Old Piano

Mykola Yosypovych Nikaro-Karpenko was a Soviet architect, artist, set designer, and watercolorist. Born in Chernihiv region in 1894, he graduated from the Cherkasy Cadet Corps and participated in World War I in the Balkans. Nikaro-Karpenko received an art education at the Kyiv Art and Construction Institute and trained at the Repin Institute (Leningrad). In the 1930s, he worked at the "Hiprohrad" in the city of Kharkiv. Starting in approximately 1947, he lived in Mariupol, working as an architect. His architectural styles were Stalinist neoclassicism and realism. He participated in the reconstruction of the city in the post-war years. Nikaro-Karpenko's most important works include an obelisk to fallen pilots, the interior design of the Drama Theater in Zhdaniv (now Mariupol), the interior design of the Krupskaya Library in the city of Donetsk, and the interior design of the seaside station "Markokhim". His first personal exhibition as an artist took place in 1949. He was a collector of old drawings, his collection of which was later transferred to the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore. A watercolor drawing by Nikaro-Karpenko was kept in the funds of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore. He died in 1962 in Zhdaniv (Mariupol).