1926 - 2008 Petr Alekseevich Basanets was born April 23, 1926 in the village of Burimka, Cernigiv region, Ukraine.  He fought in World War II. After the war, he studied at the Odessa Art College and graduated in 1952. He then attended the Kiev Fine Arts Institute, studying in K. Trokhymenko’s studio. Other teachers included V. Puzyrkov and V. Kostensky, both of whom have works hanging in the Kiev Art Museum. Basanets taught at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. He became the chair of painting in 1961 and the chair of drawing in 1962. Since 1983 he worked as a professor.  He painted many portraits devoted to the cultural workers of the Ukraine as well as graphic art including portraits for newspapers and illustrations to works by N. Shevchenko, V. Bolshak, P. Voronko, O. Honchar and O. Kolomiyets. Important works include: • “Walkers from Chernigiv Region” (1958) • “In the Densa River” (1966) • triptych “People of Chernigiv - Heroes of October” (1967) • “Our Class” (1970) • “Mothers” (1980) • “The Feeling of United Family” (1981) • “The Motherland in Danger” (1985) • “Honta Near Uman” (1991) • “Spiritual Ukraine” (1992-97) • “The Sun Has Set” (1995) • “Kachaniv Suite” (1997) Known as a graphic artist as well as a painter, Basanets worked in many different genres of painting and graphic arts. He often focused on historical themes and genre subjects. The main body of his work he devoted to the compositional portrait with a developed genre basis. His landscapes are celebrated for their lyricism.  He is listed on page 26 of Matthew Bown’s, A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Russian and Soviet Painters.