Viktor Pivovarov was born in Moscow in 1937. He graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute in 1962. Like many Moscow artists of the underground, Pivovarov made his way into alternative art through book illustration. The beginning of his artistic career dates from the publication of a series of prints entitled The Temptation of St. Anthony. His work in book illustration allowed for the use of surrealist concepts which the artist later transferred to his «albums» and autobiographical paintings.
Pivovarov figures among the founders of Moscow Conceptualism, which combined the Russian literary tradition with the image. His plastic art, suffused with infantilism and childhood complexes, significantly influenced the ideology of the next generation of Moscow Conceptualism, the so-called Noma.
In 1984 Pivovarov moved to Czechoslovakia but maintained close ties with the Russian nonofficial art community. Since 1977 he has participated in numerous exhibitions in Russia and in the West. He has had several solo shows in Prague, Lucerne, Brno, and most recently in Moscow in 1993. He lives and works in Prague.
