“Art for the art’s sake” or “art for the nation”? Iwan Trusz’s artistic, critical literary and publishing activity against the challenges of Ukrainian social life in Galicia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

Abstract

The article is an attempt at reconstructing the artistic and critical literary activity of a Ukrainian painter Iwan Trusz, who noticed a great need of the Ukrainian society to cultivate and develop national art. The Ukrainian artist also contributed to the development of Polish art of that period, as he was highly estimated among Polish intellectuals and took an active part in Polish and Ukrainian cultural enterprises that took place in Lviv at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The experience which Trusz gained during his education in the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, as well as his direct contact with distinguished Polish painters (e.g. Leon Wyczółkowski, Jan Stanisławski) evoked in the painter a great need to take care of the enrichment of contemporary Ukrainian art and to raise the awareness of Galician Ukrainians about the effect which art has on the formation of every nation. Looking at the activity of Trusz‑an artist or Trusz‑an art critic from the perspective of the 21st century, makes it possible to find the answers to some key questions: “Should national art be promoted?”, “How to educate society through art?” and “What is the role of an artist during the formation of an independent nation?”