Cikovsky studied in Russia at the Vilna School of Art, the Penza School of Art, and the Higher Technical Institute of Art, Moscow. He came to America in 1923. The Daniel Gallery, New York, presented his work in one-man exhibitions in 193l and 1932; later in the 1930s he was represented in New York by the Downtown Gallery; and in the 1940s and '50s his work was regularly exhibited at the Associated American Artists's gallery. A frequent participant in major group exhibitions of contemporary American art, Cikovsky was the recipient of numerous awards, among them, purchase prizes from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Worcester (Massachusetts) Art Museum, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In Academy annual exhibitions he won the Maynard prize in 1964.
Cikovsky taught at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Art Academy, the St. Paul (Minnesota) School of Art, the school of the Chicago Art Institute, the Columbus (Ohio) Art Institute, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art school, Washington, D. C. He executed murals for the United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., and several post offices in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.
