Outstanding Ukrainian artists in Australia: Vasil Tsybulsky

The article for the first time presents a detailed biography of the artist Vasil Evgenovich Tsybulsky (Tsybulko) (1904-1992) – an outstanding representative of the Ukrainian diaspora in Australia. The author has found the fragmentation in research of life and activity of the artist in the national and foreign historiography. These have determined the task of the article – to fill the existing scientific gap. The biography of V. Tsybulsky is based on the analysis of articles in periodicals and reference materials of the Ukrainian diaspora in Australia, as well as materials and documented sources of the artist's personal fund in Ukraine (F. 67 of Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica (CSAFU)). The author used biographical documents, documents related to the artist's creative activity, letters to him, articles by foreign critics about his work. Most of materials of the fund have not yet been published and are of considerable practical interest given the important role that artist played in the preservation and development of the Ukrainian culture in the Australian continent. Some documents were put into scientific circulation for the first time, in particular, a letter from Vatican from Patriarch Joseph Slipyi (Blind) with thanks to V. Tsibulsky for transferring the artist's painting to the Ukrainian Catholic Museum in Rome. Complex of these materials allow reconstructing the main stages of V. Tsybulsky's biography: staying in the USSR; life in the camps for displaced persons in Germany; and in emigration in Australia. In addition, the author made a brief overview of his artistic activity.