Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Murashko ( uk, Олександр Олександрович Мурашко); also known as Aleksandr Murashko ( – June 14, 1919) was a prominent

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

Life and career

Murashko was born in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. His stepfather, Oleksandr Ivanovych Murashko, had an icon-painting workshop and worked on the interior of

St Volodymyr's Cathedral St Volodymyr's Cathedral ( uk, Володимирський собор, russian: Владимирский собор) is a cathedral in the centre of Kyiv. It is one of the city's major landmarks and the mother cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodo ...

."Митець свiтового рiвня Олександр Мурашко (1875–1919)"
''Українська культура'' 1 (1999) 25–26

at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

, March 5, 2007 In 1894, with recommendations from several prominent artists, he entered the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. In 1896, he became a student of

Ilya Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the ...

; he is one of those depicted in Yelena Makovskaya-Luksch's group portrait, ''Repin's Students''.Anna Novakov, ''Play of Lines: Anton Ažbe's Art Academy and the Education of East European Female Painters'', San Francisco: Fibonacci Academic Press (Lulu.com), 2011,
p. 50
In 1901, he travelled abroad, visiting Germany, where he studied with

Anton Ažbe Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905) was a Slovene realist painter and teacher of painting. Ažbe, crippled since birth and orphaned at the age of 8, learned painting as an apprentice to Janez Wolf and at the Academies in Vienna and ...

in Munich, Italy, and France, where he was greatly influenced. Murashko became a successful artist; he has been called "the most important Ukrainian artist of the turn of the century".Semion Gurok and Boris Lobanovsky, tr. Anne Staros, ''Kyiv, Architectural Landmarks and Art Museums: An Illustrated Guide'', Leningrad: Aurora, 1987,
p. 75
His painting ''Carousel'' won the gold medal at the Munich Exposition in 1909, and he exhibited in Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, and Düsseldorf. From 1909 to 1912, Murashko taught at the

Kyiv Art School Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. In 1913, he opened his own studio in the Ginsburg skyscraper, where many young Jewish artists were trained, including Mark Epstein. He had a great influence on

Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

.Gerry Souter, ''Malevich: Journey to Infinity'', Temporis Collection, New York: Parkstone, 2008,
p. 47
Founders of the Ukrainian academy of arts

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. In 1909, Murashko married Marguerite Kruger, a notary's daughter. In 1910, after his father's death, he bought a small house in the Kyiv suburb of Lukyanivka. He was taken away from the house, apparently by a street gang, and shot from behind on June 14, 1919. His funeral was well attended and he was buried in Lukyanivsky Cemetery.

Works

Originally a realist in the style of the ''

Peredvizhniki Peredvizhniki ( rus, Передви́жники, , pʲɪrʲɪˈdvʲiʐnʲɪkʲɪ), often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restr ...

'', Murashko later painted in a "refined",

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

style influenced by his time in Munich and Paris. His Modernism in turn influenced later Ukrainian artists in the

Socialist Realist Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

period. His works are less often narrative and unusually expressive for Ukrainian paintings of the time.

Selected list of paintings

Olexandr murashko Divchyna v chervonim kapeliusi

* ''Portrait of Nikolai Petrov'', 1897–98 * ''Portrait of Helen Murashko'', 1898–99 * ''Portrait of Olga Nesterov'', 1900 * ''The Funeral of the Chieftain'', 1900Serhy Yekelchyk, ''Stalin's Empire of Memory: Russian-Ukrainian Relations in the Soviet Historical Imagination'', Toronto: University of Toronto, 2004,
p. 145
* ''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 File:Olexandr murashko Portret Mykoly Petrova.jpg, ''Portrait of Mykola Petrov'' File:Olexandr murashko Portret Liudmily Kuksinoyi.jpg, ''Portrait of Ludmilla Kuksin'' (1910) File:Olexandr murashko Zyma.jpg, ''Winter'' (1905) File:Olexandr murashko Prachka.jpg, ''Washerwoman'' (1914) File:Oleksander Murashko. By the Pond.jpg, ''By the Pond. Portrait of Marguerite Murashko'' (1913)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murashko, Oleksandr 1875 births 1919 deaths Artists from Kyiv People from Kievsky Uyezd 20th-century Ukrainian painters 20th-century Ukrainian male artists Ukrainian male painters Russian male painters Academic staff of the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture

Life and career

Works

Selected list of paintings

References

Further reading

External links