The Most Famous

PAINTERS from Ukraine

This page contains a list of the greatest Ukrainian Painters. The pantheon dataset contains 2,023 Painters, 22 of which were born in Ukraine. This makes Ukraine the birth place of the 17th most number of Painters behind Denmark, and Sweden.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Ukrainian Painters of all time. This list of famous Ukrainian Painters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Ukrainian Painters.

1. Kazimir Malevich (1879 - 1935)

With an HPI of 74.58, Kazimir Malevich is the most famous Ukrainian Painter. His biography has been translated into 70 different languages on wikipedia.

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (23 February [O.S. 11 February] 1879 – 15 May 1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist, whose pioneering work and writing influenced the development of abstract art in the 20th century. He was born in Kiev, modern-day Ukraine, to an ethnic Polish family. His concept of Suprematism sought to develop a form of expression that moved as far as possible from the world of natural forms (objectivity) and subject matter in order to access "the supremacy of pure feeling" and spirituality. Active primarily in Russia, Malevich was a founder of the artists collective UNOVIS and his work has been variously associated with the Russian avant-garde and the Ukrainian avant-garde, and he was a central figure in the history of modern art in Central and Eastern Europe more broadly. Early on, Malevich worked in a variety of styles, quickly assimilating the movements of Impressionism, Symbolism and Fauvism and, after visiting Paris in 1912, Cubism. Gradually simplifying his style, he developed an approach with key works consisting of pure geometric forms and their relationships to one another, set against minimal grounds. His Black Square (1915), a black square on white, represented the most radically abstract painting known to have been created so far and drew "an uncrossable line (…) between old art and new art"; Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918), a barely differentiated off-white square superimposed on an off-white ground, would take his ideal of pure abstraction to its logical conclusion. In addition to his paintings, Malevich laid down his theories in writing, such as "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism" (1915) and The Non-Objective World: The Manifesto of Suprematism (1926). Malevich's trajectory in many ways mirrored the tumult of the decades surrounding the October Revolution in 1917. In its immediate aftermath, vanguard movements such as Suprematism and Vladimir Tatlin's Constructivism were encouraged by Trotskyite factions in the government. Malevich held several prominent teaching positions and received a solo show at the Sixteenth State Exhibition in Moscow in 1919. His recognition spread to the West with solo exhibitions in Warsaw and Berlin in 1927. From 1928 to 1930, he taught at the Kiev Art Institute, with Alexander Bogomazov, Victor Palmov, Vladimir Tatlin and published his articles in a Kharkiv magazine Nova Generatsiia (New generation). But the start of repression in Ukraine against the intelligentsia forced Malevich return to Leningrad (Saint Petersburg). From the beginning of the 1930s, modern art was falling out of favor with the new government of Joseph Stalin. Malevich soon lost his teaching position, artworks and manuscripts were confiscated, and he was banned from making art. In 1930, he was imprisoned for two months due to suspicions raised by his trip to Poland and Germany. Forced to abandon abstraction, he painted in a representational style in the years before his death from cancer in 1935, at the age of 56. His art and his writings influenced contemporaries such as El Lissitzky, Lyubov Popova and Alexander Rodchenko, as well as generations of later abstract artists, such as Ad Reinhardt and the Minimalists. He was celebrated posthumously in major exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art (1936), the Guggenheim Museum (1973) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1989), which has a large collection of his work. In the 1990s, the ownership claims of museums to many Malevich works began to be disputed by his heirs.

2. Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930)

With an HPI of 73.36, Ilya Repin is the 2nd most famous Ukrainian Painter. His biography has been translated into 76 different languages.

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1844 – 29 September 1930) was a Ukrainian-born Russian painter. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1880–1883), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885); and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–1891). He is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading Russian literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov, and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship. Repin was born in Chuguev, in Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father had served in an Uhlan Regiment in the Russian army, and then sold horses. Repin began painting icons at age sixteen. He failed at his first effort to enter the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg, but went to the city anyway in 1863, audited courses, and won his first prizes in 1869 and 1871. In 1872, after a tour along the Volga River, he presented his drawings at the Academy of Art in St. Petersburg. The Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich awarded him a commission for a large scale painting, The Barge Haulers of the Volga, which launched his career. He spent two years in Paris and Normandy, seeing the first Impressionist expositions and learning the techniques of painting in the open air. He suffered one setback in 1885 when his history portrait of Ivan the Terrible killing his own son in a rage caused a scandal, resulting in the painting being removed from exhibition. But this was followed by a series of major successes and new commissions. In 1898, with his second wife, he purchased a country house, The Penates, in Kuokkala, Finland (now Repino, Saint Petersburg), close to St. Petersburg, where they entertained Russian society. In 1905, following the repression of street demonstrations by the Imperial government, he quit his teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts. He welcomed the February Revolution in 1917, but was appalled by the violence and terror unleashed by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution. In 1917, Russia lost control over the Grand Duchy of Finland, leading to the full independence of Finland. Following this event, Ilya Repin was unable to travel to St. Petersburg (renamed Leningrad), even for an exhibition of his own works in 1925. Repin died on 29 September 1930, at the age of 86, and was buried at the Penates. His home is now a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

3. Sonia Delaunay (1885 - 1979)

With an HPI of 66.48, Sonia Delaunay is the 3rd most famous Ukrainian Painter. Her biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Sonia Delaunay (French: [sɔnja dəlonɛ]; 14 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist born to Jewish parents, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in the Russian Empire, now Ukraine, and was formally trained in Russia and Germany, before moving to France and expanding her practice to include textile, fashion, and set design. She was part of the School of Paris and co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Her work in modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, and the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing into her art practice.

4. Marie Bashkirtseff (1858 - 1884)

With an HPI of 64.78, Marie Bashkirtseff is the 4th most famous Ukrainian Painter. Her biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Marie Bashkirtseff, born Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva (Russian: Мария Константиновна Башкирцева; 24 November [O.S. 12 November] 1858 – 31 October 1884), was a émigré artist who was born into a nobles family on their estate near the city of Poltava. She lived and worked in Paris, and died at the age of 25.

5. Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842 - 1910)

With an HPI of 60.83, Arkhip Kuindzhi is the 5th most famous Ukrainian Painter. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (Russian: Архип Иванович Куинджи [ɐrˈxʲip kʊˈindʐɨ]; Greek: Αρχίπ Ιβάνοβιτς Κουίντζι; 27 January [O.S. 15 January] 1841 – 24 July [O.S. 11 July] 1910) was a Russian landscape painter of Greek descent.

6. Zinaida Serebriakova (1884 - 1967)

With an HPI of 60.56, Zinaida Serebriakova is the 6th most famous Ukrainian Painter. Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova (Russian: Зинаида Евгеньевна Серебрякова; née Lansere (Лансере); 12 December [O.S. 30 November] 1884 – 20 September 1967) was a Russian and later French painter.

7. Henryk Siemiradzki (1843 - 1902)

With an HPI of 60.21, Henryk Siemiradzki is the 7th most famous Ukrainian Painter. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Henryk Hektor Siemiradzki (24 October 1843 – 23 August 1902) was a Polish painter. He spent most of his active creative life in Rome. Best remembered for his monumental academic art, he is particularly known for his depictions of scenes from the ancient Greek-Roman world and the New Testament, owned by many national galleries of Europe. Many Siemiradzki paintings depict scenes from antiquity, often the sunlit pastoral scenes or compositions presenting the lives of early Christians. He also painted biblical and historical scenes, landscapes, and portraits. His best-known works include monumental curtains for the Lviv (Lwów) Theatre of Opera and for the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków.

8. Maria Prymachenko (1908 - 1997)

With an HPI of 59.60, Maria Prymachenko is the 8th most famous Ukrainian Painter. Her biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Maria Oksentiyivna Prymachenko (Ukrainian: Марія Оксентіївна Примаченко; 12 January 1909 [O.S. 30 December 1908] – 18 August 1997) was a Ukrainian folk art painter, who worked in the naïve art style. A self-taught artist, she worked in painting, embroidery and ceramics. In 1966, Prymachenko was awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared that 2009 was the year of Prymachenko. A street in Kyiv and a minor planet are both named after her. Pablo Picasso once said, after visiting a Prymachenko exhibition in Paris at the 1937 World's Fair, "I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian."

9. Leonid Pasternak (1862 - 1945)

With an HPI of 58.14, Leonid Pasternak is the 9th most famous Ukrainian Painter. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (Russian: Леонид Осипович Пастернак; born Yitzhok-Leib or Isaak Iosifovich Pasternak; 3 April [O.S. 22 March] 1862 – 31 May 1945) was a Russian painter. He was the father of the poet and novelist Boris Pasternak.

10. Maurycy Gottlieb (1856 - 1879)

With an HPI of 57.27, Maurycy Gottlieb is the 10th most famous Ukrainian Painter. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Maurycy Gottlieb (; 21/28 February 1856 – 17 July 1879) was a Polish-Jewish realist painter of the Romantic period. Considered one of the most talented students of Jan Matejko, Gottllieb died at the age of 23.

People

Pantheon has 30 people classified as Ukrainian painters born between 1735 and 1936. Of these 30, 1 (3.33%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Ukrainian painters include Ivan Marchuk. The most famous deceased Ukrainian painters include Kazimir Malevich, Ilya Repin, and Sonia Delaunay. As of April 2024, 8 new Ukrainian painters have been added to Pantheon including Alexander Bogomazov, Kateryna Bilokur, and Ephraim Moses Lilien.