Novikov Timur

Timur Novikov is a Russian artist, publicist, founder of the St. Petersburg New Academy of Fine Arts, a teacher who largely determined the development of Russian art and culture of the late twentieth century.

Born in 1958 in Leningrad. He was interested in art from childhood: he visited State Russian Museum, was inspired by the architecture of the city. According to the artist, since his school years, he did not doubt for a second about his vocation to be an artist. From the age of 6 he began to go to a drawing club at the House of Pioneers and Schoolchildren. For several years he lived in the North between the Barents and Kara Seas. There is a point of view that the nature of these places influenced on the formation of the artist's style.

In 1973 he entered the College of Chemical Industry in the department of Technology of varnishes and paints, but did not study there for long. He attended courses at the Club of Young Art Critics of State Russian Museum, and later at State Hermitage.

In 1977 he met with Chronicle (Letopis’) group. A year later, he conducted his first curatorial project — the exhibition Cyril and Methodius. After Fellowship of Experimental Fine Arts was consolidated in 1982, Timur Novikov and Ivan Sotnikov created New Artists group, which was also joined by Oleg Kotelnikov, Kirill Khazanovich, Evgeny Yufit, music band Kino and many others.

In 1983, the artist organized the avant-garde musical group New Composers, from the same year he began to collaborate with Popular Mechanics orchestra of Sergei Kurekhin, and also work with music band Kino as a concert designer. In 1985, Timur Novikov created Academy of All Arts (since 1989 it is New Academy of Fine Arts). In December 1988, he opened Free University. The university’s teachers, in addition to himself, were Sergey Kurekhin and Boris Yukhananov.

In 1997, the artist became seriously ill during a trip to New York. As a result of the disease, he became blind. Timur Novikov died in 2002 in St. Petersburg.