Nikolay Uvarov
Nikolay Uvarov (29th of October 1941, Tashkent, Uzbek SSR – 20th of January 2019, Riga, Republic of Latvia) – a painter.
Nikolay Uvarov was born in Taskent. He belonged to an old aristocratic family.
In 1946 the family moved to Riga. After finishing school, from 1958 to 1963 Nikolay Uvarov had been working at the Riga Porcelain Factory. In 1960-1963 he had been serving in the army in Western Belarus.
After returning from the army, Uvarov worked as a designer in an art construction bureau (1963-1964), and later was even employed as a carpenter at the Riga Zoo (the winter of 1965). He became a professional artist at the Latvian State Academy of Arts (1965-1971), where he graduated from the faculty of easel graphics.
After the graduation, Uvarov worked as a designer at Riga Electro-Mechanical Plant (1971) and later, for five years (1972-1977), he had been working as a teacher of drawing at the Riga Secondary School Nr. 37. From 1977 to 1980 he had been working as the head artist of the newspaper "Soviet Youth" (Rus. «Советская молодежь»), and for the following eight years - as the head artist of the editing and publishing department of Riga Medical Institute (now - Riga Stradiņš University), where he was in charge of all polygraphy. In the summer of 1988, after receiving the notice of dismissal, Uvarov gave the word to himself never to work for anyone else again.
Despite that, from 1998 to 2003 he had been conducting the course in stimulating of imagination at the Baltic Russian Institute (now - International Baltic Academy). He also taught students at his own studio.
During his final years, Nikolay Uvarov invented his own technique of drawing, worked in the genre of water-colours.
Nikolay Uvarov died in Riga on 20th of January 2019.
His works can be found in private collections in the USA, Germany, Izrael. One of his drawing was purchased for the collection of American science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
Alexander Malnach
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