Earlier this year, we received a book about the artist Petro Andrusiv (1906-1981).  Running to 547 pages and nearly 30 centimetres tall, this large book contains biographical and critical material about Andrusiv as well as giving over half the book to reproductions.  Among the reproductions are many Christmas cards, including the two shown here.

Andrusiv moved to the United States in 1947, dying in New York State 34 years later.  A co-founder of the Ukrainian Artists’ Association in the USA, he like so many post-WW2 emigres kept Ukraine as his focus in his work.  The cards shown above show clear Ukrainian identity beyond the language of the greetings.  In the left-hand image, Ukrainian traditions are represented in the patterned borders, the gifts laid out to the Christ child, the images of the Three Kings, and so on.  The sheaf of golden wheat we see (the yellow of the independent Ukrainian flag) is in the right-hand image too, along with clearly identifiable Kyïv churches and monuments.

This is the only book we have that lists Andrusiv as subject or creator, but we may have his work elsewhere in our collections, maybe featuring in broader studies of art and artists, or in book illustrations.  Many book covers are also included in the catalogue part of the book; the lovely winter scene (a 1965 book cover) shown in the illustration here is an example.  Unfortunately, book illustrators and book cover image artists (often the same person but not every time) are not always recorded in library catalogue records.  Generally we cataloguers do include them where the artist is named on the title page or where the illustrative part of the book stands out as significant, but that leaves a large gap to fall through.  Thankfully books such as the new Andrusiv one can fill gaps for interested readers through careful listings of artists’ works.

Petro Andrusiv (1906-1981) : mystets’ka spadshchyna, publikatsii, arkhivni ta dovidkovi materialy can be ordered to the UL’s main Reading Room – in the new year, of course, after the current festive closure.

Happy Christmas to all our readers, and may 2025 see peace the world over.

Mel Bach