Ivan Cherinko

Ivan Ivanovich Cherinko (, 1908–1948) was a Ukrainian artist who moved to Turkmenistan, after visiting Ashgabat in 1933 and finding the city beautiful and picturesque.

Career He was among a group of artists who had studied with Russian masters and graduated from Russian art schools that came to Turkmenistan in the 1930s. They established classical Turkmen fine arts, utilizing colorful folk art, utilizing their training in traditional fine arts of Russia. He premiered in an exhibition in 1934, and his works are considered significant examples of Turkmen painting. Cherinko studied the culture and the lives of the Turkmen people and sought to capture the nature of their inner worlds. His portraits, landscapes, and historical compositions reflected the charm and traditional culture of the country. His paintings, The Smithy (1928), The Bey: The Powers That Be (1940), The Daring Horseback Riders (1944–46), and Spring in Bagir (1947) reflect the social transformations that Soviet Turkmenia experienced in the first half of the 20th century.

Cherinko founded the Union of Artists of Turkmenistan in the 1930s, when fine arts gained momentum within Turkmenistan. He died on October 6, 1948, in Ashgabat during the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake, which killed between 10,000 and 100,000 people.