Hryhorii Synytsia

Hryhorii Synytsia (1908–1996)

Ukrainian painter and monumental artist, Honoured Artist of Ukraine, and a student of Mykhailo Boichuk. He graduated from the Kyiv Art Institute in 1936.

After World War II, during which all his paintings were lost, Synytsia contributed to the reconstruction of Kyiv, developing architectural terracotta for buildings along Khreshchatyk Street. Despite accusations of formalism in 1955, he continued exploring a distinctly Ukrainian visual language in monumental art.

From 1969, he pioneered floromosaic, an innovative technique combining traditional mosaic principles with natural materials such as reeds, chestnuts, acorns, stones, shells, and metal. His works include the mosaic panels Prometheus, Water, Cosmos, Earth, and Sun at School No. 5 in Donetsk.

In 1992, he received the Taras Shevchenko National Prize for reviving the Ukrainian colourist tradition in monumental painting. A gallery dedicated to his work is located at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.