Antonyuk, Mikhail Yakovlevich

Mikhail Yakovlevich Antonyuk was born on March 12, 1935 in Tulychiv, Ukraine, the oldest child of Ukrainian villagers. After high school, Antonyuk studied together with his friend and future collaborator Vasiliy Tovtin in the monumental painting department of the Lviv Institute of Decorative and Applied Art, graduating in 1961.

That same year, Antonyuk and his friend were sent to Kazakhstan as part of the Virgin Lands Campaign, tasked with enlivening the modernist buildings of Tselinograd (now Astana) with mosaics and stained glass. Antonyuk would cofound the regional branch of the Union of Artists of Kazakhstan in Tselinograd and serve as its head for many years. 

Antonyuk and Tovtin made several works of monumental art in Tselinograd, but their sole work in Alma-Ata was a a long panel combining mosaic and concrete relief, installed along the southern facade of the Komsomol Building (now the headquarters of the UN in Kazakhstan). 

On April 14, 1993, Mikhail Antonyuk died of complications of Parkinson's disease at the age of 58.

Works

Source: Yaroslav Antonyuk