May Day from Mariupol’s Past

Leonid Ivanovych Bondarenko was a Ukrainian artist, a member of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine since 1971, and an honorary citizen of Mariupol since 2009. Born on March 24, 1932 in the village of Voznesenske (now Rostov region, Russia), he worked from 1944 in the cooperative organization "Red Painting". From 1956, he worked as an artist in the workshops of the Donetsk Art and Production Plant of the Art Fund of Ukraine. In 1963, he was appointed chief artist of the Ordzhonikidze district of the city of Zhdanov (now Mariupol). He considered Viktor Arnautov, Mykola Bendryk, and Oleksandr Kechedzhi to be his teachers in the profession. Bondarenko worked in the field of easel painting and graphics, creating portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. Among his works are "In the Park" (1958), "Snow" (1979), "Girl in Red" (1982), "Mother" (1990), "Sunny Day" (2000), and others. He participated in exhibitions from 1957. He died on December 30, 2015. Some works are kept in museums of Ukraine, as well as in private collections in Ukraine and abroad.