Paradise Lost.” In 2005 he participated in a large-scale project – Vladimir Bortko’s film “Taras Bulba.”

Lina Kostenko’s novel “Berestechko,” illustrated by Yakutovych and published by Lybid, was pronounced the best illustrated and artistically designed book presented at an exhibition-cum-fair in Ashgabat.

The past few years have seen Yakutovych’s book illustrations that have become a major achievement of national culture and gained a wide recognition among the aficionados of book art in and outside Ukraine.

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