Oleksandr Murashko

Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Murashko (; June14, 1919) was a prominent Ukrainian artist, widely known for his unusually expressive paintings.

Life and career Murashko was born in Kyiv. His stepfather, Oleksandr Ivanovych Murashko, had an icon-painting workshop and worked on the interior of St Volodymyr's Cathedral. The future painter's uncle Mykola Murashko was the founder of Kyiv Painting School, which produced a number of notable painters including Mykhailo Zhuk, Ivan Yizhakevych, Petro Kholodnyi, Valentin Serov, Kazimir Malevich and Vassili Kandinsky.

In 1894, with recommendations from several prominent artists, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. In 1896, he became a student of Ilya Repin; In 1901, he travelled abroad, visiting Germany, where he studied with Anton Ažbe in Munich, His painting Carousel won the gold medal at the Munich Exposition in 1909, and he exhibited in Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, and Düsseldorf. where many young Jewish artists were trained, including Mark Epstein. He had a great influence on Kazimir Malevich.

Founders of the Ukrainian academy of arts, 5 September 1917: Sitting: Abram Manevich, Oleksandr Murashko, Fedir Krychevsky, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ivan Steshenko, Mykola Burachek. Standing: Heorhiy Narbut, Vasyl Krychevsky, Mykhailo Boychuk.

He was a patriotic Ukrainian, one of the adherents of the "Young Muse" movement which was started in 1906 by Modernists who drew on developments elsewhere in Europe to make Ukrainian art more progressive. He founded the Association of Kyiv Artists in 1916 and the following year co-founded the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts. His Modernism in turn influenced later Ukrainian artists in the Socialist Realist period. His works are less often narrative and unusually expressive for Ukrainian paintings of the time. Parisian. At the Cafe, 1902–03 Girl in a Red Hat, 1902–03 A Girl with a Dog. Portrait of T. Yazevoyi, 1903–04 Portrait of Professor Adrian Prahova, 1904 Winter, 1905 At the Embroidery Frame. Portrait of Helena Prahova, 1905 Carousel, 1906 In the Stern. Portrait of George Murashko, 1906 Sunspots. Portrait of George Murashko, 1908 Portrait of Marguerite Murashko, 1909 The Annunciation, 1909 Portrait of Ludmilla Kuksin, 1910 Portrait of Vera Dytyatinoyi, 1910 Portrait of Vera Yepanchin, 1910 By the Pond. Portrait of Marguerite Murashko, 1913 Peasant Family, 1914 Washerwoman, 1914 Portrait of an Old Woman, 1916 Woman with Flowers, 1918 Self Portrait, 1918