Born in 1964 and raised in Moscow, Anton Arkhipov descends from a genealogical tree of several generations of artists, musicians and actors. His father, Michail Arkhipov, a well-known dissident artist, belonged to a group of artists of the rough style from the 1950’s-70’s. His mother, Tatiana Vtorova, an impressionist artist, descends from a famous dynasty of Russian artists, sculptors, and architects such as A. Benua, E. Lancere, Z. Serebryakova. Anton, born and brought up in an artistic environment where various schools and trends from Russian Realism of the 19th century to 20th century Avant-garde and Contemporary art were represented.


Education at the Surikov College of Fine Arts in Moscow, from there he advances with a promising talent learning skills in drawing, painting, plastic anatomy, and the history of art. Throughout his education Arkhipov’s fascination and influences evolve from the Impressionist masters, particularly Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, and Claude Monet to the Russian Avant-garde artists of the 1920’s and 30’s. He graduates as one of the top students in his class from the Surikov College of Fine Arts in Moscow.


Arkhipov showed his paintings in government-sponsored formal social realist exhibitions until 1987 when he began to show nontraditional work in underground exhibitions with a young group of artists called Kovcheg (ark). During this time Anton begins work on restoring church icons, murals, and frescos. As a result, his style of painting becomes heavily influenced with the visual aesthetics and symbolism of ancient Egyptian, Byzantine, and Russian iconography.