OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2008. S7 Airlines Company, the leading Russian air carrier as per the number of domestic flight passengers, for the first time in Russian aviation history named one of its aircraft - Airbus A319 after a contemporary Russian artist Timur Noviikov*, reported the press-centre of S7 Airlines.

The named air craft now has across its fuselage the subscription "Artist Timur Novikov", made in the artist’s famous style.

This event is intended to commemorate the artist’s birthday, as on 24 September 2008 Timur Novikov would have celebrated his 50th anniversary.

The first flight under the name "Timur Novikov" Airbus A319 took place on 24 September 2008, from Moscow to St.Petersburg.

The liner will take on board Russian and international journalists, as well as known Russian art figures and cultural workers who will visit Timur Novikov`s personal exhibition "Timur’s Space: St.Petersburg —New York. To Timur Novikov 50th Anniversary"**, for the first time opening in the Russian largest museum – The State Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Awarding aircraft the artist’s name and the exhibition support are carried on within S7 Airlines Russian Contemporary Art Development and Popularization program.

From April 2008 S7 Airlines is also acting as the official carrier of Russian contemporary art mobile exhibition titled "Future up to You. New Guidelines", to be held in eight Russian cities and towns***.

S7 Airlines offers its passengers an innovative and attractive cause to travel – such as visiting cultural events. Such trips are called art-tourism. At that, within one trip one can get to attend several art and culture events in different Russian cities and internationally.

* Novikov Timur Petrovich (24.09.1958 -23.05.2002) – Russian artist, famous for launching several art schools (i.e. "New artists" in 1982, neo-academism trend in 1989), founder and thinker of St Petersburg New Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1982 until 2000 there have taken place over 40 individual and joint exhibitions of his works both in Russia and abroad. Timur Novikov has acted in such movies as "Rock", "Two captains -2", "Woe from wit". He also took part in several theatre productions, ballet performances, the film "ASSA", concerts of music bands "Pop-Mechanika" and "Kino".

** The exhibition will be held from September 24, 2008 to January 11, 2009 in the Hermitage headquarters show-rooms. The exhibition will demonstrate 25 art works by Timur Novikov from the Stedelijk museum collection (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the State Russian Museum, "Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova" museum (Turku, Finland), and private collections from St. Petersburg, Moscow and Brussels (Belgium).

*** Within this project will be demonstrated 100 works by 21 Russian artists specially selected and purchased by the organizers in order to maximize the reflection of contemporary Russian art conceptions. The Exhibition already took place in Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk and Novosibirsk. From 18 September 2008 the works will be exhibited in Yekaterinburg. Further the exhibits will be shown in Samara and Krasnodar. The project will end on March 23, 2009 in Kaliningrad. After a year long travel from The Sea of Japan to The Baltic sea the art collection will be demonstrated in Moscow in May 2009 simultaneously at two different events: "Art Moscow" held in the Central House of Artists (from 16 to 20 May 2009) and the Fine Arts Salon in the Great Manege (from 29 May to 4 June 2009).