Ivan Marchuk is one of Ukraine’s most internationally recognized contemporary artists, whose biography stands as a testament to the confrontation between an artist and an imperial system. Born in 1936 in the Ternopil region, he endured KGB surveillance, exhibition bans, and repeated refusals to join the Soviet Artists’ Union before achieving global recognition and holding solo exhibitions across continents. Soviet authorities denied Marchuk membership in the Artists’ Union three times. In 1984,