Alexander Nikolaevich Volkov

Alexander Nikolaevich Volkov (Russian: Александр Николаевич Во?лков, Fergana August 19, 1886 – Tashkent December 17, 1957) was an avant-garde Russian painter.

Life and work

• Alexander Volkov was born at Fergana, near Tashkent in the Russian Empire in the family of Nikolay Ivanovich Volkov, lieutenant-general (medicine) and Feodosia Filippovna Volkova-Davydova. In 1888-1899 and 1897-1900 he studied in Tashkent primary schools, in 1900-1905 Volkov entered the Second Orenburg Cadets Corps. In 1906-1908 he went to study at the Saint-Petersburg University.
• In 1908-1910 Volkov studied at the Saint-Petersburg Superior School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts under Vladimir Makovsky and Nicholas Roerich.
• In 1912-1916 Volkov studied at the Kiev School of Arts.
• In 1915 the painter married Maria Ilyinichna Taratutina (1898–1925).
• In 1916, after finishing the Kiev School of Arts, Volkov returned to Uzbekistan where he lived till the end of his life.
• From 1916 his style was Post-Impressionism and then Neo-primitive style which derived partly from Russian sign painting. First Volkov was under a strong influence of Vrubel and Roerich. Then he started painting in the same was as early Kandinsky. After moving to Uzbekistan, Volkov's works became marked by the influence of Matisse, Derain, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Then he went to experimenting in the field of near-abstract art and became close in his manner to Tatlin and Malevich.
• In 1919 Volkov was named the first director of the State Museum of Arts of the Central Asia, which received the former palace of the Grand Duke Constantine Romanov in Tashkent to house its collection.
• Since 1920, Volkov for more than 20 years taught at the Tashkent Superior Arts School.
• In 1925, died Volkov's first wife Maria Ilyinichna Taratutina (1898–1925).
• In 1925, Volkov married Elena Semenovna Volkova-Melnikova (1901–1959).
• In 1928 was born Volkov's first son Valery Volkov, who became a famous painter and art critic.
• In 1931-1932 Volkov organized the so called Volkov's Brigade of painters, art critics and journalists. The purposed of Volkov's Brigade were creating art objects and propaganda of art.
• In 1934 Volkov went to Moscow to participate in his first big exhibition held at the State Museum of Arts of the Peoples of the Orient. After having this exhibition, several of Volkov's canvases were acquired by the State Tretyakov Gallery and the State Russian Museum in Saint-Petersburg.
• In the same year of 1934 Volkov's picture "The Morning in Shakhimardan" was for the first time exhibited in the West, at the Soviet Art exhibition in Philadelphia.
• In 1934-1936 the political campaign of fighting formalism in art began in USSR. Volkov's art was declared formalist and antisocialist. His canvases were labeled as the counterrevolutionary.
• In 1937 Volkov's junior son Alexander Alexandrovich Volkov was born, later he became painter and sculptor.
• In 1946 Volkov was given the title of the People's Painter of Uzbekistan.
• In the same year of 1946 the odious campaign against the free-thinking artists, writers and painters was started in the USSR after Stalin's order. Together with writer Mikhail Zoshenko, poet Anna Akhmatova, painters Alexander Osmerkin and Robert Falk, Alexander Volkov was labeled as the anticommunist formalist and abstractionist. He was fired from all posts, lost all his earnings and money and was committed to living in full isolation.
• During 1946-1949 all of Volkov's pictures were consistently removed from the leading Russian museums, such as State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum in Saint-Petersburg, State Museum of Arts of the Central Asia.
• During 1946-1957, the bosses of the Uzbekistan Union of Painters, after orders from Moscow, fully isolated Volkov from any contacts and interaction with any painters, art critics and lovers of art who chanced to come to Tashkent. To anyone who wanted to meet Volkov, they declared that the painter is too severely ill to see anyone.
• When Volkov died in 1957, he was buried in Tashkent. The concrete bust on his grave was created by his son Alexander Volkov.
• In 1960, several of Volkov's canvases were acquired by the famous collector Georgy Kostaki.
• In 1967, Volkov's first posthumous exhibition was held at the State Museum of Arts of the Peoples of the Orient - 33 years after his very first exhibition thee. After death, the general public and art lovers finally reunited with Volkov's art and got the chance to see his pictures in full.
• In 1968, "The Grenade Chaikhana" (1924) was acquired by the State Tretyakov Gallery.
• In 2007, the grande exhibition "Alexander Volkov. The Sun and the Caravan" was held at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
• The highest price paid for a Volkov painting at auction is 900,000 British pounds for the "Listening to the Bedana" oil on canvas, laid on board, 97.5 by 97.5 cm, sold at MacDougall's 1 December 2011.
• He is in the highest category "1A - a world famous artist" in "United Artists Rating".

Works

The most famous works by Volkov include the following:

• "Mourning" (1921)
• "In Chaikhana" (1921)
• "Caravan I" (1922)
• "Caravan II" (1923)
• "Caravan III" (1923)
• "The Fruit Vendors" (1924)
• "The Grenade Chaikhana" (1924), Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
• "Na Arbe", 1925
• "The Three Musicians" (1926)
• Autumn", 1926
• "The Uzbek Singers", 1927
• Chaikhana with the Portrait of Lenin, 1928

References