VOLKOV Nikolay Nikolaevich

1897 (Moscow) — November 16, 1974 (Moscow)

Painter, graphic artist, art historian

Volkov was born to a family of the magistrate N. V. Volkov. He graduated from the Commercial College, where he received his primary art education under the guidance of A. F. Andronov, E. U. Shishkina, and A. S. Golubkina. Volkov studied at Moscow University (1914–1921) at the faculty of philosophy, physics and mathematics, and then at the University of Freiburg (1925–1926). In 1929 he made a trip to Mount Elbrus; during the journey he drew a series of sketches in sanguine and Italian pencil.

Volkov lived in Moscow. He was engaged in easel painting and graphic art; worked, predominantly, in the technique of watercolor and monotype. He painted mostly urban landscapes of Moscow. He depicted everyday life and appearance of the city of 1930s–1970s: construction of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV), the Palace of Soviets, Moskvoretsky Bridge, Moscow Channel. In mid 1930s he made a trip to the White Sea–Baltic Canal in order to gather material for his creative work.

Since 1933 Volkov participated in exhibitions. Since 1937 he was a member of Moscow Regional Union of Soviet Artists (MOSSKh). He participated in the exhibition 15 years of Soviet Graphics (1933), the first exhibition of watercolor paintings of Moscow Artists (1937), the exhibition Industry of Socialism (1939), Moscow artists during the Great Patriotic War in Moscow (1942), the World Fair in Brussels (1958), exhibitions of Soviet art in GDR and Finland (1961), Cuba (1970) and others. His personal exhibitions were held in Moscow in 1954, 1956, and 1972.

Volkov worked at the department of philosophy at the State Academy of Artistic Sciences (1924–1929). He lectured at the Architectural-planning studios under Moscow municipal council (Mossovet, including the studio under A. A. Vesnin), Moscow Textile Institute (1940–1941), and Moscow Polygraphic Institute (1962–1966). He headed creative psychology laboratory under the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (1946–1953).

During the Great Patriotic War, Volkov worked at the headquarters of the 14th Rifle Brigade in Cheboksary (1942–1943), then — as a war correspondent of the Military Medical Museum in Leningrad (1943–1944). Volkov was at Bryansk and the Second Ukrainian fronts, at the Kurskaya Duga. Under the directions of the Bureau of exhibitions and panoramas, Volkov painted a series of watercolors At the exhibition of captured weapons.

Volkov was author of books on the theory of art The perception of the object and figure (Moscow, 1950), Composition in Painting (Moscow, 1965), Color in Painting (Moscow, 1965), and the researcher of the psychology of creativity and the perception of art. Volkov was the Doctor of Education (1950) and the Honored Artist of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1972).

Exhibitions of Volkov’s works were held in Moscow (1979), Kurgan (2006), and Rostov-On-Don (2007).

Works by Nikolay Volkov are in many museum and private collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and others.