Olexa Bulavitsky
Opening Saturday: Drafted into the Soviet army during World War II, Ukrainian artist Bulavitsky (1916-2001) led a harrowing and dramatic life before arriving in Minneapolis in 1950. Captured and imprisoned during the war, he escaped, returned home to Kiev, married, headed west, and came to the United States from a displaced-person camp in Bavaria. Trained as a woodworker, a theater set designer and painter, Bulavitsky kept faith with his art through every trial. In his adopted country he established a successful professional career as a portrait and landscape painter. About 50 of his pictures, including "Ukrainian Settlement, Manitoba, Canada," shown here, are showcased in the context of his life and times. (10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Ends July 3. $9 adults. Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Av. S., Mpls. 612-821-9045 or tmora.org)
Mary Abbe
