Nikas Safronov is a Russian artist. His paintings are exhibited in galleries not only in Russia, but throughout the world. The master of art is incredibly rich. He is involved in charity work, helping adults and children.
There are legends about Safronov's personal life. For a long time he was considered the most promising groom. The man dated a lot of women. To date, he has been married twice. Currently, Nikas lives in a civil marriage with a girl named Maria.
Safronov recently announced that he would include all his children in his inheritance. Currently, the master has five sons, but does not exclude that their number could be more.
Height, weight, age. How old is Nikas Safronov
Currently, an increasing number of people are enjoying paintings from the artist’s brush. Recently, a documentary film about a man was released, from which you can find out what his height, weight, and age are. You can read how old Nikas Safronov is by turning to official sources. The master’s age has already crossed the 60-year mark. Our hero looks great. He looks about 50 years old.
Nikas Safronov, whose photos in his youth and now are actively viewed by art lovers around the world, goes in for sports. He loves to swim and run. This is what leads to the fact that the artist is in good physical shape. With a height of 178 cm, he weighs 74 kg.
Nikas Safronov: “They presented me with 7 more illegitimate sons”
Almost every year his world-famous friends come to Nikas Safronov for the holidays. Sophia Loren was at the last anniversary, this time the Honored Artist of Russia is expecting Eric Roberts and Nastassya Kinski to visit. On the eve of his 63rd birthday, the famous painter and portrait painter talked with Komsomolskaya Pravda about creativity and copying, about money and gifts, about countless children and their mothers, about Madonna and Luzhkov.
— Do you feel like you’re 63 years old?
— I feel like I’m 25-30 years old. I don't have a rattle and I still like all attractive women with a twist.
— What birthday gift will you give yourself?
— Last year I bought myself 25 hectares of land near Ulyanovsk, and recently completed the paperwork. My priestly ancestors once had a patrimony there, a farm there, my parents lived there and I restored it. There is a huge garden, a pond, a spring. There I have three houses, a large bathhouse for 8 people. And I plan to breed bees there. They will produce up to 2.5 tons. And I will give real, 100 percent honey to Komsomolskaya Pravda. After all, if there are no bees, there will be no land.
- You are like Yuri Luzhkov!
— He sometimes comes to visit. And yes, he infected me with this story! He once told me for two hours about how to breed bees and make honey! I am a follower of Yuri Mikhailovich.
Artist Nikas Safronov. Photo: Victor GUSEINOV
— You are a famous portrait painter. And your work costs a lot of money. But sometimes you give them. Depending on what?
— I was in Hollywood, I had the opportunity to meet Madonna. I made some sketches and she liked it. She ordered my work. And she bargained. But I didn’t give in to her because I’m not her big fan. But at the same time, I can give a painting to someone. For example, Sean Connery - I love this actor so much.
— You said that millionaire Madonna was bargaining?
- Everyone is bargaining. And billionaires bargain. At the same time, one person saved up for 15 years to buy my painting. And this is not an isolated case. Many years ago, a man came who saved and saved 10 thousand dollars to buy my work. I took half the money and paid him the return trip.
— How much did Madonna buy it for? Did they lower her price?
— I bought it for normal money. I gave her a discount. One of the portraits was a gift, but the other was not a gift.
— Do you often have to embellish to please the client of a portrait?
- Don't embellish. Raphael wrote: “There are no ugly faces, there are bad artists.” This is always a collective image. You can remove the chin if a person has gained weight, or bags over the eyes due to fatigue. But a bad artist does not feel a person, he copies, paints what he saw.
Artist with the great Sophia Loren. Photo from personal archive
- That is, not copying.
- In no case! Even if you use a photograph, for example, of Pushkin or Tolstoy, to create an image. Kiprensky took it and made Pushkin handsome and delicious! Any beautiful girl would be flattered by this. And there are other unfavorable portraits where he has a large nose and short stature. This is the wrong approach. You can always find a form of presentation that both the person and the viewer will like. As Michelangelo said: “Take a stone and cut off everything unnecessary.” Temporary, superficial, not historical. But there is no need to invent or speculate. There is an Eastern legend when a king did not have an arm, leg or eye. And he asked the artists to write it. One drew him with an eye, an arm, a leg, and he executed him. The second one wrote it with one eye, one arm and one leg. Also for execution. And the third put him in profile, put him on a horse and painted a shield instead of a hand. And the king rewarded him.
- You are a famous bachelor. Or only according to documents?
- I am a bachelor, I have no one. I dated the same girl for many years. Now I continue to support her, but I haven’t seen her for about five years. There are some random and non-random encounters. There are those with whom I have known for many years, there are some short-term hobbies - but I often fly around the country and the world. I cannot say that I am a eunuch or a recluse. But so that the heart lies...
— Do you plan to stamp your passport for the third time?
- I'm afraid to fall in love, to get carried away too much. I have everything I need: an apartment, a name, some income. I see how my friends get married, then get divorced, and she rips everything off from him. I do not mind. Mom said: “If you got married and decided to divorce after 20 years, then find the sweatshirt you came in and leave.” Before breaking up with my girlfriend, I bought her an apartment, a car, everything, everything, helped her get an education. I understood that I would no longer be with this person, but I did everything so that he would not feel abandoned.
- So, if Nikas Safronov bought his companion an apartment, a car, separation follows?
- It shouldn't. I do it differently. But I never behave meanly. This is my upbringing. I'm not being rude. Even if I want to strangle a person, I try to part ways very gently so as not to leave a feeling. And don’t make unnecessary enemies for yourself (there are already a lot of them), and don’t feel like a scoundrel.
— There are legends about the number of your illegitimate children. How many do you have?
— A lot of children appear. I was presented with seven, if not eight children. I haven’t seen one yet, but I remembered that I met his mother - a very impressive woman with oriental beauty. I have already adopted one. His name is Yura. There are six official ones: the only one born in the marriage, Stefano, Landin, Luca, Alexander, Dmitry and Yuri.
- Seven in line and all of them are sons too?
- As if on purpose. Marvelous! Only sons.
—You didn’t do a DNA test?
- I am very calm about this. If I remember his mother, if I had a good time with her, I accept the child. I have been doing charity work for many years, why not help the woman with whom I once felt good? Why not help her son? Children were presented to me already as an adult, by the time I became famous. Otherwise, I would never have known in my life that these children existed in such numbers.
- What is money to you?
— I divide the money I earn from my labor in half. One half goes to the family. First of all, I have three brothers and a sister, I support them. Secondly, I have children. I pay for their studies and stuff. The money that I, for example, receive from the sale of candy, dishes, umbrellas, paints and other things with my name or paintings, I give 100% to charity.
— How do you feel about envy?
- I have never envied anyone and I don’t wish it on anyone else. As soon as a person begins to envy someone, he eats himself from the inside. Many people envy me, I know. But I take this philosophically and pray for them: “God grant that they like something and have such wealth that they do not envy anyone.” Everything can be done: to work like Rembrandt, Leonardo, Velazquez - it’s just a technique that you master in the learning process. If you work, are not lazy, do other things, you will have friends, people will respect and appreciate you. You will always have prosperity, prosperity, and health. When you work, you don't get sick because you have no time to think about it.
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Nikas Safronov talks about how he got into the Guinness Book of Records. The artist himself will tell about this amazing story on Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda
Biography and personal life of Nikas Safronov
Biography and personal life of Nikas Safronov has been associated with creativity all his life. He was born in the mid-50s in the city of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - Ulyanovsk. At birth the baby received the name Nikolai. Father - Safronov Stepan Grigorievich and mother - Safronova Anna Fedorovna raised their children in the spirit of Orthodoxy. Our hero has four brothers and one sister.
From the age of 4, the boy became interested in fine arts. But he dreamed of connecting his life with the sea. He decided to become a sailor, so as a teenager he became a student at the nautical school in Odessa. A year later, his life changes dramatically. He took the documents from the sailor and took them to the art school in Rostov-on-Don. For two years, it was here that the guy honed his artistic talent. At the same time, Nikas earned a living by performing a number of different jobs. He designed posters in the theater for young spectators, guarded one of the stores, swept yards and unloaded various goods. I was never able to become a professional artist. This time, conscription into the armed forces prevented him. The service took place in a small Estonian town.
After demobilization, Safronov lived for some time in Vilnius, where he received his education at the local university. Having become a designer, our hero got a job in one of the theaters, where he designed the stage before performances. In his free time, Nikas painted fabrics at the plant.
Since the early 70s, the young man begins to write and sell artwork. It was then that Safronov’s first personal exhibition took place. He changes his name in the spirit of Lithuanian tradition to Nikos.
In 1977, the artist moved to Moscow. Here he actively paints pictures and does charity work. In the early 80s he received a degree as a psychologist.
The man is currently moving from country to country. Fans everywhere are eagerly awaiting his exhibition. The man especially loves to work in the Russian, Italian and English outback. This is where he feels comfortable.
According to Nikas Safronov himself, he had a large number of beloved women. He officially married only twice. Currently, our hero lives with a woman named Maria in a civil marriage.
Nikas Safronov's childhood
Nikas Safronov was born in 1956 in Ulyanovsk into a poor family of a retired military man. Four older brothers and a younger sister were faithful companions of his childhood, and Nikas carried his kind affection for them through all the intricacies of his life
Artist Nikas Safronov
Nikas's father (Safronov Stepan Grigorievich) is Russian, from a family of hereditary Orthodox priests, dating back, according to the chronicles of Simbirsk, to 1668. Mom (Safronova Anna Fedorovna) was born in Panevezys, Lithuania, and is half-Lithuanian and half-Finnish by nationality. Based on this, the artist’s Lithuanian pseudonym, Nikas, appeared. By the way, the man greatly revered his mother, so he built a temple in her honor.
Family and children of Nikas Safronov
The celebrity has attracted the attention of numerous girls since his youth. He was married twice. But the first time the marriage lasted only twenty days, and the second lasted several years and brought a son.
The family and children of Nikas Safronov have recently been in the spotlight again. The artist came to the DNA program to meet his illegitimate sons. He decided to divide his inheritance among all his children. The man does not rule out that the number of sons could expand significantly. On NTV, Safronov had already met three adult sons, whom he had no idea about. Nikas also turned to other children who were born from him. He urged them not to hide, but to come to Moscow and get acquainted.
The artist’s father was a military man for a long time. He took part in the Great Patriotic War. In the 60s, the man retired from the army and began working as a priest in one of the Ulyanovsk churches.
Mom had Lithuanian and Finnish roots. She moved to Ulyanovsk from a small town in Lithuania. The woman devoted all her strength to raising six children. She is buried in the village of Vyshki, Ulyanovsk region. Nikas, at his own expense, built a temple in honor of his beloved mother, which he still sponsors.
The artist is involved in charity work. He is a trustee of one of the Ulyanovsk gymnasiums. Culture and art are studied in depth here. Our hero also helps the Dimitrovgrad Lyceum. Nikas pays a special bonus to excellent students.
Nikas Safronov Awards
Nikas Safronov has a number of titles. The artist was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Russia, an honorary citizen of Russia, is a professor at the State University of the Ulyanovsk Region, as well as an honorary citizen of Ulyanovsk, an academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, an honorary member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and the Kazakh National Academy of Arts named after T. Zhurgenev.
Nikas Safronov receives an award from the hands of the President
For his professional, social and charitable activities, Nikas Safronov was awarded the Order of St. Constantine the Great, the Order of St. Stanislaus, the Order of St. Anne, II degree, the Order of the Russian Patron of the Arts, the Order of Service to Art, I degree (Gold Star), the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, III degree, Order “Sovereign Russia”, Order “For Good Deeds” of the Club of Orthodox Patrons, Order of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (Profession – Life), Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts, Gold Medal of Azerbaijan, Gold Medal of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts, Gold Medal “In the Name of Russia” ", Gold Medal "National Treasure".
Sons of Nikas Safronov - Stefano, Dmitry, Luka Zatravkin, Landin Soroko
The sons of Nikas Safronov - Stefano, Dmitry, Luka Zatravkin, Landin Soroko often communicate with their father, despite the fact that they live separately from him.
The artist became a father for the first time in the mid-80s. His son was born. The man named his first-born Dmitry. Now he is a self-sufficient person who lives and works in Vilnius. For a long time, close people did not communicate. But at the beginning of the 2000s, Dmitry’s father included him in his will.
In the early 90s, our beloved girl gave birth to a son from our hero. Luka Zatravkin permanently resides in the Russian capital. He plays the piano excellently and has received several prestigious awards.
His second wife gave birth to another son. The guy's name is Stefano. He resides in the UK.
Little is known about Landin Soroko. He is the youngest of the man's children and lives in Sydney, Australia.
Creation
After five years of study, the ambitious designer sets off to conquer the capital and enters the Moscow Academic Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov. In addition, Safronov’s collection of diplomas was replenished by the capital’s University of Technology and Management, where he studied at the Faculty of Psychology.
Safronov began exhibiting his works in 1972. After the exhibition in 1978, people started talking about the artist as a talented surrealist. The first serious exhibition took place in 1980 in Vilnius. Later, having moved to Moscow, Nikas worked as an art director for the luxury real estate magazine Penthouse, combining this activity with the work of a designer in the magazines Aura-Z, Diplomat and World of Stars.
Despite the fact that Nikas was already known in a narrow circle of artists, world fame came to him in the early 90s of the last century. At that time, Safronov began working on a series of canvases with portraits of public figures and politicians. Among his clients are Presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, many high-ranking officials of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Turkmenistan, as well as celebrities, including Nikita Mikhalkov, Philip Kirkorov, Nicole Kidman.
Even the people closest to me very rarely visit my workshops.
For me, the workshop is my little world, only... Published by Nikas Safronov - Nikas Safronov Friday, January 31, 2020
Nikas Safronov and his paintings
A number of these portraits are included in a series of works called “River of Time”. Its distinctive feature is a paraphrase of the great works of the past and simply stylization, made in the spirit of the Flemish school of the Renaissance, where famous people of our time are represented as heroes of the subjects of ancient paintings.
In 2005, Nikas created a self-portrait dressed as Captain Blood, in which he presented himself as serious and thoughtful. This image of the artist was highly appreciated by critics.
Safronov's exhibitions were held in major cities of the CIS. In 2007, an exhibition of his paintings was located on the territory of the Kremlin in the building of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Only wealthy people order portraits or landscapes of Nikas, since the cost of the canvases varies between $6-10 thousand.
In his works, the artist uses a special style, which includes a generalization of the creative method, where classical painting is combined with the use of imagination and intuition.
In November 2020, Nikas shared the news that he had painted a portrait of Donald Trump. True, in a hurry he confused the White House with the Capitol.
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A post shared by Nikas Safronov (@safronov_nikas) on Mar 2, 2017 at 5:26am PST
Landscapes by Nikas Safronov
According to the master, he was in a hurry to complete the work after hearing information from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Trump’s victory in the elections was very likely. The artist promised to present the finished portrait to the new President of America as a gift.
At the end of the summer of 2020, Safronov opened his own painting school, thus realizing his long-time dream of owning his own workshop. It is located in Moscow, on Bryusov Lane.
Nikas Safronov is open to everything new. Recently, the artist has been participating in unexpected collaborations, which he reports from the pages of Instagram. Prints based on his works appear on wardrobe items from the collections of designer Svetlana Lyalina, and gift boxes of products from the Babaevsky chocolate factory are decorated with images of Safronov’s paintings.
The artist also continues to make exclusive gifts for celebrities. He presented author's portraits to Alexander Shirvindt, Sophia Loren, and Nick Cave. Safronov posts photos with the owners of the paintings on his personal microblog.
In September 2020, Safronov’s exhibition “Other Worlds” opened at the State Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. This is not a simple gallery event: thanks to modern technology and the artist’s talent, visitors saw the illusion of changing space in the form of digital decor. Thanks to multimedia projectors, the paintings acquired additional volume and a different perspective of perception.
Wives of Nikas Safronov - Dragana, Francesca Vendramin, Maria
Nikas Safronov's wives - Dragana, Francesca Vendramin, Maria - became real muses for our hero, thanks to whom he gave art lovers many masterpieces.
He met his first wife in the 80s. The girl spoke excellent Russian. She came to an artist’s exhibition in Italy. This is where the lovers met. The wedding took place soon after they met, but the divorce took place a few weeks later. The couple realized that he was different.
For several years after his divorce from his first wife, Nikas was the most promising groom. There were many women in his life, but he decided to get married only in the early 90s. They were married to Francesca until the early 2000s. It was this union that gave Safronov a son.
Now the man lives in a civil marriage with a girl named Maria. She goes everywhere with him. Safronov says that it is his last wife who is a real savior angel for him.
No longer Tsybulsky: Nikas Safronov’s illegitimate son took his father’s surname
The illegitimate son of artist Nikas Safronov, businessman Dmitry, told 5-tv.ru about the successful establishment of a relationship with his famous father in a Lithuanian court. To prove his words, he showed a passport containing the name of the famous painter. He also told what an epic he had to endure in a Russian court in an attempt to document that he was Safronov’s son.
According to Dmitry, false information appeared in the press that he, the sixth son of Nikas Safronov, filed a lawsuit in the Presnensky Court of Moscow to deprive him of parental rights. But then he allegedly reformulated his demands and petitioned to establish paternity, which the court also denied him. The businessman denied this information point by point.
“Let's start with the fact that I am not the sixth son, but the first, the eldest. The second point is that I never filed a lawsuit against my father to deprive him of his parental rights. The Presnensky District Court did not refuse my claim, but left it without movement. This was due to the fact that I asked my lawyer not to go to court, since the chain of events gave me the idea that someone was interested in the court refusing to establish paternity for me,” said Dmitry Safronov.
According to him, the lawsuit lay with the judge for a long time, the trial was not scheduled, he was asked strange questions that, in his opinion, had nothing to do with the case. For example: “Why does he need to establish paternity?”, “Why does Nikas Safronov need this?”, “Why didn’t you worry about this earlier?” Then the man decided to appeal to the Lithuanian court, since he lives in the territory of this state.
“For these reasons, I decided to file the same claim in the court at my place of residence, where all the evidence was presented. This is a DNA examination carried out in Russia, a video recording of our father, our childhood photographs. The court granted my claim, and I have already changed my last name - now I am Dmitry Safronov,” concluded the artist’s son.
Due to press reports about his loss in court, as well as the illegal use of the painter’s surname, the young man, according to him, suffered reputational losses. Now he intends to seek rehabilitation of his name in court.
“This information discredited me in the eyes of my business partners. I received several calls with questions. This reflected in my impeccable reputation, which I built over the years. My lawyers and I are preparing a statement of claim in court to bring criminal charges against both the media and the person who leaked this false information online. I think we will establish this during the investigation,” Safronov concluded.
Earlier, Nikas Safronov himself told 5-tv.ru how his illegitimate son Dmitry appeared in his life, and why he helped him.
Exhibitions by Nikas Safronov, ticket prices in different cities
Quite often, Nikas Safronov’s exhibitions are held in various Russian cities. Ticket prices vary from city to city. Special rates are set for children and pensioners. They are half the price of an adult ticket.
In Ulyanovsk a ticket costs three hundred rubles. For students, the cost is reduced by one hundred rubles. Schoolchildren and pensioners will be able to visit the exhibition for 150 rubles.
In the cities of the central part of the country, exhibition visitors will pay approximately 250-300 rubles. Depending on this tariff, a discount is calculated for preferential categories of citizens.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the ticket price is slightly higher, since salaries in these megacities are higher. But art lovers can shell out a lot of money to enjoy the masterpieces of the master.
Instagram and Wikipedia Nikas Safronov
Instagram and Wikipedia of Nikas Safronov are replenished at a rapid pace. Here is the most accurate information about the artist.
Wikipedia talks about the man's parents, brothers and sister. On the page you can read what the man did in his youth, how he became famous, and what he is doing now. Here is information about the artist's wives and children.
Nikas actively updates information about himself on social networks. He often shares news about his life with fans. On the page you can see photographs of Safronov, as well as his paintings.
Former common-law wife of Nikas Safronov - Maria
The former common-law wife of Nikas Safronov is Maria. There is little information about the girl, but there are several photographs shared with the artist on the Internet. Maria is clearly younger than her common-law husband, and is also plump. Perhaps this relationship would have a future, but not a destiny. The girl left Nikas Safronov when a scandal broke out about the artist’s rape of a certain Mary, a resident of Rostov-on-Don.
Later, in court, Nikas Safronov achieved the truth, and a fine of 300 thousand rubles was collected from the woman who accused him of rape.
