Early life and education

Valery Volkov was born in Fergana; he was the firstborn son to Alexander Nikolaevich Volkov and Elena Semenovna Volkova (née Melnikova).^[7] His father was an acclaimed painter and poet, Russian by nationality he was born, lived and worked in Russian Turkestan, as it was called before the Russian Revolution and now known as Uzbekistan.^[8] From childhood Valery was surrounded by people whose traditions and roots lay in a long historical struggle for independence and democratic freedom for the Turkestanis of The Fergana Valley.^[9] As the generation before them, his family travelled throughout the local villages exploring Turkmen and Uzbek traditions.^[10] These memorable trips ignited a wanderlust in him that lasted a lifetime. The natural beauty as well as the cultural and ethnic diversity of the region cemented Volkov’s connection to the culture of Asia.^[11]

When Valery was one years old his father began teaching at the Tashkent School of Arts, and years later in 1946 was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR.^[12][13] His father’s artworks are notable for their colourful depiction of daily life in Central Asia, combining an avant-garde style with expressionist painting.^[14] Volkov’s development as an artist was greatly influenced by his father. Through him, Valery adapted traditions of classical art and avant-garde to the culture of the East.^[15] Their house was often visited by his father's students who were part of the creative group of young artists known as "Volkov's Brigade" - Nikolai Karakhan, Alexei Podkovyrov, Pavel Shchegolev, Ural Tansykbayev.^[16]

Valery Volkov attended advanced training courses for young Uzbek artists at the Artists’ Union of Uzbekistan in Tashkent.^[2] There he was taught by Mikhail Fedorovich Shemyakin, one of professors at the Moscow Art Institute of Surikov, who was a skilful portraitist carefully drawing attention in his paintings to the character, gesture and inner world of the portrayed person.^[17] In 1944 -1947, Valery studied at the Tashkent School of Arts under his father. At the same time, he began learning the history of art under the Orientalist Professor Vsevolod Mikhailovich Zummer.^[18][2] In 1947 he was admitted without entrance exam to the art history department of the National University of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. He graduated in 1952 with a degree in art history.^[18] His art history studies at the university were complemented with exercises in painting.^[2]

Artistic career

Starting in 1949, Valery was a regular participant in national exhibitions.^[18] He became a member of the Artists’ Union of Uzbekistan and in 1956, a member of the Artists' Union of the USSR.^[19] Losing their home in 1966 during the earthquake in Tashkent, Volkov and his family were forced to rebuild their life elsewhere.^[3] Initially, relatives invited them to stay in France, although later they returned to live in Moscow.^[18][20]

In 1969, Valery’s first personal exhibition was held in Moscow, at the Russia State Library for Foreign Literature, where the displayed works drew upon impressions formed during a trip to France. The works attracted serious criticism from the leadership of the Moscow Branch of the Union of Artists including a threat to expel the artist from the organization and prohibition of further professional activity.^[1] Criteria for evaluation of artistic works for exhibition during the 1960 and 70s was dictated directly by the Communist Party. The guidelines were highly prescriptive. The visual narrative of each image was required to promote life in Soviet Union and be clearly seen as a work by a soviet person, surrounded by soviet people. All activities of the artist were to be suborned to the requirements of the Soviet government in aesthetics for the education of the soviet people.^[21] Depictions of western European people and life outside the Soviet Union did not fall into the allowed scope of soviet realism. The collector George Costakis spoke in defence of Volkov. Costakis was working at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow and was known for his collection of the avant-garde paintings and support to Russian painters.^[22][23] After this incident, Volkov's works were not exhibited in the USSR for 10 years.^[24] Since 1980, Valery Volkov has been exhibited internationally and his work is included in the collections of museums and private collectors in Russia and abroad.^[18]

In 1996, the exhibition "In Search of Freedom ..." was held in the Tretyakov Gallery, where lithographs by André Lanskoy donated by Volkov to the gallery together with paintings by Volkoff himself were shown. The exhibition catalogue contains Volkov's memoirs about his acquaintance with André Lanskoy.^[25]

Travel

Starting in 1966 Valery Volkov made frequent trips to Uzbekistan, France, Italy, England, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States.^[26]

In 1966, at the invitation of relatives and in relation with the work of his wife, Svetlana Zavadovskaya, a specialist in French literature, their first trip abroad was to France. ^[27] In Paris, Volkov met with the abstract artist of Russian origin André Lanskoy. The meeting took place with the help of a recommendation letter sent to Lanskoy by Yulia Reitlinger, later the acquaintance developed into a long friendship and correspondence.^[28] During the same trip, due to his friendship with Nadia Khodasevich Léger, Volkov visited Marc Chagall in his workshop in the south of France, not far from Saint-Paul-de-Vence.^[29] Years later, in 1978, Valery Volkov painted a portrait of Chagall, and completed a memoir about him.^[30] While staying in France, the couple also visited the castle in Provence, near Ménerbes, where the Russian-born abstract painter Nicolas de Staël used to live and work. Based on impressions from this trip, Volkov worked on his "French" cycle of paintings.^[31]

In 1988 Volkov lived and worked in Egypt during which his personal exhibition was held at the Soviet Cultural Centre in Cairo. In reflection of this trip, Volkov created a series of works: “Great Cairo. Night Arabesques" (1988-1989), "Cairo Street" (1988), "Evening in the Old Quarter of Cairo" (1989) and others.^[26]

During 1995-1996, he undertook a three-month trip to the United States featuring exhibitions in Washington and New York. ^[32]

Trips to Spain - Volkov visited Madrid, Navarre, Pamplona resulting in creation of the painting “Navarre” (collection of the Nizhniy Tagil Museum of Fine Arts). ^{[33] [34]}

Technique

Volkov worked in a multi-layer painting technique, applying wide colourful layers to the canvas before working on more detailed shades. His style of painting, which consisted in a collision of contrasting colours applied by strokes of a brush to the canvas, was called by the artist "shock imprinting".^[42]

Themes and motives of the works

Images of East and Central Asia occupy pride of place in the work of Valery Volkov. Pomegranate as an oriental image-symbol constantly appears in his works: "Pomegranates and the Sun" (1961), "Pomegranates" (1973), and "Three Pomegranates" (2009). In the early 1960s, he turned to themes from the folk life of the East, created a cycle of "tightrope walkers": he painted wandering actors, clowns, tightrope walkers - masqaraboz. During the trips to Central Asia, a series of paintings "Oriental Bazaars" was born.^[43]

Volkov created a number of self-portraits: “Self-portrait in a Fergana Robe” (1975), “Self-portrait in a Turban” (1981), “Painter” (1980-1981), “Self-portrait” (2002), self-portrait “Old Master” (2010). This establishes a dialogue with the works of his father, Alexander Nikolaevich Volkov, who also left a series of self-portraits.^[44]

Portraiture plays an important role in Volkov's work: “Portrait of Alexander Parnis with a Cat. Mirror of Futurism "(2008), a series of portraits of his wife, Svetlana Zavadovskaya: " At the Country House" (1975)," Woman in Green " (1973-1978),"Queen Meroe" (2007).^[45]

Exhibitions

• 1949 - Exhibition of graphic works at the Central Asian University.
• 1961 - First solo exhibition in Tashkent.
• 1969 - Solo exhibition at the State Library of Foreign Literature, Moscow.
• 1973 - Group exhibition of Volkov's "Second Brigade" - V. A. Volkov, A. A. Volkov, E. N. Kravchenko and D. S. Ruzybaev, art exhibition at the Nukus Museum of Art (Karakalpak ASSR).
• 1974 - Solo exhibition and performance "Reflections on painting" in the painter’s club of the Artists' Union of the USSR, Moscow.
• 1979 - Solo exhibition at the Tartu Art Museum, Estonia.
• 1991 - Exhibition “Artists Volkovs. Three Generations." at the Kovcheg Exhibition Hall, Moscow.
• 1992 - Solo exhibition at the Gregory Gallery in Washington, United States.
• 1994-1995 - Group exhibition "The Wolf Dynasty" at the Gregory Gallery in Washington, United States.
• 1995 - Participation in the group exhibition "From the Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Art from the USSR" at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Jersey, United States.
• 1996 - Exhibition "In Search of Freedom ...", joined show with André Lanskoy at the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
• 2003 - Solo exhibition dedicated to the 75th anniversary in the Historical, Architectural and Art Museum "New Jerusalem", Istra. And, solo exhibition "Artist and Model", at the Bulgarian Cultural Center, Moscow.
• 2005 - Exhibition "Creative Dynasty of the Volkovs" at the "Gallery of Masters", Moscow.
• 2008 - Exhibition "Meeting" (together with O.A. Sokolova) to the 80th anniversary of V. A. Volkov at the Historical, Architectural and Art Museum "New Jerusalem", Istra.
• 2012 - Exhibition "Heirs of the Russian East" (together with A.A. Volkov), State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow.
• 2018 - Personal exhibition "Pantomime of Colour" to the 90th anniversary of the artist's birth at the ArtStory Gallery of Contemporary Art, Moscow.

Collections

Valery Volkov's works are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Oriental Art, the New Jerusalem Museum, the Nizhniy Tagil State Museum of Fine Arts, the Nukus Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, museums of Arkhangelsk, Zaporozhye, Novokuznetsk, Fergana, Samarkand, Gregory Gallery, Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in the USA, in private collections in Russia, France, Italy, England, Egypt, Canada, USA, Australia.