Oleksandr Murashko (07.09.1875 – 14.06.1919) – a renowned Ukrainian painter, a representative of Modernism and Impressionism, and a co-founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Born in Kyiv, studied at the Kyiv Drawing School and at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in the workshop of Ilya Repin. He then studied and created in Munich and Paris, where he learned new artistic trends that influenced his creative style.
His painting "The Carousel" (1906) won a gold medal at the Munich International Exhibition and brought Murashko worldwide recognition. From then on, his paintings were exhibited at leading European exhibitions and published in many journals. In 1909–1910, Oleksandr Murashko held solo exhibitions in Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Berlin. Murashko returned to Kyiv with a desire to integrate Ukrainian art into the pan-European context. He taught at the Kyiv Art School, and in 1917, he became one of the most active co-founders of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Murashko was killed in the prime of his life in 1919 on a Kyiv street, most likely by chekists (Soviet secret police). The Soviet version that he was killed for robbery was widely doubted, as valuables remained on the artist. The painting "The Carousel" was purchased for the Royal Gallery of Budapest directly from the Munich exhibition. However, the painting disappeared during World War II. An oil sketch for "The Carousel" is kept at the National Art Museum of Ukraine.
