Vasyl Lopata

1 Hryvnia banknote, 1996

Vasyl Ivanovych Lopata (Ukrainian: Лопата Василь Іванович; born in Nova Basan, Bobrovytsia Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR, on April 28, 1941) is a Ukrainian artist and prose writer. He is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1971), National Union of Writers of Ukraine (2006). People's Painter of Ukraine (2001), laureate of Shevchenko National Prize (1993), Oles Honchar Literary Prize (2007), Lesya Ukrainka Literary and Art Prize (2008).

Vasyl Lopata donates his work to the National Museum of History and Local Lore in the village of Kozary, Nosivka Raion, Chernihiv Oblast. In this village, in the family of his brother Andriy their mother spent the last years of her life. On the right — the director and founder of the museum Lidiya Kharchenko.

In collaboration with Borys Mykolayovych Maximov (Борис Миколайович Максимов), he designed the first Ukrainian hryvnia. As an artist, he worked principally in engraving and painting, also creating posters and ex-libris, among other things.

External links

• Brochure or small, illustrated book on Lopata's engravings, in Ukrainian and English, downloadable from here.
• Images of some of his works and a few photos of himself at "Modern Ukrainian Artists", Opheus and Lyra.
• Three engravings by Vasyl Lopata at Artnet.
• A few illustrations by Vasyl Lopata for 12th-century epic poem, "The Tale of Ihor's Campaign", among illustrations by other artists, Encyclopedia of Ukraine.