Ivan Stepanovych Marchuk (Ukrainian: Іван Степанович Марчук; born 12 May 1936 in Moskalivka, Ternopil Oblast) is a contemporary Ukrainian painter, founder of the Pliontanism technique, Honored Artist of Ukraine, laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize, Honorary Academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine,[1] Honorary Citizen of Ternopil and Kyiv.

He described this period of his education as transformative, paying homage to progressive teachers who inspired him to explore beyond the ideological safe space of socialist realism.

[2] He ended up joining an underground group in 1959 led by one of his teachers, Karl Zvirynskyi, who introduced its members to unsanctioned art, history, music, literature, and religion.

[3] The Soviet authorities took particular issue with the darker colors used by Marchuk, which they considered ill-placed in the characteristically bright depictions of socialist realism.

Not having been valued in the Soviet Union, Marchuk was well accepted in the newly-independent Ukraine, obtaining the prestigious Shevchenko National Prize in 1997.

No matter the distance travelled abroad, he never lost his love of the Ukrainian land, which he continued to depict in his extremely detailed landscape drawings.

He has displayed his work in numerous countries, including Latvia, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Luxembourg, Thailand, Tunis, and others.

[citation needed] In February 2018, Folkart Gallery published the book “Echo of Dreams” in Ukrainian, English, and Turkish, containing 300 of the artist’s canvases.

[15] On 31 May 2016, the third session of the Ternopil Oblast Council supported the project to launch the annual Ivan Marchuk Regional Award for Gifted Children aged 7 to 15 in the field of fine arts in 2016.