Varvara Bubnova graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts as a painter and the Archaeology Institute as its full member. In the 1910s she played an important part in implanting innovative views in fine arts. The artist was an active organizer of the Union of Youth and was exhibited in it and some other similar associations. From 1922 to 1958 Varvara Bubnova lived and worked in Japan and had a noticeable impact on the development of lithography there. The new possibilities of this technique that she introduced came to be widely used, in particular, in posters.

For 30 years long she conducted a course in the Russian language and literature in higher educational institutions of Tokyo (for instance, in Waseda, the Institute of Foreign Languages). Upon returning to the USSR she lived and worked in Sukhumi. For her contribution into development of Japanese culture Varvara Bubnova was awarded the Precious Crown Order of the fourth degree.