A School In Novogrudok Has Been Named After An Artist Known As The “Belarusian Leonardo Da Vinci”

• 20.09.2026, 8:50

It took a lot of work to make that happen.

Novogrudok Secondary School No. 7 was named after the artist Yazep Drozdovich. The ceremony took place on September 17. However, as the newspaper reports, the school administration had to put in a lot of work to make this happen "Novaye Zhitsyo" reports.

— Since Yazep Drozdovich had no children, finding his relatives was no easy task. We learned from staff at the Y. N. Drozdovich Art and Ethnographic Museum, located in the Sharkovshchyna District, that there is one distant relative working at the Gluboksk Forestry Office. I found him and obtained his consent to name our school after Yazep Drozdovich,” said the school’s principal, Elena Kazak.

During the event, Kazak explained that the life of the artist—who is often called the Belarusian Leonardo da Vinci—is closely tied to Novogrudok.

“From 1927 to 1929, he taught drawing at the Novogrudok Belarusian Gymnasium. There is also a series of works by Yazep Drozdovich dedicated to the Novogrudok region,” she noted.

Yazep Drozdovich was an artist, ethnographer, and writer. He was born in the Gluboksky District and studied at the Vilnius School of Drawing. He traveled extensively throughout Belarus, sketching architecture, everyday life, and landscapes. His fantastical paintings of space and planets hold a special place in his body of work. He is considered one of the most unusual and distinctive figures in 20th-century Belarusian art. The artist’s uniqueness was not recognized until after his death.