Nikolay Rybakov

“There is a mystery in painting that remains ultimately beyond the grasp of the human mind.

Only through intuition can one approach its revelation. It holds within itself the power of original sin and wisdom, an earthly enigma and the cunning of discovery, the peril of frailty and the strength of spirit. It can both destroy and elevate!”

---N. Rybakov

Nikolai Rybakov was born on May 23, 1947 in Trans-Baikal region. He currently lives and works in Krasnoyarsk.

Education:

1968–1972 — Krasnoyarsk Art College named after V.I. Surikov.

Titles and Memberships:

2008 — Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.

2013 — Member of the Academic Society of Art, Science and Literature, France (Société Arts Sciences-Lettres). Bronze Medal, Paris.

2013 — Member of the National Society of Fine Arts of France (Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, SNBA), Paris.

2018 — Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

2021 — Full Member (Academician) of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Awards:

1990 — First Prize at the Graphic Art Biennale (Kaliningrad).

1992 — Grand Prix of the exhibition-competition “Golden Brush” (Moscow).

1993 — First Prize at the All-Siberian Artists’ Competition (Novokuznetsk).

1995 — Laureate of the Baltic Biennale of Graphic Art.

2012 — Silver Medal for participation in the international exhibition “Salon-12” of the National Society of Fine Arts of France (SNBA), Louvre, Paris.

2012 — First Prize for Best Work in the “Krasny Prospekt” Competition (Novosibirsk).

2014— Gold Medal at the international exhibition of the National Society of Fine Arts of France (SNBA-2014), Louvre, Paris.

2018 — Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts for the solo exhibition “Cosmogonic Journey” held in Moscow.

Nikolay Rybakov is a famous Siberian artist — a painter and a graphic. In 1980s, looking for Siberian artistic identity, he turned to archeological and ethnographic material, traveled a lot around Siberia, from Taymyr to Tuva, took part in expeditions. Later he bought a house-workshop in Khakassia where he spent a lot of time in contemplative silence, rarely coming to Krasnoyarsk. Rybakov feels himself not only as an heir of Russian old-believers, but as an heir of Scythians, Kyrgyz, Old Turkic peoples, Paleoasians.

Working in trans-vanguard, balancing on the edges of figurative and abstract art, he develops his own Siberian style, not quoting already prepared archaic images but finding his own plastic decisions. His artistic search is charged by inspiration taken from Neolithic art of Minusinsk Hollow to traces of Khakassia’s Manicheans of the early Middle Ages. Rybakov’s art is an attempt to feel and depict the depth of time and genius loci. This history-inspired artist never forgets about material’s formal expression. His work is also characterized by complex textural organization of the surface, dashing paint-and-varnish mixtures and attraction to painterly mastery.

Rybakov is a laureate of All-Union competition “Golden brush” (Moscow, 1991), Baltic biennale of graphics (1995), French National Society of Fine Art (Louvre, 2012), and participant of numerous Russian and international exhibitions from Australia to Paris. His works are exhibited in many museums, including Tretyakov gallery, Centre of Contemporary Art M’ars, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art.

Rybakov’s art gave a certain impulse to development of contemporary Siberian archeo art in last decades.