THE SOFIA SKETCHES – A WALK IN THE PAST

2025.09.13

Exhibition of Ukrainian artist Vasyl Mironenko

17 September – 3 October 2025

Opening: 17 September 2025, 5:30 pm

Terrace Gallery, Floor 5, New Academic Building, National Academy of Art, 1 Shipka Street

On 17 September, on Sofia City Day, the National Academy of Art opens the exhibition "Sofia Sketches: A Walk in the Past" – a collection of engravings by the Ukrainian graphic artist and professor Vasyl Mironenko (1910–1964). The exhibition is organised in partnership with the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Bulgaria and with the support of the Sofia City Municipality and is part of the events dedicated to the Sofia City holiday in 2025.

Vasyl Mironenko (1910–1964), one of the most famous Ukrainian engravers, was born in the village of Orkhivka, Poltava Region. After graduating from school in 1931, he was admitted to the Kharkov Art Institute (now the State Academy of Design and Arts). He studied under the artist Vasyl Kisiyan. Mironenko graduated from the Institute in 1936, after which he taught there, and then became the head of the Department of Printmaking. His creative life is connected with Kharkov and the Kharkov Art Institute. Since 1932, he has participated in republican, all-Union and foreign exhibitions.

Twenty sheets were collected in the album "Ukrainian Landscapes in the Etchings of Vasyl Mironenko" and were published in early 1941 by the Kharkov Department of the Art Fund. In 1946, he was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labour". In the spring of 1956, he travelled to Bulgaria, and in the fall to Poland with an exhibition of Ukrainian prints. Impressions from the trip were embodied in the series of colour etchings "In People's Bulgaria" (1956–1957) and "Countryside Motifs" (1957–1958).

His series of colour etchings are: "Ukrainian Landscapes" (1936–1941), "Donbass" (1947–1950), "Blast Furnaces of Azovstal" (1950). "In the Open-Hearth Workshop" (1952), "Nova Kakhovka" (1952–1953), "Pryazovia" (1954–1956), "Industrial-Collective Farm Ukraine" (1958–1960). "Picturesque Ukraine" (1960), "Zaporizhstal" (1960), "At the Blast Furnaces" (1960), "Industry" (1960).

Artworks of his are kept in the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Kharkiv Art Museum, other Ukranian museums and various private collections.

The exhibition is dedicated to the 17th of September – Sofia City Day.