Novikov came to Odessa in the 60s, at the age of 26 he entered an art school, but was expelled the following year.
He had no permanent place of work, slept with friends and on the street. Four times he was imprisoned for vagrancy; at the end of his term he was sent for employment in other cities, but he always returned to Odessa. Marginal way of life was for him a kind of asceticism, an ideological existence outside the system, but creativity always came first. His hero was Van Gogh. Boris Khersonsky says that Novikov had "Vincent" tattooed under his nipple.
He developed his own recognizable style: ink graphics with deformed female and male bodies, with psychedelic faces of saints. A fixation on forms, a mixture of sacred and prison symbols: halos surrounded by barbed wire, skewed churches, hermits and convicts - the iconography of the social bottom. Vodka delirium-ism. A special technique - rubbed ink with his finger, smudging lines, creating small plumes
The majority of surviving works - the early 90's. The artist was then about 60 years old, he lived in a mental hospital, drew a lot. At this point, his subjects reached maximum stylization. The popularity of Novikov's drawings among collectors appeared. Works of the period 70-80-ies are found less often, often without the date of writing. Most of them are graphics, but there are also works in other techniques and styles. For example, abstract painting.
The authenticity of some moments of the artist's biography is difficult to confirm - Novikov liked to tell stories about himself on the verge of fiction, supplementing and embellishing them through time. Lived without documents, when he was made a passport - lost. In the memoirs of his contemporaries, Novikov also exists as if out of time: no one recalls dates, only folklore and a comprehensive myth. In the archives of the Museum of Modern Art of Odessa are scans of the criminal case of the artist - this is one of the few official evidence confirming the identity of the author, and referring to which you can at least understand the period of his imprisonment.
Collecting pieces of history and passport data, you can still see a very consistent life of a man with a hard fate, who lived in the absolute underground and remained independent; self-taught artist, but not at all primitivist, who for 40 years improved his technique, honing the line and style.
In 1961 with the second time he enters the art school named after Grekov. Grekov, from which the next year will be expelled because of failure in general subjects. During 10 years Novikov is restored, then expelled, constantly returns to the school and hangs around: acquaintances, shoots cigarettes, paper, pencils, fits in the workshops of friends.
Novikov does not write to order, a little money gets on part-time jobs, or just "finds". Poverty gradually changes the way of life of the artist, from an adventurer he turns more and more into a vagabond. In the area of the art school always operated a few wine cellars - Odessa "bodega", where Kolya visited, and where he got acquainted with various lumpen. He respected simple workers and martyrs of physical labor.
He was released for the first time in 1976, but in 77 he was arrested again under the same article and sent to jail for a year and a half. At the end of the term Novikov is sent for employment in Dnepropetrovsk region, but the artist ignores all the instructions of the court and returns to Odessa. The next move to 78, for a year and a half; in the criminal case it is written "He did not make the necessary conclusions. In between time served, he wrote paintings, told stories from the zone, communicated in jargon with blatnye priskazkami. The last term in 1980, again one and a half, he returned to Odessa.
He was released for the first time in 1976, but in 77 he was arrested again under the same article and sent to jail for one and a half years. At the end of the term Novikov is sent for employment in Dnepropetrovsk region, but the artist ignores all the instructions of the court and returns to Odessa. The next move to 78, for a year and a half; in the criminal case it is written "He did not make the necessary conclusions. In between sentences he wrote paintings, told stories from the zone, communicated in jargon with blatnye priskazkami. The last term in 1980, again one and a half, again returns to Odessa.
The National Art Museum of Ukraine and the Museum of Modern Art of Odessa stored only a few works of the artist, most of the works - in private collections.
