At the age of 85, Vasyl Lopata, a Ukrainian graphic artist, painter, writer, public figure, and People's Artist of Ukraine, passed away in San Francisco. He went down in history as a co-author of the design of the first banknotes of independent Ukraine and a laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize.
This was reported by Yuriy Perohanych.
On September 18, 2025, the Ukrainian community lost one of the most prominent artists of our time, Vasyl Lopata, the "father of the Ukrainian hryvnia."
It was his sketches, created together with the artist Borys Maksymov, that were approved for printing the first Ukrainian banknotes. Portraits of historical figures on banknotes, in particular Prince Volodymyr, Taras Shevchenko, and Lesya Ukrainka, are known to every Ukrainian.
The artist's creative output also includes the design of diplomatic and Ukrainian passports, over 700 graphic and painting works, dozens of exhibitions and book illustrations.
Background
Vasyl Ivanovich was born on April 28, 1941 in the village of Nova Basan in the Chernihiv region. He studied at the Kyiv Art Institute under the guidance of Professor Vasyl Kasiyan, and later in the creative workshops of the USSR Academy of Arts under the guidance of Mikhail Deregus.
His work is closely connected with Ukrainian literature: he created graphic cycles for the works of Lina Kostenko, Ivan Franko, Oles Honchar, Taras Shevchenko, Mykola Gogol and many other authors.
In his sixtieth year of life, the artist also turned to painting, creating in San Francisco a number of canvases of spiritual content - "Eternal Call", "Annunciation", "Resurrection of Christ", "Christmas". These works, as art historians have noted, were his attempt to comprehend Ukraine and the world “from a cosmic distance.”
He also left behind a literary legacy – the books “Hope and Disappointment, or Metamorphoses of the Hryvnia,” “Somewhere at the Bottom of My Heart,” “Show Me Your Path, Lord,” and “I Say, as in Confession.”
During his lifetime, Vasyl Lopata received numerous awards – the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, the Lesya Ukrainka Prize of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for works for children and youth, international bookplate awards, and others.
Vasyl Lopata’s name will forever go down in Ukrainian history as an artist who reflected Ukrainian history, its character, and spirituality in his work.
Author: Danylo Pievchev