Anatoly Nikolayevich Nikolsky, a famous Novosibirsk painter, people's artist of the Russian Federation, was born on September 11, 1933 in the Kemerovo region. He studied at the Alma-Ata Art College, the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. I.E. Repin in Leningrad, the people's artist of the USSR B.V. Johanson. Since 1962, his fate has been connected with Novosibirsk. He was always at the center of the artistic life of the city and Siberia, participating in numerous exhibitions, communicating and maintaining friendly relations with many prominent contemporaries, in particular with N. D. Gritsyuk.
His painting gift absorbed the traditions of the Leningrad school of painting, the sense of color, the culture of the brushstroke, the artistry of handwriting and the deep interest in nature as the fundamental principle of human life. Having paid tribute to the genre of thematic paintings and historical scenes in the popular style (“Geologists”, the series “History of the Siberian Village”) in the 1960s and 70s, he has chosen landscape and still life as his main genres in recent years, embodying his unique approach to them interpretation of the image of native Siberia. He also paints portraits that are surprisingly thin and accurate in characterization. He has several large canvases exploring the philosophy of the relationship between man and the earthly elements, which makes his work broader in its coverage of problems. He traveled extensively in his native country and abroad, creating many bright and soulful works; the paintings and sketches of the Syrian cycle, which immediately found refuge in private collections, stand out especially in this regard.
Being a supporter of a realistic vision in art, Nikolsky boldly experiments with form, seeking the expression of his images, emotionality in reading well-known, but under his brush, as if for the first time seen phenomena of reality. This rapture of life was reflected in the development of plots with the theme of festivities in the tradition of Russian painting of the early twentieth century.
