Mamontov, Nikolai Andreevich

Nikolay Mamontov was born in Omsk . He belongs to the generation of Siberian artists who formed in the first post-revolutionary decade: Elena Korovay , Victor Ufimtsev , B. Shabl-Tabulevich, V. Tronov, Ivan Shadr .

In the 1910s, the artist's family moved to Barnaul , where Mamontov received a technical education. In the same place in 1917-1918 and in 1920 he studied in the studio of Elena Korovai, a famous artist, graduate of the courses of the Society for the Promotion of Arts and Vhutemas; in 1919 - in the studio of A. Klementyev in Omsk .

In May 1921, inspired by the lectures and exhibitions of David Burliuk , Mamontov, Ufimtsev and Shabl-Tabulevich, they organized the Chervona Troika art group, uniting young representatives of Omsk culture who called themselves futurists. They organized three exhibitions. The press singled out Mamontov’s works as masterly.

At the end of 1921 he went to enter VKhUTEMAS , where he was not accepted, saying that he was a formed artist and he had nothing to learn from them. Following him went and his friend L. Martynov . However, both had to return due to the unsettled life, cold, hunger and lack of work. ^[one]

In 1923, together with V. Ufimtsev, Mamontov left for Uzbekistan, where both worked as artists in the Commission for the Protection of Antiquities and Art. In 1924, Mamontov married the daughter of the artist D.K. Stepanov and left for Italy with his family. ^[one]

From 1926 to 1930 in Rome he studied at the Academy of Sigmund Lipinsky, a recognized master of neoclassicism. In 1930 he designed Soviet pavilions for the World Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Milan . It was exhibited in Rome (personally and as part of the Flame association) and the Italian colony of Tripoli. ^[one]

In 1932 he returned to Russia without a family. He lived in Moscow, worked as a restorer, illustrated books. In 1933 he came to Omsk, where he no longer found many friends of his youth.

In 1934 he was arrested for anti-Soviet statements and sentenced to five years of forced labor. He served his sentence in Pyatigorsk : he executed the NKVD sanatoriums. He also wrote a series of works on the theme of the circus. During the Great Patriotic War, he was an artist at a propaganda station in Kovrov . ^[one]

In 1948, having been widowed (remarried in Moscow around 1935), he moved to his sister in Saratov , where until the end of his life he worked at the Department of Architecture of the Road Institute as a drawing teacher. ^[one]

After the death of the artist in 1964, his legacy was scattered among relatives, acquaintances and neighbors. Many of his paintings were saved from death by the Saratov artist Vladimir Solyanov . Later, he transferred most of them to Irina Devyatyarova, the first researcher of N. Mamontov’s work. Today, these works are included in the collection of the Omsk Regional Museum of Fine Arts. Vrubel . The works of N. A. Mamontov are also kept in the Omsk Museum of Local Lore, the Saratov Art Museum. Radishchev , Art Gallery. K. S. Petrova-Vodkin in Khvalynsk , private collections in Omsk, Saratov, St. Petersburg, Moscow.

In the spring of 2008, the first solo exhibition of Nikolai Mamontov at home was held in the “Exhibition Hall in Tolmachi” of the State Tretyakov Gallery. ^[2]

• Many friends of Mamontov’s youth considered him dead in 1934. Irina Devyatyarova, an art historian from the Omsk Museum of Fine Arts, was assisted in the investigation of the artist’s life by L. Martynov’s archive. ^[one]

• Devyatyarova I. From the gang of Omsk mischief-makers (About another youth artist Nikolai Mamontov) // Son of Hyperborea. The book is about the poet. Omsk, 1997.
• Sharina O.S. Nikolay Mamontov. "DREAMS OF THE PILGRIM" // Journal "Tretyakov Gallery". # 1 2008 (18). S. 86-89.