Stritenska St, 23, Kherson, Khersons'ka oblast, Ukraine, 73000
Oleksandr Bogomazov studied on the father’s insistence at the Institute for Agriculture (today Kherson State Agrarian University) between 1896 and 1902.
Stritenska St, 23, Kherson, Khersons'ka oblast, Ukraine, 73000
Oleksandr Bogomazov studied on the father’s insistence at the Institute for Agriculture (today Kherson State Agrarian University) between 1896 and 1902.
Alexander Archipenko
Portrait of Aleksandra Ekster
Bogomazov was born in Yampil, Russian Empire (today Ukraine), on April 7, 1880. He was the second child in his family. His father was Konstantin Bogomazov and his mother was Anisia Bogomazova, who abandoned the family when he was a little boy.
Oleksandr Bogomazov started to draw in Kherson, where he was studying on the father’s insistence at the Institute for Agriculture (today Kherson State Agrarian University) between 1896 and 1902. From 1902 to 1905 he studied at the Kiev Art School (KKHU), at the same time he was close with Alexander Archipenko and Aleksandra Ekster.
He took part in political demonstrations in 1905, and the same year he was expelled from the Kiev Art School. In 1906 Bogomazov started his studies in the studio of S. Swiatoslavskiy. A bit later he together with Archipenko had an exhibition in Kiev. That year Oleksandr Bogomazov moved to Moscow and became the disciple of Fyodor Rerberg and Konstantin Yuon.
Bogomazov left Moscow for Kiev in 1907. Starting from 1907 he had regular exhibitions in Kiev, including those with the Association of Russian Artists and the Moscow Society of Independent Artists. In the year 1908, he exhibited with the group of artists Zveno (The Link) in Kiev together with David Burliuk, Wladimir Burliuk, Aleksandra Ekster and some others.
In 1911, he went to Finland. During the period of 1912-1915, he was a teacher at the school for the deaf and mute in Kiev. From 1913 to 1914 Bogomazov thoroughly studied the artworks of the Italian Futurists. Around this time he developed his art theories, and also published his essay entitled "The Art of Painting and the Elements". In 1914 Oleksandr Bogomazov held the exhibition "Kiltse" ("The Ring") in Kiev, together with Aleksandra Ekster and Eugène Konopatzky. In 1915 Bogomazov moved to the Caucasus, where he served as a teacher of graphic arts at local higher primary school and also created his paintings.
In general, Bogomazov spent much time and energy on teaching. In 1917-1918 he taught at a commercial school in Zolotonosha. In 1919 he was appointed teacher at the First State Studio for Paintings and Decorative art in Kiev. Between 1919 and 1920, he was the Head of the Department for Art Education in the Ukrainian Commissariat for Visual Art. Concurrently, he became one of the the co-founders of the Ukrainian Agitprop Movement and created designs for it.
During 1922-1930 he taught at the Kiev Art Academy (KKHI) together with Vladimir Tatlin, Vadim Meller, Victor Palmov. In 1927 he took part in the All-Ukrainian Exhibition Ten years October (Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa), together with Tatlin, Epshtein, Meller, Palmov, among others.
Oleksandr Bogomazov continued to paint, and in the second half of 1920s he was working on the problem of colour, trying to find out the laws of interrelations of locally painted coloured spots on the plane. His artworks "Sharpening of Saws" (1927), "Sawers" (1928-1929), "Sawdust Bearers" (1929) are the vivid examples of synthesis of artistic searches of Bogomazov during that period.
Oleksandr Bogomazov, one of the best artists of his time, was given the proud name of "Ukrainian Picasso" during his lifetime. His most prominent paintings were "Tram", created in 1914, and "Fire in Kiev", which he painted in 1916.
Oleksandr Bogomazov's works were characterized by originality and high quality. His artworks appeared not only in Ukraine, but also abroad, for instance in 1973 several of them were included in the exhibition Tatlin’s Dream at Fischer Fine Art in London. A retrospective of his work was held in 1991 at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Toulouse.
Memories of the Caucasus
A bridge
Girl with a hoop
Still life. Bottles
Stipa carriers
Sennoy market. Kiev
Abstract Composition
Cityscape. Kiev
Self-portrait
Fire in Kiev
Composition
Abstract Composition
Female portrait
Portrait of the Daughter
Tram
Abstract Landscape
Landscape with the house with red roof
Flowers
Self-portrait
Abstraction
Forest. Boyarka
Electrician
Portrait of wife
Tuning saws
Locomotive
Abstract Composition
Still life with fruits and vegetables
Portrait of the painter Burdanov
Female silhouette against the background of the castle
Sawyers
Landscape with red houses
Lumberjack
Objectless composistion
Landscape with palm tree and blooming flowerbed
Portrait of a man
White night. Finland
Head
Portrait
Self-portrait
Bouquet of flowers
Still life with flowers
Tea Kettle
Toys
Bogomazov always tried to understand the vital questions of being, to comprehend the role and purpose of a human being and an artist. He believed in unlimited possibilities of Feeling, Beauty, Creation.
Quotations: "The beauty can not be understood by only mind, without feeling, because the logic of mind does not coincide with the logic of beauty, for which there are quite different scales, which can not be measured by logical yardstick. Stars are beautiful, so is rose. But why? Mind would not answer, it would only say that stars can not be taken off the sky and rose can be pitched. But Beauty would say: the star is beautiful and sometimes I take it off the sky and adorn it with the rose of my love."
Oleksandr Bogomazov became a founding member of the Association of the Revolutionary Masters of Ukraine (ARMU) in 1927, together with D. Burliuk, V. Meller, V. Palmov, V. Yermilov, and others.
The inner world of the artist was rich and interesting, which is notably testified by the letters to his relatives and friends and by notes in his diary, which he kept from 1899. Oleksandr Bogomazov was a lively man, romantic, and dreamy.
Bogomazov married dearly loved woman Vanda Vitoldovna Monastyrskaya in 1913. She became his faithful companion for the rest of his life.
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko was a Ukrainian-born American avant-garde artist, sculptor, as well as a graphic artist.
Aleksandra Ekster was a Russian-French artist, cubo-futurist, suprematist, constructivist and designer. She was one of most famous Russian Avant Garde female painters that gained international recognition.
