Timur Petrovich Novikov (September 24, 1958 – May 23, 2002) was a Russian

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

, art theorist,

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

. He is considered one of the most influential proponents of Nonconformist Art before and after the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

in 1991.

Life and work

As he grew up in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Novikov experienced its cultural and political constraints. His artistic education began at the age of seven at the House of Pioneers in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and later at the Young Art Historians Club at the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...

in the same city. In 1977, he became a member of the Letopis (Chronicles) art group; and in 1982 he founded the Новый художник (New Artists) movement. During the 1980s, Novikov worked at the

and enjoyed access to its collection and archive, as well as close working relationships with its curators. This connection lasted to when he started work as an artist. In 1990 and 1991, he studied as an intern at the Institut des Arts Plastiques (Institute of Plastic Arts) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. During the 1980s and 1990s, Novikov was a regular participant in the Pop Mechanics show of experimental composer

Sergey Kuryokhin Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin (16 June 19549 July 1996, nicknamed The Captain) was a Russian composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist, film actor and writer, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was an influential fig ...

and worked on its stage design. Several pop groups from the show worked with him to explore a new visual and stage design. In 1983, Novikov founded and led an experimental rock-group Новые композиторы (New Composers) and invented new musical instruments for it. He was also involved in a number of film projects as an actor and artist, and made a name as an innovative film designer. In 1987, Novikov shared the

Nika Award The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars. In 2022 nominees were announced, b ...

for his contribution to the popular Russian film Assa, directed by Sergei Solovyov. The New Academy of Fine Arts, founded by Novikov in 1989, soon became a well-known meeting point for the Leningrad, Russian, and international art scene and a symbol for the spirit of freedom and recomposition in the new Russia. The academy and artist community, named also after its address Pushkinskaya 10, was at first self-organized by artists. It later offered ateliers as well as regular courses for students, including scholarships. The academy, with Novikov as one of its most prominent teachers, was sometimes referred to as an underground art project, but also cooperated with established art institutions, among them the

and the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

. The core conception of the academy was called Neo-Academism and comprised a specific teacher-student relationship as well as a focus on the historic and aesthetic perspective of

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

. Novikov also contributed to numerous art exhibitions outside Russia. His style of painting combined a bold avant-garde attitude with refined classically based conceptions of Neo-Academism. Furthermore, he contributed to contemporary

art theory Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

, writing books such as "The New Russian Classicism" (1998), "Horizons" (2000), and "Intercontacts" (2000), published by the

. A lengthy illness led to blindness in the later part of Novikov's career. He continued working as a lecturer at the New Academy and led assistants to work on graphic works.
Novikov died of pneumonia on May 23, 2002, in St. Petersburg. Posthumous exhibitions of Novikov's works were held at the Moscow Russian Museum and in Brussels in 2002, in Denmark 2004, London 2005 and 2012, and several times in St. Petersburg. In the spring of 2013, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art presented a large-scale solo retrospective of Novikov's work, curated by Ekaterina Andreeva, the leading academic researcher at the State Russian Museum and author of Novikov's biography.mmoma.ru: Timur
registered Dec 3, 2014

Popular culture

In 2015, the estate of Timur Novikov collaborated with Russian street wear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy. The resulting collection consisted of T-shirts, sweatshirts and caps incorporating designs from Novikov's work. The 'eternal sun' motif is the standout design element and had previously been appropriated by Rubchinskiy, who greatly reveres his art. The pieces were very well received, selling out within minutes on the Dover Street Market e-shop.

Public collections

* Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova (Museum of History and Contemporary Art), Turku, Finland * Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia * ART4.RU Contemporary Art Museum, Moscow * Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris * Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Los Angeles * Kaliningrad State Art Gallery, Kaliningrad, Russia * Ludwig Museum, Budapest * State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg * Museum of Modern Art, Vienna * Museum of the New Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg * Museum of Political History of Russia, St. Petersburg * National Center for Contemporary Arts, Moscow * Orel Regional Museum of Fine Art, Orel, Russia * Pozhalostin Regional and State Art Museum, Ryazan, Russia * Ruarts Foundation, Moscow * Schwules Museum, Berlin * Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow * Simferopol State Art Museum, Simferopol, Crimea * State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg * State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow * Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam * Tate Modern, London * Tsaritsyno Museum, Moscow * Tver Regional Picture Gallery, Tver, Russia * Victoria and Albert Museum, London * Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

References

External links

"Wild Youth: Timur Novikov and the 1980s St. Petersburg Art Scene"

"The Radical Artist Who Shaped Russian Youth Culture"

"A "Non-aligned" Intelligentsia: Timur Novikov's Neo-avantgarde and the Afterlife of Leningrad's Non-conformism"

GIF.ru: Art projects and collaborations

Guelman.ru: List of works in collections

artinfo.ru: List of single and group exhibitions
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Novikov, Timur Russian contemporary artists Postmodern artists Underground artists Soviet nonconformist art 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters 21st-century Russian painters Russian printmakers Russian photographers Russian film directors Russian graphic designers 1958 births 2002 deaths Soviet artists 20th-century printmakers 20th-century Russian male artists 21st-century Russian male artists