Oleksandr Murashko (07.09.1875 – 14.06.1919) was a renowned Ukrainian artist, a representative of Modernism and Impressionism, and a co-founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Born in Kyiv, he studied at the Kyiv Drawing School of Mykola Murashko, at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts under Illya Repin, and later studied and worked in Munich and Paris. At the Munich Exposition in 1909, Oleksandr Murashko's painting "The Carousel" won a gold medal and brought him global recognition. From that time on, the artist's paintings were exhibited at leading European exhibitions and published in many magazines. Personal exhibitions of Oleksandr Murashko took place in Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Berlin in 1909–1910.
Murashko returned to Kyiv with a desire to integrate Ukrainian art into the broader European context. He taught at the Kyiv Art School, and in 1917, he became one of the most active founders of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Murashko was killed in the prime of his life in 1919 on a Kyiv street with a gunshot to the back of the head, most likely by Chekists (Soviet secret police). The version spread in the Soviet press — that he was murdered for robbery — was not credible, as the artist's valuables remained on him.
The painting "The Annunciation" (1909) is held at the National Art Museum of Ukraine and is one of Oleksandr Murashko's most famous works.
