Mykhaylo Khmelko

Mykhaylo Khmelko studied at Odesa School of Theatre Arts and National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. Training under Mikhail Yarovoy, Leonid Muchnyk and Karpo Trokhymenko is recorded. Petro Ihnatiev, Henrikh Nechyporenko and Viktor Prystalenko are recorded as having studied under Mykhaylo Khmelko. Employment is recorded with National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. Work by Mykhaylo Khmelko is recorded in the collections of National Art Museum of Ukraine and Tretyakov Gallery. Distinctions recorded are Stalin Prize, Order of Lenin, Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class and Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

Mykhailo Khmelko was born in Kyiv. In 1943-1946, he studied at the Kyiv State Art Institute under Karp Trokhimenko. In 1948-1973, he was a faculty of the same institute. Khmelko is known for his Socialist Realism paintings: Unification of the Ukrainian Lands (1939-1949), Drink A Toast for the Great Russian People (1947), Triumph of the Victorious Motherland (1949), Forever with Moscow. Forever with Russian people (1951). He is also the author of the diorama Medical Help in the Bohdan Khmelnytsky army of the Kyiv Museum of Medicine. In the 1970s, he began to abuse alcohol, which led to his dismissal from the art institute. In 1986, he began working on his autobiography, but it remained a draft. With the beginning of perestroika, the demand for the artist's paintings of party and military figures disappeared, the artist was hardly experiencing the collapse of the USSR, and family problems began. This, as well as alcohol abuse, led to Khmelko's death on January 15, 1996, after a long illness. • Illustration — Mikhail Khmelko. Forever with Moscow. Forever with the Russian People (Treaty of Pereyaslav). 1951