Oleksandr Bogomazov (Ukrainian, 1880-1930)
Abstract composition

The family of the artist, Kyiv
Sergei Ivanovich Grigoryants (1941–2023), Moscow
James Butterwick, London
Private Collection, London, from whom acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Kyiv, National Museum of Ukrainian Art, Alexander Bogomazov, Dec-Jan 1992

Literature:
James Butterwick, James Butterwick: A personal Choice Russian paintings and graphics 1867-1945, KitArt Publishers, Moscow, 2004, cat.no.22, illustrated.

The Ukrainian Avant-Garde painter Oleksandr Bogomazov is one of the most significant figures in the advent of Cubo-Futurism. A modern theoretician recognised as one of the key figures of the Ukrainian avant-garde scene. In 1914, Oleksandr wrote his treatise The Art of Painting and the Elements. In it he analysed the interaction between Object, Artist, Picture, and Spectator and sets the theoretical foundation of modern art. Bogomazov's Cubo-futurist artworks were first presented to the public in the artist’s native Kyiv at the Kol'tso exhibition organised in early 1914 by himself and Alexandra Exter (1882-1949). Bogomazov confirmed his position as an important figure in Kyiv art circles. Here the painter demonstrated that he was already aware of the Futurist idea of motion and Cubist principle of deformation and managed to create his own formula of Cubo-futurism.

'Painters are faced with a dilemma at this moment: either to move forward or turn back in fear of the New Art. Boundless joy and throes of creation are in store for those who are brave enough to advance, while melancholy, frustration and the tedium of repeating the known and blaming everything new await those who are not. It is about this New Art that I want to speak and to tell the reader, to the best of my abilities, what I see, feel and understand'. (A. Bogomazov, Zhivopis' i ee elementy [Painting and its elements], Kyiv, 1996, p. 91).