“Give me a thousand years, and I will paint the sky...”
IVAN MARCHUK
People’s Artist of Ukraine (1996), laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine (1997), knight of the Order of Freedom, recipient of the presidential National Legend of Ukraine award (2021). Listed in The Daily Telegraph’s Top 100 Living Geniuses of 2007.
Biography
Ivan Marchuk was born on May 12, 1936 in the village Moskalivka of the Ternopil region of Ukraine (at the time Volhynian Voivodeship of the Polish Republic) into a poor peasant family. Ivan Marchuk's father was a well-known weaver throughout the district. Ivan had three sisters. He started drawing as a child.
“There are few pictures that I painted with my head, my mind. They just seem to come to me. It's as if you unwind a ball of visions, and gradually a picture emerges"
Despite the lack of materials, he created art with natural pigments from flower petals, grass and fruits. After seven years of primary school, he studied decorative painting at the Ivan Trush Lviv School of Applied Arts from 1951 to 1956. Marchuk described this period as transformative, thanks to progressive teachers who inspired him to study outside the ideologically safe space of socialist realism. In 1959 he joined an underground group led by one of his teachers, who introduced its members to unauthorized art, history, music, literature and religion. After completing mandatory service in the Soviet army, Marchuk went on to study ceramics at the Lviv Institute of Applied Arts, graduating in 1965. To make money, Marchuk also worked at an organization that made billboards and posters for factories, clubs and theaters. He then moved to Kyiv. From 1965 to 1968 Ivan Marchuk worked at the Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
From 1968 to 1984 Marchuk made illustrations for Soviet publications at the Kyiv Factory of Monumental and Decorative Art. During this time, experimenting with different artistic forms in search of his own creative method and path in art, he started to create the polystylistic and polythematic series of works “Voice of My Soul”, which will branch off into new series throughout his career.
This period of his life is also when the KGB began to persecute him for his non-conformist leanings, with the repression reaching a peak in the 1970s. The Soviet authorities were particularly concerned with Marchuk’s use of dark colors, which, in their opinion, did not correspond to the typical bright images of socialist realism. In addition to accusations of deviating from socialist realism, the KGB suspected Marchuk of supporting Ukrainian nationalism because he came from Lviv, spoke Ukrainian and painted Ukrainian public figures. Denied membership in the Union of Artists of the USSR, he was unable to participate in exhibitions and sell his works. Marchuk's first exhibition in Kyiv wasn’t until 1980. After he was fired from the Kyiv Factory of Monumental and Decorative Art, the artist began a long period of life abroad. He traveled to Australia in 1988, spent a year in Canada, and lived in the US from 1990 to 2001, where he continued to create paintings.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, Marchuk decided to return to Ukraine. Due to the full-scale war started by the Russian Federation in Ukraine in 2022, the artist was forced to leave Ukraine once again and currently resides in the Austrian capital of Vienna. He continues to draw, creating new and supplementing existing series of paintings. Ivan Marchuk's friends and local Ukrainian community in Vienna support the artist by creating the opportunities to exhibit his works for the people to enjoy, which has always been the biggest aspiration of the artist. The exhibition "Love Your Ukraine" was followed by the exhibition "Familiar Unfamiliar" at the National Museum Kyiv Picture Gallery in Kyiv in 2023, and in 2024, the exhibition "Cosmic Mystery of Life" took place at the Kyiv Museum. These exhibitions were held under the patronage of the Ukrainian President and the Ministry of Culture. His largest exhibition to date took place in February 2024 in Vienna, featuring around 250 works. At the same time, from January to March 2024, the "Viennese Rhapsodies" cycle, created in Vienna, was exhibited, reflecting a deep connection with Viennese culture. From December 2024 to the end of March 2025, a retrospective exhibition featuring around forty paintings from fifteen different cycles was held at the National Maritime and Shipping Museum in Gdańsk. In February 2025, approximately 60 of his paintings were showcased in a solo exhibition in the Vatican. On this occasion, Pope Francis greeted Ivan Marchuk during private audience.
At the beginning of 2025, the non-profit Ivan Marchuk Foundation was established in Vienna. Its purpose is to preserve the artist’s heritage and continue making it accessible to the public through exhibitions.
Artistry
The range of artistic styles passed through the prism of Marchuk’s unique worldview and transferred onto canvas is phenomenally wide - from primitivism (with clear archetypal features) to realism, hyperrealism, abstractionism, abstract expressionism, surrealism and abstract surrealism. By manipulating proportions, rhythm and color, Marchuk creates subconsciously and influences the subconscious.
Marchuk invented an original technique called “plyontanism” (from the Ukrainian word "plyontaty" - to weave, intertwine, thread) in which paint is applied in thin colored lines that intertwine at different angles, creating the effect of volume and luminescence. Marchuk's style, bordering on man and machine made due to its intricacy and labor intensity, is practically impossible to recreate. He first used this technique in a landscape painting in 1972. Plyontanism became the artist’s signature style – an original way to transfer his perception of the world onto canvas characterized by deformation of images, asymmetry of color and rhythmic contractions of brushstrokes.
Ivan Marchuk has organized his paintings into fifteen series "Voice of My Soul", "Landscape", "Blooming", "Shevchenkiana", "Color Preludes", "Portrait", "Still Life", "New Expressions", "White Planet I", "White Planet II", "Dreams Flooding", "Looking into Infinity", "White and Black. Dialogue", "Blind cycle", "Vienna Rhapsodies".
Throughout his more than 60-year-long career, Ivan Marchuk has held nearly 200 solo and collective exhibitions on 5 continents of the world, and "woven" hundreds of thousands of color and monochromatic kilometers of extraordinary plyontanism in thousands of artistic masterpieces, thus demonstrating the incredible human potential to create art.
The philosophical themes of his paintings convey the dramatic tension experienced by humanity and resonate with the challenges of the modern age. Using art, Marchuk has constructed his personal vision of the world, rooted in high aesthetics and focused on the future, and has offered his own vision of deep philosophical themes of human existence. His works play a powerful role in cultural diplomacy, helping to shape a positive image of Ukraine on the world stage.
Honors and Awards
1997 – Awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine
October 2007 – Included in The Daily Telegraph’s list of Top 100 Living Geniuses
June 2016 – Awarded the Order of Freedom in Ukraine
August 2021 – Presented the National Legend of Ukraine Award by the President of Ukraine
On July 3, 2026, a special meeting took place at Vienna City Hall (Rathaus) between the Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk and Michael Ludwig, Mayor of the Austrian capital.Held at the Mayor’s invitation, the meeting unfolded in a warm and cordial atmosphere. The conversation touched on art, Marchuk’s exhibition activity in Vienna, his creative ideas, and future projects.Over the four years of his stay in Vienna, Ivan Marchuk’s exhibitions have attracted more than 30,000 residents and visitors to the Austrian capital. The artist noted that Vienna is a city that “smells and breathes art,” as its cultural tradition and openness to creativity create a unique atmosphere for artists from around the world.Ivan Marchuk expressed his deep appreciation for Michael Ludwig’s knowledge of his life and artistic journey, his innovative signature technique of Pliontanism, and his contribution to world art. The Mayor showed genuine interest in the artist’s wish to continue taking part in the city’s cultural life and to enrich its artistic space through his work.Also attending were Thomas Reindl, Member of the Vienna State Parliament; Vasyl Khymynets, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Austria, representing the Embassy of Ukraine in Austria; and Professor Christoph Hirschmann, a well-known Austrian journalist, cultural commentator, and media manager.To commemorate the occasion, Ivan Marchuk presented the Mayor with one of his works created in his signature technique of Pliontanism — the painting Moonlit Night — as well as the five-volume catalogue “The Voice of My Soul.” Photo: Stadt Wien / Bubu Dujmic
10.07.2026
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Standing ovation was one of the most moving moments of the evening celebrating Ivan Marchuk’s 90th birthday. On that day, the artist was surrounded not only by his own canvases, but also by people for whom encountering his art had long been a deeply personal experience. Marchuk himself admitted that he had never before celebrated a birthday in such an atmosphere.The artistic evening “Along the Roads of Life” took place on 12 May 2026 at the Orangerie of Schönbrunn Palace. Organised by the Ivan Marchuk Non-profit Private Foundation to mark the artist’s 90th birthday, the event brought together more than five hundred guests. Representatives of the diplomatic and cultural communities, museum professionals, artists, friends of the master and numerous admirers of his work came to honour him on this special occasion.The event was attended by many distinguished guests. Among them were Father Vitalii Danchak, a mitrophoric archpriest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Secretary for Public Relations of the Metropolitanate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as well as representatives of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine and the Museum of the History of Kyiv.During the formal part of the evening, Ivan Marchuk received several prestigious honours. On behalf of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Father Vitalii Danchak presented the artist with the Order of the Holy Archangel Michael, First Class – the highest grade of this honorary ecclesiastical distinction. It is awarded for outstanding service to the Church, selfless dedication and a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian society.Representatives of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine presented Marchuk with the Order of Arts, First Class, the Academy’s highest distinction for an exceptional contribution to the development of Ukrainian art. Representatives of the Museum of the History of Kyiv also presented him with the Mayor of Kyiv’s Badge of Honour, one of the highest municipal distinctions awarded by the Ukrainian capital.For several hours, the historic setting of the Orangerie was transformed into a world of its own, where painting, music and the artist’s presence came together to form a harmonious artistic whole. The works on display traced the evolution of Marchuk’s creative explorations and revealed the extraordinary diversity of the artistic universe he has shaped over the course of many decades.In comments published after the event, visitors described the powerful emotions they experienced in the presence of the paintings. Many guests observed that Marchuk’s canvases required no additional explanation: they spoke directly to the viewer, awakening personal memories, associations and feelings.The musical programme lent the evening a particularly distinctive atmosphere. The artist’s daughter, Bohdana Pivnenko – a People’s Artist of Ukraine and an acclaimed violinist – performed for the audience. The programme also featured the vocal ensemble Pikkardiyska Tertsiya and the opera singer Susanna Chakhoyan. The music flowed naturally between the different parts of the evening, entering into a vivid dialogue with the exhibition space.At the heart of the event was Ivan Marchuk’s address to the audience. He spoke about the forces that had shaped his life and continued to define it: his constant need to work, the new artistic ideas that never allow him to stand still, and his profound connection with Ukraine.Even at the age of ninety, the artist maintains his familiar rhythm of life: the studio, new canvases, daily reflection, walks through Vienna’s Stadtpark, and then a return to work once again. There was no desire in his words to draw conclusions or sum up his life. On the contrary, his address sounded like a testament to a journey that is still unfolding.Age has placed no limits on his creative work. Ivan Marchuk remains an artist for whom every new day offers an opportunity to begin another painting and discover an artistic solution he has not yet explored.Following his address, the audience rose to their feet and applauded for a long time. Their response expressed gratitude not only for the paintings he had created, but also for the uncompromising integrity with which Marchuk had preserved his own artistic language over the decades, never adapting it to the expectations of his time or surroundings.The same sentiment was echoed in the visitors’ comments. For many, the meeting at Schönbrunn was memorable above all for the rare opportunity to see the artist alongside his works, to hear him speak and to sense the magnitude of the personality behind every canvas. Marchuk was described as a man whose artistic legacy had become part of an entire era, and as a master who had preserved both his freedom of thought and his fidelity to himself.The evening “Along the Roads of Life” was far more than a ceremonial celebration of a milestone birthday. The gathering at Schönbrunn once again demonstrated that Ivan Marchuk’s art continues to resonate deeply far beyond the borders of Ukraine, while remaining inseparably connected to its culture and spiritual experience.
10.07.2026
Non-profit foundation Ivan Marchuk is pleased to invite guests to a festive event on 12 May 2026 at 5:00 p.m. at the Orangerie Schönbrunn in Vienna on the occasion of the 90th birthday of the Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk.The evening is dedicated to the life’s work of Ivan Marchuk and offers an opportunity to honour his art and unique contribution to the international art world in a special atmosphere. Guests may look forward to a richly varied programme featuring the personal presence of the artist, ceremonial addresses, musical performances, and an appearance by the renowned a cappella ensemble “Pikkardiyska Tertsia.”The event offers an opportunity to bring together art, culture, and meaningful exchange, and to celebrate an important occasion together.Tickets are free of charge, however, the number of places is limited. Advance registration is therefore required.Free tickets / Registration: [https://www.tickettailor.com/events/nonprofitfoundationivanmarchuk/2126830]
27.03.2026
