Pavel Nikonov

Life & Legacy

Pavel Fedorovich Nikonov (Russian: Павел Фёдорович Никонов; 30 May 1930 – 8 November 2025) was a Russian painter, graphic artist, teacher and academic, and one of the founders of the Severe style in Soviet painting. His 1962 painting Geologists became a central target of criticism when Nikita Khrushchev denounced the works on show at the 1962 Manege exhibition. Nikonov was an academician of the Russian Academy of Arts (2000; corresponding member 1997), a People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1994), and a two-time laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2001, 2021).