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Opanas Slastion | |
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| Born | Опанас Георгійович Сластьон December 2 [O.S. December 14] 1855 |
| Died | September 24, 1933(1933-09-24) (aged 77) |
Opanas Heorhiiovych Slastion (Ukrainian:Опанас Георгійович Сластіон, December 2 [O.S. December 14] 1855 – September 24, 1933) was aUkrainiangraphic artist, painter, andethnographer.
He was born in the port town ofBerdiansk (nowUkraine) on the Berdyansk Gulf of theSea of Azov. He studied at theImperial Academy of Arts inSaint Petersburg,Russia (where he was also known as Afanasy Slastyon), researched theCossack documents in the archives of the Russian ministry of defense, and later worked as a teacher at the Arts and Crafts School (later renamed the State Ceramics Vocational School) inMyrhorod. He cultivated his talents in singing,bandura playing,ethnography, journalism, education, design, andarchitecture. Opanas Slastion was a Ukrainianencyclopaedist.
At the time Slastion was growing up, there were opportunities for some Ukrainians to have their talents recognized in the Imperial capital and in WesternEurope. Many gifted Ukrainian performers joined court choirs and theatre,opera, andballet troupes, and the Ukrainian artists were attracted to the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In the 19th century among these Ukrainian artists was the famous poet and writerTaras Shevchenko, whose writings,etchings and paintings dedicated to Ukrainian ethnographic themes (genre scenes and portraits) greatly influenced Slastion, who became the first illustrator of Shevchenko's 'Kobzar' (the illustrations to "Haidamaky"). As a painter, Slastion is credited with depicting series ofCossack andkobzar portraits and scenes of Ukrainian country life.
Slastion was one of the most active propagators of the artistry of thekobzars. Actually, he himself was the first outstanding sightedbandura player and tutor of modern times.KobzarIvan Kuchuhura-Kucherenko stayed with him in Myrhorod in order to refine his performance ofdumy (sung epic poems) under the guidance of Slastion.Danylo Pika, one of the founders of thePoltava Bandurist Capella (who became its conductor), initially learned to play thebandura from Slastion in Myrhorod. Later in his life, in the early 1930s, Slastion designed the shape of the standardKyiv bandura (the familiar modern shape of the instrument). Some other instruments of the bandura family (such as those made byIvan Skliar, for example) were also modeled on Slastion's designs.
Slastion was also a leading Ukrainian folklorist and ethnographer. In 1875, then a student at the Petersburg Academy of Arts and a budding folklorist, he spent his holidays in Ukraine and got the chance to know the artistry of thekobzarNekhovaizub.
In 1876 P.Martynovych and his colleague Slastion travelled toLokhvytsia and recorded theduma parody by kobzarIvan Kravchenko. In 1887 Slastion made an engraving of kobzar P.Siroshtan.In 1905 he painted a portrait of kobzarPavlo Hashchenko and noted that Hashchenko knew fourdumy.
In 1902-1903 he was one of the initiators of the idea of thepreservation of kobzar music by means ofsound recording using recently inventedphonograph.
In 1906 Slastion met thekobzar Zhovniansky, recorded his performances ofdumy, and painted his portrait.
In 1908 inYalta the technically savvy Slastion helpedLesia Ukrainka and her husbandKlyment Kvitka make live recordings (onphonograph cylinders) of thedumy performed by the blindvirtuosoHnat Honcharenko (circa 1837 - circa 1917), as part of the major project of thepreservation of kobzar music. These recordings were transcribed byFilaret Kolessa, who later published them in his collectionMelodiyi ukrayins'kykh narodnykh dum (The Melodies of the Ukrainian Folk Dumas). It is known that Slastion corresponded with another well-known blindkobzar,Tereshko Parkhomenko (1872–1910). In 1909 Slastion made recordings of the repertoire ofkobzarHovtan, including theduma "The Widow and Her Three Sons".
Selections from Slastion's repertoire originally recorded on wax cylinders can be found on a record released as a dedication toLesya Ukrainka.
As an architect, Opanas Slastion was one of the founding fathers of theUkrainian Art Nouveau style in architecture.
