Arthur Nikitin

Arthur Nikitin (26th of August 1936, Leningrad, Russian SFSR – 2nd of July 2022, Riga, Republic of Latvia) –  a painter, a professor and the head of the design course at the Baltic International Academy. 

In 1941, after the beginning of the war between the Nazi Germany and the USSR, the family of Arthur Nikitin was evacuated to the Bashkir ASSR, where it had been residing till 1944. From 1944 till 1948 Arthur Nikitin lived in Ukraine. He moved with his family to Riga in 1948.  

His mother Galia was a senior researcher at the Institute of Orthopaedics and Reconstructive Surgery; his father Peter was a provost of Latvian Agricultural Academy. In 1953 Nikitin graduated from Riga Secondary School Nr. 13, in 1953-1957 he studied at Riga Medical Institute, however, did not finish his studies. 

In 1957, due to outstanding results of the entrance exams, he was accepted into the second year of the Department of Graphics of the Latvian State Academy of Arts. After the end of the third year, Nikitin chose the class of book graphics (lead by Pēteris Upītis) as his speciality. His teachers were Valdis Dišlers (drawing), Uga Skulme (drawing), Leo Svemps (painting), Pēteris Upītis (composition, woodcut). Nikitin graduated from the academy in 1962 (final work "Portrait of a Worker of Novorossiysk Cement Plant") as a graphic artist. 

Arthur Nikitin had been participating in exhibitions since 1958, with their total number getting over 400, including 30 personal exhibitions. The range of his interests included painting, graphics, sculpture and design. Nikitin started seriously practicing painting, including scenic portrait, in 1976, when fire destroyed his work shop. True and well-earned fame reached him at the end of 1970ies. 

The works by Arthur Nikitin are kept at the national museums in Latvia (the Latvian National Museum of Art) and Russia (the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum and others), as well as in private collections in Russia, USA and Western Europe. 

Alexander Malnach

Svetlana Hayenko: ‘Even from an early age Arthur Nikitin had the courage to admit to himself the existence of Chaos, and very early on rejected ‘beauty and correctness’ for the sake of truth’.

Arthur Nikitin and a fragment of the sculpture "A Hundred Years of Solitude". A dedication to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 2005, bronze, photo by Sergey Nikolayev.

Наталья Лебедева. «Он такой же, как океан...»