Alexander Konstantinovich Bogomazov

Estate of the Artist, Kiev
Sotheby's London, Twentieth Century Russian and East European Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture 1900-1930, 4 July 1974, lot 50
Modernism Gallery, San Francisco
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1989

Toulouse, Musée d'art moderne, Alexandre Bogomazov, 21 June – 28 August 1991

A.Nakov, Exhibition Catalogue Alexandre Bogomazov, Toulouse: 1991, no.40 illustrated

Structural Condition The canvas has been laid onto a board and this is ensuring a secure structural support. I assume that this work has carried out in order to secure the horizontal crease lines which run across the canvas. There are two lines which run across the full width of the canvas and one shorter line which runs in from the right vertical framing edge. Paint surface The horizontal lines mentioned above have been retouched and these retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light as well as in natural light. There are also a number of other areas, most significantly in the blue pigments in the lower left corner which have been retouched over what would appear to be paint losses. These retouchings should ideally be removed and where necessary, more carefully replaced so as not to be visible in natural light. There are other scattered areas of retouching. Summary The painting has therefore clearly suffered from paint loss in the past, perhaps because of poor handling, and a number of paint losses have occurred. I would be confident however that the painting would respond well to the work briefly outlined above.
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Executed circa 1914-15.

Alexander Bogomazov's bold experimentation and negation of traditional academic art practices reflected the move toward abstraction in early twentieth-century experimental art. Bogomazov, a leading member of the Ukrainian avant-garde movement, explained that in his works he sought "to liberate the painterly elements from the fetters... blocking and obscuring the painterly meaning of the picture."

 

Bogomazov attended the Kiev School of Art in 1902, but was expelled in 1905 for his participation in political demonstrations and strikes. He moved to Moscow and continued his studies in the private art schools of Fedor Rerberg and Konstantin Yuon, from which many famous Russian Cubo-Futurist artists had emerged. In 1908, Bogomazov contributed to the Zveno (Link) exhibition, organized by the Futurist artist David Burliuk in Kiev. In 1911, Bogomazov went to Finland, where he became influenced by Finnish Art Nouveau. Together with the Russian avant-garde artist Alexandra Exter, he organized the exhibition Kol'tso (Ring) in Kiev in 1914.

 

In 1913–14 Bogomazov was associated with the Russian Cubo-Futurist artists and came into contact with the Italian Futurists. Under these influences, he became a leading exponent of this style while also developing his own art theories, culminating in his 1914 book Zhivopis' i ee elementy (Painting and Its Elements). Bogomazov's commitment to modernist formal experimentation led him to concentrate on harmonious arrangements of line and colour, as manifested in his Abstract Composition of 1914–15. Closely spaced sequences of interpenetrating diagonals, curves and acute angles create an impression of rhythmically pulsating volumes. The mosaic of planes recalls Cubism, while the clear trajectories of movement indicate the influence of Futurism. The present lot demonstrates Bogomazov's increasing liberation from mimetic reproduction in favour of pure visuality. The kinetic and luminous vibrations of forms create a tense power field reminiscent of a kaleidoscope.