Kashan, Vasilii Ilich.

Born Jan. 1, 1896, in the village of Mikulintsy, in present-day Sniatyn Raion, Ivano-Frankovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Soviet graphic artist. People’s Artist of the USSR; member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947). Became a member of the CPSU in 1946.

From 1920 to 1926, Kasiian studied under M. Svabinsk– at the Prague Academy of Arts. He became a Soviet citizen in 1923 and settled in the Ukrainian SSR in 1927. Kasiian’s work includes etchings, such as The Strike (wood engraving, 1926) and the series Dneprostroi (line engraving, 1932–34) and V. I. Lenin and the Ukraine (etching, 1947). From 1941 to 1945 he designed posters. Kasiian also executed drawings and illustrations devoted to classic Ukrainian and Russian literature. His work is distinguished by expressiveness and lofty romantic images.

Since 1927, Kasiian has been a professor at a number of higher educational art institutes, including the Kiev Institute of Art. From 1962 to 1968 he served as the chairman of the governing board of the Artists’ Union of the Ukrainian SSR. Kasiian was awarded the T. G. Shevchenko State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR in 1964 and the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR in 1971 for his work on the six-volume History of Ukrainian Art (Kiev, 1966— 70). He was also awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.