Oleg Terentiyovych Minko (Ukrainian: Олéг Терéнтійович Мінькó; August 3, 1938 – November 20, 2013) was a Ukrainian painter and art teacher, belonging to the Lviv school of artistic expression. He was awarded the rank of 'Honoured Artist Of Ukraine' by the state and was considered to be one of the most established and rated artists in the country. Biography Minko was born in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. During World War II, Minko's family moved to the Nosachi village in Cherkassy Oblast, where Minko's father came from. In 1944, they returned to Makiivka. His mother Antonina Andriivna worked as an accountant in the "Makiivbud" trust. His father Terentiy Ivanovych was an economist in the machine shop at the Makiivka Metallurgical Plant. After school, Oleg graduated from the Makiivka metallurgical technical training school. From early childhood Oleg loved to draw and dreamed of becoming a painter. According to the family history, Oleg's great grandfather was an icon painter. In 1959, Oleg Minko enrolled into the Department of artistic weaving at the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts (now Lviv National Academy of Arts). His professors were the painters Roman Selskyi and Carlo Zvirynskyi. After graduating from the Institute in 1965, he worked as a weaving shop foreman in the Lviv Art-Production Enterprise and within five years became the head of that shop. From 1971 to 1982, he worked as a painter of the monumental shop of the Lviv Art-Production Enterprise. Since 1982 Oleg Minko has worked as senior professor of the sub department of artistic tapestry at the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts. He was the head of that sub-department until his death in 2013. Minko has been married since 1959. His spouse Olha Minko was in the past a talented weaver. His daughter Iryna Minko-Muraschyk is a recognized artist (pastels and small format tapestry). On November 20, 2013 Oleg Minko died in Lviv. Artwork Minko's early works took the form of abstract painting, expressing his internal experiences with minimum means. One of the first abstract compositions "Gra v karty" (The Card Play) was painted in 1961. Abstraction (1963–1965) gave Minko complete freedom in his searches for the unknown. Works "Zamkova sparynka" (The Keyhole), "Chorna maska" (The Black Mask), "Pechera" (The Cave), "Chorni pryamokutnyky" (The Black Rectangles), "Misiachne siayvo" (The Moonlight), "Kompozytsia z priamokutnykiv" (The Composition Of Rectangles) are precisely measured works with a severe and