b. 1936
Ivan Marchuk
Painter, creator of “plontanism”
His paintings are made not of brushstrokes but of fine colored lines that interweave and seem to glow. Ivan Marchuk called the technique “plontanism”. The Soviet authorities refused to recognize him; later he won the Shevchenko Prize and became a People’s Artist of Ukraine.
Key accomplishments
- His own technique, “plontanism” (first used in 1972)
- The overarching cycle Voice of My Soul, including the Shevchenkiana series (1982–1984)
- Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine (1997) and the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine (2002)
- The “National Legend of Ukraine” award (2021)
Paintings made of fine lines
Imagine a canvas where the paint goes on not in brushstrokes but in fine colored lines. They cross at different angles, and the picture seems to gain depth and glow. Ivan Marchuk first used this technique in a landscape in 1972 and called it “plontanism”. It is almost impossible to copy: the work is too delicate and too painstaking.
The artist they wouldn’t recognize
Marchuk was born in 1936 in the village of Moskalivka in the Ternopil region. He studied art in Lviv, among others under Karlo Zvirynskyi and Roman Selskyi, and then moved to Kyiv, where he worked at a monumental and decorative art workshop and illustrated magazines.
His style did not fit socialist realism, so the official authorities and the artists’ unions refused to recognize his work, and the KGB put pressure on him. He was admitted to the Union of Artists only in 1988. The following year he emigrated: he lived in Australia, Canada and the United States, and in 2001 he returned to Ukraine for good.
Cycles, not single paintings
Marchuk’s work spans landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and fantastic and abstract compositions. He has grouped his paintings into cycles: Voice of My Soul (including the Shevchenkiana series), Colored Preludes, White Planet. His works are held in the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the National Museum in Lviv and the Shevchenko National Preserve in Kaniv.
Why it matters today
Marchuk shows that an artist can hold to his own path even when the authorities refuse to recognize him. He is a Shevchenko Prize laureate (1997) and a People’s Artist of Ukraine (2002). In 2026, for his 90th birthday, a large retrospective of his work opened in Kyiv.
