Ivan Padalka

Ivan Padalka
Ivan Padalka
Іван Падалка
Born	15 November 1894; Zhornoklyovy, Ukraine
Died	13 July 1937; Kyiv, Ukraine
Cause of death	Execution by firing squad
Known for	Painting

Ivan Ivanovych Padalka (Ukrainian: Івaн Івaнович Пaдалка: 15 November 1894, Zhornoklyovy, currently Cherkasy Raion — 13 July 1937, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian painter, art professor and author who was executed by the Soviet regime during the Great Terror.

Biography

Ivan Padalka was one of eight children born to a farming family of modest means. He began his education at the local parish school, where he first displayed a talent for art. His abilities were noticed by a local nobleman, who helped him to finance studies at the State Ceramics Vocational School in Myrhorod, taught by Opanas Slastion. His work was often held up as a model for the class. He worked there until 1913, when he was excluded for organizing revolutionary activities.

He then went to Poltava and found a position at the Ethnographic Museum [uk], where they made copies of Ukrainian carpet designs for a weaving workshop in Kyiv owned by Bogdan Khanenko, who was a major patron of the arts. His earnings enabled him to enroll at the short-lived Kyiv Art School. His works were regularly exhibited there, and he began to illustrate children's books.^[1]

In 1917, after finishing his studies at the Kyiv Art School, he transferred to the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts, where he became a student in the workshop of Mykhailo Boychuk.^[2] While there, he was largely involved in decorative work for buildings, designing posters and creating various propaganda materials for public display. Pedalka received a commission from the State Publishing House to illustrate a collection of children's stories called Барвінок (Periwinkle), on which he worked together with Boychuk's younger brother Tymofiy.

After graduating in 1920, he returned to Myrhorod and became a teacher at his former ceramics school. Later, he taught the same subject at a technical school in Kyiv. His proficiency in his chosen specialty was widely recognized, so he was able to secure a position at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, where he worked from 1925 to 1934. That year, he returned to Kyiv to accept an appointment as a Professor at the State Academy.^[2]

In 1936, he was arrested and tortured by the NKVD on charges of counterrevolutionary activities, related to Ukrainian nationalism. In July 1937, he was executed by firing squad,^[3] together with his former mentor and friend, Mykhailo Boychuk, and the painter Vasily Sedlyar. He was posthumously "rehabilitated" in 1958 by the Soviet Government.^[2]