Petro Andrusiv was born in the village of Kamianobrid near Lviv. Being lost during WWI, the eight-year-old boy together with the regiment of the Kuban Cossacks found himself in Russia. From Moscow orphanage he got to Riazan, and then, together with the captive Polish officers, to Warsaw. Shortly after he finished a gymnasium he studied at Warsaw Academy of Art (1927–36); took an active part in the foundation and exhibition activities of the circle of young Ukrainian artists Spokiy. At an order of Lviv publishers he made illustrations to Children’s Library and Library of Our Friend, the magazines Svit Dytyny; Nash Pryiatel and Dzvinochok. In 1936, on graduating from the Academy, he worked at the Higher Architectural School of Warsaw, and improved his artistic skill in Paris.
During WWII, the artist lost his works and had to pass through forced labour in Germany.
In 1947, fate took him to the USA where he did not work as an artist for a long time. It was only in 1955 that he was invited to fill the post of an artist at Philadelphia architectural bureau. From
1972, his permanent place of residence was Riverhead where he fully devoted himself to art, and continued to actively participate in numerous committees and societies of the Ukrainian community.
Petro Andrusiv is the author of numerous illustrations to books by Yu. Tys, L. Khraplyva, V. Barahura, to the publication A History of Hutsul Land; as well as wall paintings, mosaics, stained-glass windows, iconostases which he made for churches in America and Canada. He worked much in easel painting: created many portraits and genre compositions. He was most successful in historical and battle genres. His monumental canvases on the subjects of Kyivan Rus (Prince’s Landing-Stage in Kyiv; Match-Making of Anna Yaroslavna; The Baptism of Ukraine-Rus; The Battle of Ihor with the Polovtsi), the Zaporozhian Sich (Bohdan Khmelnytsky; Hetman Mazepa Meeting Hordienko; Attack of the Cossacks; The Battle of Korsun), and the liberation fight of the Ukrainian Galician Army (Chortkiv Breach) are distinguished by their panoramic building of many-figured compositions, painting mastery, expressiveness of the characters, precise recreation of a concrete historical environment.
The talent of the artist found its embodiment in the epistolary genre, journalistic articles and
articles on study of art which were published as a separate volume in the series Library of
Ukrainian Studies in 1987.
