The formation of the Union was preceded by various “communities”, associations, factions, societies, they began their creation in the first half of the XIX century. The revival of artistic life in Ukraine during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the formation of regional art schools – Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa (as well as Lviv and Transcarpathian), the opening of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts in 1917 (later the Kyiv Art Institute, now National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture) as the highest Ukrainian Educational artistic institution – these are the prerequisites for the consolidation of artists in a single creative organization.

Originally – the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine , then – the Union of Artists of Ukraine .

In 1933, an organizing committee was established in Kharkiv, which prepared the creation of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine (1938). October 27, 1938 – at the First Congress of Artists of the UkrSSR, the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine was created. It was part of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

On September 7, 1939, the SNK of the Ukrainian SSR approved the Statute of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine. The charter defined the status of the union as a voluntary organization uniting the workers of fine arts on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR (painters, graphic artists, sculptors, theater artists, folk art masters), as well as persons conducting research and critical work in this field. Her purpose.

The national status was awarded in 1998.

The Union chairmen:

1938—1941 — Ivan Vasilyevich Boychenko
1941—1944 — Alexander Sofonovich Pashchenko
1944—1949 — Vasily Ilyich Kasiyan
1949—1951 — Aleksey Aleksandrovich Shovkunenko
1951—1955 — Mikhail Ivanovich Khmelko
1955—1962 — Mikhail Gordievich Deregus
1962—1968 — Vasily Ilyich Kasiyan
1968—1982 — Vasily Zakharovich Borodai
1982—1982 — Alexander Pavlovich Skoblykov
1983—1989 — Alexander Mikhailovich Lopukhov
1990—2021 — Vladimir Andreevich Chepelyk
from 2021— Chernyavskyi Konstantin Vladimirovich