Located just 10 km from the city, in Bryukhovychi. Today you can see more than 808 works by the museum’s founder Mykhailo Dzyndra. The artist’s biography is so difficult just like his works. The team of the Lviv Tourism Office talked to the sculptor’s wife – Sofia Dzyndra to understand the uniqueness of the works and the life story of the author.
“I know a lot about him … I can’t tell everything (laughs). By the way, I am now publishing a book “Memories of a biography of Mykhailo Dzyndra”. At my own expense, of course. There is a lot to be said about Mykhailo.
How Mykhailo lived?
Youth
Mykhailo Dzyndra was born in 1921 in the village of Demnya, 30 km from Lviv, in a very poor family. Grew up an orphan in poverty. Subsequently, his brother Yevhen took him to Lviv to study carving with master Andriy Kuverko.
- He made an angel at the age of 8 and made the first carved cross when he was 9.
Literally, in several months Mykhailo has studied carving, created frames with glass for icons, iconostasis. To survive, he went to the stations to unload wagons. After a while, he’s entered the School of Arts and Crafts (now Thrush College) in the sculpture department, which he graduated in 3 years, although it had to last 6. Due to poverty, he almost dropped school, but he rebelled on the lessons and told teachers about his desire to learn something other than nature.
Emigration
Because the Second World War began, he got home, grabbed a jacket in the apartment where he lived, got to "Krakowski", and changed it for a bicycle and "barefoot" went to Bratislava. Well, then he quickly coped with the difficulties and resumed his creative activity. Initially, he worked in a carpentry shop, later organized a carving school for deaf and dumb children in Bratislava.
In 1945, Mykhailo Dzyndra was sent to an American refugee camp near Munich. Later, he entered the Munich Academy, which belonged to the Union of German artists who restored sculptures.
USA
- In 51, he left for America with his wife and child. The first years were complicated. He already knew German, Slovak, Polish, and during studying, he mastered English, he had to remove and clean and do different stuff. Various everyday things.
- At first, he settled near New York ... But in total, he lived in 11 places. You know, he bought a part of the house, rebuilt it. Then he resold and earned… In this manner, he learned to build houses.
- Mykhailo visited museums and saw that the world was created equally differently. As a result of this, he created 70 thematic sculptures. I also want to say that he belonged to the "New York group". This is a group that represented Ukraine in the world: artists, sculptors, painters, engineers, teachers. They published magazines, organized exhibitions, gathered, communicated, and tried to make people know that there is such a state as Ukraine.
Sculptures
M. Dzindra's first sculptures were created in a realistic style with elements of modernism. Later – modernism. Sculptures are made of different materials. Some of the wood. There is plaster, clay, a lot of others.
- From the 68th to the 90th he made almost all sculptures, 1200, but here in the museum 808. He sold a little, presented. For example, his daughter has 200 sculptures, his son has 50, and the youngest son has 6.
- He earned by building houses, and no one was interested in his sculptures. He constantly worked on houses in places that reminded him of Ukraine. All his life he dreamed that he would return here someday and not without anything.
- In the `90s, he made 1,200 sculptures and referred to the Florida authorities, intending to build a museum there. He was given a building permit and offered 10 thousand dollars for maintenance. But Ukraine gained independence, and his first wife died of a stroke.
M. Dzyndra returned to Ukraine in 1991 and for the first time organized an exhibition of photographs of sculptures here.
Museum of Modern Sculpture
- After the acquaintance, I rushed to help. We searched for a place until we found it. If in America the problems are solved in a month, then we have 13 years. The sculptures were transported from Florida on several flights to Odesa and then here. There are abstract-constructive, architectural, and portrait forms. In total, 5 different directions. Some have their material. It is a construction grid and cement. Nobody did that. And the big ones, the park’s ones, are connected by fittings.
Sculptures on display - not signed. This is for specifically so that the visitor can fantasize and guess. You can visit the museum at 16 Muzeyna Street, Bryukhovychi.
We advise you to visit by the previous agreement with Mrs. Sofia Dzyndra by phone at +380973975480
