Nikolay Kasatkin was born in 1932 in Zhukovo village, Smolensk region. Since 1933 he lived in Moscow, though since 1983 during summers he worked and lived in Vorontsovo village, Smolensk region. In 1959 he graduated from Moscow State Art Institute n. a. V.I. Surikov, in 1973 became a member of the Moscow branch of USSR Artists’ Union. His art is deeply connected with unofficial soviet artists, first of all with Erik Bulatov and Oleg Vassiliev. After graduating his creative search expressed in post-Sezannist experiments (under the influence of R. Falk), then (since second part of 60’s) – in combining a painting and an object. In his works Kasatkin studied an influence of photography and kitch culture on painting. Though a “conceptual landscape”, which was based on the principle of combining recognizable landscape structures both in nature and in the history of art, has become his most important theme since the beginning of 1970’s. Just like Eric Bulatov and Oleg Vassiliev, Kasatkin worked with the space of the image, the objective principles of its construction, considering the achievements of both avant-garde art and realistic painting (especially the landscape of the 19th century). Therefore, he developed his own, recognizable and unique style in art.

Kasatkin took part in numerous important solo and group shows such as “Nikolay Kasatkin. Double Perspective” (Perm Museum of Contemporary Art PERMM, 2018-2019), “Nikolay Kasatkin. A Dual Picture” (The State Tretyakov Gallery, 2015), “Decoration of the Beautiful. Elitism and Kitsch in Contemporary Art (The State Tretyakov Gallery, ), “Always Other Art. Victor Bondarenko Collection” (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 2010). Kasatkin passed away on 26th of October, 2019 in Moscow.