Vasyl Krychevskyi was a Ukrainian artist and architect. He was the creator of a new Ukrainian architectural style — Ukrainian architectural modernism. In painting, Vasyl Krychevskyi was a representative of lyrical "Ukrainian Impressionism." He created the state emblem of the Ukrainian People's Republic and was the brother of Fedir Krychevskyi.

The artist was born in 1873 as the eldest of eight children. After training as a draftsman in a technical school, he worked with various architects, notably as the chief architectural assistant to Academician Oleksii Beketov.

Since 1907, Krychevskyi worked in Kyiv, creating a series of stylistically notable buildings, participating in the Ukrainian Art Exhibition (1911–1912), and illustrating several books. Among Krychevskyi’s most famous architectural projects in Kyiv are the house of Professor Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the House of Writers ("RoLit").

In 1917, he became one of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts founders.

In February 1918, the Bolsheviks shelled Hrushevsky's house, where Krychevskyi lived on the top floor with his family. His paintings, sketches, studies, and unique ethnographic collection of folk art items were destroyed. Krychevskyi emerged from depression when Mykhailo Hrushevsky, head of the Ukrainian Central Rada, invited him to design the state symbols of the Ukrainian People's Republic. For the emblem, Krychevskyi used the trident of Kyiv Prince Volodymyr as a base. The Ukrainian Central Rada approved this symbol as the coat of arms of the UPR.

Krychevskyi was an exceptional artist, despite lacking formal artistic education. Throughout his life, his works were exhibited in Ukraine and abroad. His last lifetime exhibition in his homeland took place in 1940 in Kyiv, where 1,055 of his works were displayed.

During World War II, he left Kyiv, first moving to Lviv, then later relocating to Germany. In 1949, Krychevskyi moved permanently to Caracas, Venezuela, where he passed away on November 15, 1952.

One of the largest collections of Vasyl Krychevskyi's works is preserved at the Ukrainian Museum in New York. A unique collection of his paintings can be seen at the Museum of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Kyiv.