Shramchenko, Mykola

Shramchenko, Mykola [Шрамченко, Микола; Šramčenko], b 24 April 1909 in Chernihiv, Chernihiv gubernia, d 26 September 1968 in Washington, DC. Painter. In 1933 he graduated from the Kyiv State Art Institute, where he studied under Mykhailo Boichuk. A postwar émigré in the United States from 1949, he taught painting at the National Academy of Arts in Washington, DC, and took part in Ukrainian-American art exhibitions. Evolving in his style from realism to expressionism, he specialized in portraits, among them ones of Yevhen Malaniuk and Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko. He also painted several series depicting the atrocities of the Soviet regime (‘Prodigal Son,’ ‘The Power of Darkness,’ and ‘Messiah’) and illustrated a Department of State publication about the NKVD massacre of Polish officers at Katyn.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]