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Ivan Garikow, born in Belaya Glina, a small town in the Russian Empire, in 1918 spent the better portion of his addled twentieth-century 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. 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. Garikow grew up in a small town in the Soviet Union while his family valued religion during the time in Russia when the modus operandi of Communism was just beginning. He had one brother and his family lived in virtual poverty, but they maintained a relatively peaceful family life during a politically tumultuous, transitional period in Russian history. His early exposure to rural and small town settings and the firsthand experience of peasant life surely influenced not only his choice of subject matter in his future paintings, but also his naive personal style. One sees the delightful combination of his childhood environment and the future study of great masters like Vincent van Gogh (notice the thick, dark outlines) in the painting #0103 Belaya Glina.
In fact, the setting of Garikow's childhood home and the period of history in which he lived, with its limited outlets for community socializing and lack of technology - there were no McDonald's or Nintendo's, after all - probably gave the child Garikow a better opportunity to hone his interests in drawing and painting. Teachers noticed Garikow's inclinations and his artistic talent during his early primary school years, 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. When he was 18 years old Garikow submitted his work to The Academy for consideration. After he received his acceptance, Garikow left his home for the school and matriculated at Repin Academy from 1937-41 under pretty dire circumstances. As recounted by Ivan's sister-in-law to biographer Steven M. Nesbit, Garikow often ate little or no food and he had to sneak back into the academy's classroom in order to sleep with a roof over his head. He slept on a classroom floor with six or eight other students most evenings. Although many students enrolled came from families who were wealthy, many were not. To learn and study what they loved, many Repin Academy students endured many hardships.
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