The artist Elena Volkova died

On Tuesday, October 8, in the year 98, artist Elena Volkova, a legend of naive art, died.

Elena Andreevna Volkova was born in 1915 in the city of Chuguev, not far from the house where Ilya Repin was born. Her mother was a peasant woman, her father worked as a rescuer on the Seversky Donets River. In 1934, she began working as an assistant cinema mechanic in a mobile film installation.

Volkova did not receive art education. She began to write paintings in the 60s at the age of 45. “I am writing in pure colors directly from tubes. What colors I take during work in my hands - I do not know, I don’t know their names. I do as the picture suggests ... - said the artist. - I think that the colors themselves can mix on canvas until they dry out, and it turns out that the artist does not dream of. The picture draws itself. ”

The decisive for Elena Volkova was the acquaintance with the Kharkov artist Vasily Ermilov, one of the ancestors of the Ukrainian avant -garde. He was the first among authoritative professionals to appreciate the artist’s work, was the first buyer of her works. In the late 60s and early 70s, Volkova’s paintings gained fame in Moscow, attracted the attention of professor at Moscow State University, art critic Mikhail Alpatov.

The first personal exhibition of the artist took place in 1973 in Omsk, where she lived for several years. Later, Volkova moved to Moscow. Since 1974, she constantly participated in regional, republican, all -Union and foreign exhibitions. Many television programs, publications in the press are devoted to her work. In international reference books of naive artists, the name of Elena Volkova is on a par with Henri Russo and Nico Pirosmanishvili.

Elena Volkova’s works are in many art galleries in the world. She became the first artist working in the genre of naive art, whose personal exhibition took place in the State Tretyakov Gallery (2005).