Kostetskii, Vladimir Nikolaevich

Born Aug. 28 (Sept. 10), 1905, in the village of Kholmy, in present-day Koriukovka Raion, Chernigov Oblast; died May 26, 1968, in Kiev. Soviet painter; People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1960); Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1967); member of the CPSU from 1940.

Kostetskii studied at the Kiev Art Institute (1922–28) with F. G. Krichevskii; he later taught there (from 1937; a professor from 1947). He was primarily a genre painter. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 he produced posters, leaflets, and portrait sketches.

Kostetskii’s best works are distinguished by careful development of the thematic subject and by the characters’ psychological credibility—for example, Interrogation of the Enemy (1937), Homecoming (1947), and Presentation of the Party Card (2nd variant, 1959), all in the Museum of Ukrainian Fine Art of the Ukrainian SSR in Kiev. Kostetskii was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.