Orphaned at an early age, Vainshtein lost his father at the front in 1941 and his mother during evacuation in 1942. For some time he lived with his grandmother, but later he and his elder brother were placed in a Kyiv orphanage for gifted children. In 1950, he lost his brother Volodymyr as well. The tragic theme of losing loved ones haunted Mykhailo throughout his life and found artistic expression in such works as Brothers. 1941, Father. 1941, and The First Year of War (Grandmother. 1941).
Vainshtein studied at the Shevchenko State Art School in Kyiv and the Kyiv State Art Institute. Over several years, he worked diligently on his diploma project Welcome, producing countless sketches, drawings, and studies from life. When Welcome was presented at the Exhibition of Diploma Works, Sketches, Studies, and Selected Student Projects of the Kyiv State Art Institute in Kyiv, as well as at the Eleventh All-Union Exhibition of Diploma Works of Students of the USSR in Moscow, Vainshtein’s works began to appear at republican and All-Union exhibitions. He further honed his skills at the Creative Studios of the USSR Academy of Arts in Kyiv under the guidance of Serhii Hryhoriev. This especially fruitful period yielded many portraits, still lifes, and paintings such as Brothers. 1941, Chess, Night Shift, and Liknep (Literacy Class).
Having an active position and being an exceptionally creative and diligence figure, Vainshtein held a prominent place in Kyiv’s art scene of the time and was regarded as an authority by his contemporaries. He was also an avid photographer: his photo archive contains around 150 rolls of film.
For Vainshtein, true happiness lay in art. His range of genres was boundless — still lifes, landscapes, portraits, historical and genre compositions — all captured his interest, and in each he achieved a high level of mastery.
The works of Mykhailo Vainshtein are held in the National Museum Kyiv Art Gallery, the Poltava and Kharkiv art museums, and other institutions across Ukraine; in the Princeton University Art Museum (New Jersey, USA); in the collection of Hradobank and the National Bank of Ukraine; as well as in numerous private collections in Germany and the United Kingdom.