St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv 1952

Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky created this painting of St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv using oil on canvas. Krychevsky's application of paint is quite thick, almost sculptural, particularly in the rendering of the building's facade. Notice how the texture emphasizes the materiality of the paint itself, which is built up into a mosaic-like surface. This not only captures the play of light on the architecture, but also draws attention to the physical act of painting. Krychevsky was engaging with a broader movement of early 20th-century art that celebrated the artist's hand and the expressive potential of materials. The cathedral, with its golden domes, stands as a testament to the labor and skill involved in its construction, but so too does the painting. Krychevsky’s impressionistic style brings into focus the very processes of perception and representation, reminding us that art is always a constructed reality.