Henryk Hryniewski
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
-Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
painter, graphic artist, and illustrator also known as a scholar of traditional Georgian architecture and educator. He was arrested and put to death during Stalin’s Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
while most of his originals were destroyed.
Hryniewski was born into a family of an exiled Polish patriot in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi
Kutaisi
Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. From 1895 to 1898, he studied arts and architecture at Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. In 1898, he settled in Tiflis (Tbilisi) where he painted and taught. He directed the Tiflis arts school from 1918 and 1921 and helped transform it into the Georgian Academy of Fine Arts of which he became a professor in 1922 and vice-rector in 1927.
Hryniewski was energetically involved in all major cultural projects of that time; he was instrumental in organizing a museum of the history of Tbilisi and was a member of a special commission for protection of cultural heritage. He studied Georgian folk and church architecture, and produced an album of aquarelles "Old Architecture of Georgia," as well as a comprehensive analysis of traditional Georgian ornate art and a textbook on linear perspectives and theory of shadows. Hrynievski’s illustrations regularly appeared in the Georgian press and in the editions of leading Georgian writers, especially Ilia Chavchavadze. He also created an iconostasis
Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...
for the Kashveti Church
Kashveti Church
The Kashveti Church of St. George is a Georgian Orthodox Church in central Tbilisi, located across from the Parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue....
of St. George, and coauthored the project of the Georgian Bank of Nobility office (presently the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia
National Parliamentary Library of Georgia
The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia is a governmental organization under the Parliament of Georgia. It is the main book depository of Georgia, as well as the most important cultural, educational, scientific, informational and methodological centre....
). He opposed a program of ideological reforms in the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts
Tbilisi State Academy of Arts
The Tbilisi State Academy of Arts is one of the oldest universities in Georgia, Caucasus. It's located in the Tbilisi City near the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre on Rustaveli avenue ....
(former Tbilisi Academy of fine arts) pushed for by the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
authorities. Hryniewski was arrested and shot in a 1937 repression wave. His studio was destroyed by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
officers and a large number of his works was irretrievably lost. Hryniewski’s wife Maria Perini
Maria Perini
Maria Perini was an Italian ballet teacher who studied under the Italian ballet dancer and teacher Enrico Cecchetti. In 1916, she opened the first private ballet studio in the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts building at Griboedovi street, Tbilisi, Georgia...
(1873-1939), an Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
- born dancer and a founder of the first ballet studio in Tbilisi was exiled from Georgia immediately after her husband’s arrest.