Alexander Konstantinovich Bogomazov, 1880-1930

London, Fischer Fine Art Limited, Tatlin's Dream: Russian Suprematist and Constructivist Art 1910-1923, November 1973-January 1974, No.7;
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, The Non-Objective World 1914-1939, 28June -30 September 1978, No.17;

Exhibition catalogue, Alexandre Bogomazov: Jampol, 1880 - Kiev, 1930, Toulouse, Musée d'art moderne: Arpap, 1991, illustrated p.44
Ukrainskii avangard 1910-1930, Kiev, 1996, illustrated plate 79:

This work is believed to have been executed circa 1915 .

“Art is the perfect rhythm of the elements of which it is composed.”
(Aleksandr Bogomazov, Zivopis’ I elementy, August 1914)

Aleksandr Kontantinovich Bogomazov is an important exponent of Soviet and Ukrainian modern art. He was born in Yampol in the Kharkov region in 1880 and studied at the School of Painting in Kiev. From 1906 he lived in Moscow, where his visits to the studios of Rerburg and Konstantin Yuon had a decisive influence on his use of colour. During this same period he came into contact with the work of French artists and was particularly impressed by Gauguin and a posthumous retrospective of Borisov Moussatov (1870-1905), a major figure of Russian symbolist art.
From 1910 he was one of the main Avant-garde artists in Kiev and actively participated in the new revolutionary educational and artistic organisations. In 1912 his Futurist orientation was strongly influenced by Alexandra Exter and her entourage, including the Burliuk brothers.
Bogomazov’s work reached a first level of maturity in 1914 and with the support of Exter he organised the “Kol’co” exhibition in which several young modernist painters took part. Following this exhibition Bogomazov wrote the theatrical treatise Painting and its elements, a Russian text that constitutes one of the major references for the new Futurist art.
Between 1915 and 1917 his imagination was particularly stimulated by the mountainous landscapes of the Caucasus region. From 1918 he was part of the teams that covered Kiev with Futurist works and participated in the famous propaganda train.