(1943, Sotnytskyi village, Kharkiv region – July 7, 2009, Kharkiv) is a Ukrainian monumental artist, painter and graphic artist. Participant of all-Ukrainian and international exhibitions.

From 1958 to 1963, he studied at the Kharkiv Art School.
1967 – 1972 – studied at the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School named after V.G. Mukhina, at the “Monumental painting” department.
1977 – Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
1995 – Honored Artist of Ukraine.
2006 – Academician of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine.
2009 – Laureate of the Shevchenko Prize for the series of works “My Gogol” (2008).
Gontariv developed his own style, which combined monumental generalization, certain traditions of Boychukism and Ukrainian religious and folk painting, subtle poetics and figurative language, always closely connected with the broad national historical and cultural context. The themes of his paintings often became folklore images, images of the Cossacks, the native village, the search for mystical symbolism in ordinary things, the study of the essence of women and motherhood, sacred figures of the history of Ukraine.

In his mature work, he developed his own landscape style, glorifying the simple and unpretentious landscapes of the Slobid region. Gontariv’s landscape is characterized by the “brand” features of the artist’s brush – planar generalization of plans, sophisticated nuances of almost monochrome – in the gamut of gray, white, brown – color; the well-thought-out rigor of the composite construction; sharp contrasts of forms and lines; and at the same time, a general meditative mood.