Curatorial project: "Petrov-Vodkin's Circle"

Painter, teacher. Studied under Nicholas Roerich at the School of Drawing, Society for the Encouragement of Arts; in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, St Petersburg University (1916– 1918) and under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS in Petrograd (1918–1924). A study of his diploma work Thunderstorm was approved in 1921, but due to illness, the defense of the diploma was postponed until 1924. Lived in Kiev (1925–1930), Kharkov (1930) and Leningrad (from 1932).

Member and exhibitor of the Association of Revolutionary Art of Ukraine (1925–1927); Union of Modern Masters of Ukraine (1927–1932). Contributed to the exhibitions of the left-wing artists in New York (1926); Venice Biennale (1928); exhibition in the apartment of Ilya Gruzdev, editor of the magazine Star (second half of the 1930s); exhibition of works by Pavel Golubyatnikov’s students from the art studio, House of Teachers (1939). Member of the Union of Artists (1932). Developed methodological programmes on art, created new painterly technologies (1938, together with physicist D. Forsh) and elaborated a plan of founding the Institute of Applied Arts. Died of hunger during the siege. His wife Olga Golubyatnikova (1898–1984) brought his paintings and archives to the Ural Region.

In 1975 and the following years, his wife and daughter V. P. Deryabina (1923–2003) transferred them for storage to the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts. After the death of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Golubyatnikov proposed creating a laboratory in his name to study the theoretical issues he touched on in his work: colour, space, and movement. In his recollections of Petrov-Vodkin (1939), Golubyatnikov had every basis to write: “Outside of the academy we became close friends, comrades. We went to concerts, to theatres, artists’ workshops, exhibitions…” (from the archival materials of the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Art, published on their website).