Today, May 22, a postage stamp dedicated to People’s Artist of Ukraine Ivan Marchuk was redeemed at the Lviv OVA.
According to the author of the idea, international public figure Yuriy Kotyk, the stamp was created by the artist Volodymyr Kozyuk using artificial intelligence – it is the first stamp in Ukraine that was created using AI.
“The brand represents our Ukrainians, namely the genius of modernity, the genius of art, Ivan Marchuk. To begin with, the circulation will be 1,000 copies – as a gift for those of our foreign partners who glorify Ukraine and help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, refugees, volunteer and other charitable organizations located outside of Ukraine,” said Yuriy Kotyk.
Oleksandr Kulepin, Deputy Chairman of the Lviv Regional State Administration for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization (CDTO), emphasized that Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk is included in the rating of the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph “One Hundred Geniuses of Modernity”.
“It is very nice that we are continuing the tradition of celebrating the geniuses of Ukraine with special unique stamps. We continue to popularize talented Ukrainians in this way. I thank Yuriy Kotyk for the initiative in continuing this trend,” Oleksandr Kulepin added.
Yevhen Kravchuk, Director of the Lviv Directorate of JSC “Ukrposhta”, noted that a unique postage stamp with the image of a Ukrainian genius is a way to tell the world about cultural, public and other famous figures of Ukraine.
For reference:
Ivan Marchuk was born in Ternopil Oblast in 1936 and studied at the Lviv School of Applied Arts. In the USSR, it was forbidden to paint anything except politically balanced works in the style of socialist realism. Any attempt to deviate from the norm was regarded as hostile to the Soviet system.
Ivan Marchuk did not want to work according to the canons dictated by the Soviet government. The artist fundamentally did not cooperate with the Soviets, because he wanted freedom in his work. The artist invented his own technique of writing works – plantarism. This entanglement in the image of many strokes. At that time, no one knew how to draw. However, Ivan Marchuk failed to achieve recognition at that time, because the party saw his works as a nationalist threat. He spent 15 long years in creative isolation.
The first chance to show people his creativity fell in 1974. After several protests by the artists, the Soviet authorities allowed them to present their works on unofficial platforms.
In the 90s, Ivan Marchuk left for the USA, where he was finally able to freely show his paintings at many exhibitions. Marchuk’s works impressed Europeans in Munich, Paris and London. In 2001, the artist returned to Ukraine. Ivan Marchuk became the only Ukrainian to be included in “100 geniuses of our time” by The Daily Telegraph. He was awarded the title of People’s Artist. The artist also became a laureate of the Shevchenko National Award.