Aleksandr Volkov

Aleksandr Volkov spent years studying in Paris, where he hung out at the Louvre more for the light than the crowds. He kept a tiny notebook in his coat pocket, sketching faces he spotted on tram rides home. One day, he glued a postcard of Byzantine mosaics inside the back cover—those gold-backed saints stayed with him long after he moved back to Tashkent. Look up his 1922 painting *Σύνθεση με Τρεις Μορφές*: the faces float in a gold haze that feels both ancient and electric, like a radio tuned between stations.