Timur Novikov

Not only did the Russian artist Timur Novikov (1958–2002) correspond with Andy Warhol, he was as close as the Leningrad / St Petersburg  art scene got to a Warholian figure: after working underground, as the pre-Peristoika period necessitated, he emerged as the founder and figurehead of two iconoclastic movements: the New Artists during the 1980’s and the New Academy in the 1990’s - and his activities included organising techno raves, designing the look of a rock band, directing films and a TV series, and publishing theoretical texts. His visual art also ranged widely, but Novikov became best known for his style of appliqué – whereby small fabric motifs are sewn onto larger pieces of cloth –so that, for example, a rising sun converts abstract fields of colour into an optimistic landscape, or two tractors make their way along diagonal stripes.

Submitted by Art Circle