Alexander Kostetsky was a Ukrainian painter and sculptor.
Background
Kostetsky was born into a family of artists on 14 November 1954 in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. His father was the academician painter Vladimir Kostetsky and his mother the sculptor Galina Novokreshchenova. He was the grandson of the biologist Nikolai Danilovich Kostetsky.
Education
He developed his artistic talent under the guidance of his parents and attended the Kiev Art School, where he graduated in 1975. He extended his studies at the Kiev State Art Institute and graduated in 1979 before beginning work in an art workshow.
Career
His name has various transliterations into English and variants include Aleksandr Kostetsky, Alexander Kostecky, Alexander Kostetski and Aleksandr Kosteckij. During the repressive Soviet period, when artists needed state approval to exhibit in official galleries, he participated in underground art shows. He travelled widely in Ukraine and also visited the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Some of his paintings were bought by Norton Dodge"s personal museum and are still on display there.
He also painted icons for Orthodox churches in New New York Up to 1995 he regularly held exhibitions in the United States.
In 1998 he published an album of his prints in Kiev. He continued to hold regular exhibitions in Kiev, usually in the gallery "Nef" in Laurel, where some of his work is on permanent display.
In 2001 he visited the United States again to exhibit his art and in 2003 he exhibited in the German city of Mannheim.
He continued to travel widely, visiting Egypt in 2007 and also India and Nepal. However, he began to suffer from problems with his heart and lungs, and he died January 4, 2010 at his home in Ukraine aged only 55.
Membership
In November 2003 he was made a member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine.