BIOGRAPHY
Ivan Garikow, born in Belaya Glina, a small town in the Russian Empire, in 1918 spent the better portion of his difficult, specifically Twentieth-Century-addled life, making paintings. Though Garikow’s career spanned from his early teens in Russia to the end of his life in 1982 in Philadelphia, PA, his style always remained distinctly, traditionally Russian. Garikow was one of the last classically trained Artists to come out of Russia in the early 20th century. At first glance, one may dismiss the collection as amateurish or uneven, but when digested as a whole and viewed through the lens of the brand of nationalism apparent in Garikow’s biography, the true art historian’s eye acknowledges a valuable and worthwhile collection.
At an early age, teachers noticed Garikow’s artistic talent and inclinations in elementary school, and eventually, Garikow received his training as a painter at The Arts Academy, or what is formally known today as Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Academy, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the first Russian Minister of the arts, was later renamed after the artist Ilya Repin whose style embodied the teachings of The Academy. The academy was destroyed during WW2 during the siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg)
The Academy was rebuilt after the war and functions as the largest arts education institutes in Russia today.
After his training at The Academy, Garikow found a job as an Artist in Petrasowodsk, a small city northeast of Leningrad. Shortly after that, Hitler’s army invaded and the siege of Leningrad began,. He was taken as a prisoner of war by the Nazis and moved by force to a concentration camp.
In the concentration camp, Garikow believed with certainty that he would be executed along with the many other Slavic POW’s. He asked for a piece of charcoal from the officer-in-charge, and he used this charcoal to compose a piece of Christ on the cell wall. The officer decided to spare Garikow’s life and sent him not to the gas chamber but to a compulsory labor camp under the direction of Frank Zeireis. Not much is known of this time, as Garikow never wanted to discuss it with his family, but thankfully, Garikow eventually escaped this labor camp for Allied Austria in 1945, and then after years of a wavering fate and continuous painting, Garikow moved to the United States and entered at Ellis Island in 1951.
Though Garikow moved to the USA, his style in painting retained its distinctly Russian character.
“I firmly believe that Ivan Garikow represents the last formally trained artist to come out of the Repin Academy in Russia before the Nazis invaded and destroyed this great institution in 1941. His fellow art students and masters were either killed or went down the road of contemporary modern art. Ivan held onto the traditional art form taught by the great masters and held it until his death. Even when exposed to western culture post WW2, he rigidly stuck to the Old Russian methods that included canvas preparation and art styles. An art restoration company in Pennsylvania recognized this old master ability and hired Ivan to do a delicate restoration on old and valuable works of art.” John Berger. Art critic. (letters about little known great artists. 2005)
The Eurisko Art Foundation discovered almost the entirety of Russian artist Ivan Garikow’s life works in a storage shed in Florida in July 2004. Of the estimated 235 works Garikow completed during his lifetime, Eurisko holds and maintains 190 of those pieces. After 14 years of ongoing and continuing research, interviews, collaborations, and simply spending time with the work, Eurisko find themselves eager to promote and share Garikow’s body of work within the arts community. Although the complete collection is for sale as a single unit, some pieces may be sold to continue funding their research and maintenance of the collection.
Eurisko believes there is a special value in keeping an almost complete physical catalogue raisonne of any single artist intact, and they are proud to sponsor Ivan Garikow’s. Especially in light of his personal history that begins in the rural Russian Empire and eventually spans to the United States (a symbol of survival and hope in the Twentieth Century and the experience so many immigrants shared during this time) the con-sistency of style and subject matter in Garikow’s body of work is astounding. Virtually all of this work has remained unseen by the public since its creation (though he was listed in Davenport’s Art and Reference Price Guide in 1992) and though resources are somewhat limited, Eurisko hopes to spread knowledge and expo-sure to Ivan Garikow’s art.
