Oleksandr Bohomazov

Alexander Bogomazov was a student at the Kiev School of Art in the first decade of the century; his fellow students included Archipenko, Exter, and Gritchendo. He was one of the few who remained in the Ukranian capital, which held a retrospective of his work in 1966.According to reminiscences by his wife and other contemporaries, Bogomazov was an introspective man of few words and academically inclined. He used algebra to check harmony and artistic form in the paintings of the Old Masters. The themes of his art pertained to Finland, Kiev and the Northern Caucasus.From 1902 to 1905 he was a student at the Kiev Art School. The following year was spent working in the studio of S. Svetoslavsky where he was exposed to leftist political ideas. During 1907, Bogomazov worked in the studio of F. Rerberg and of colorist K. Juon. In 1908, he resumed his studies in Kiev, began publishing socio-political caricatures and participated in a modernist exhibition which took place in a musical instruments store. It was here he met David Burliuk and Alexandra Exeter, both of whom were to be instrumental in the development of Russian Futurism.From 1908 to 1913, he taught design in a school for deaf and mute students and completed his art studies in 1911. In 1913 he married Wanda Monastirskaja who was herself an artist. A year later he organized "the Ring" exhibition of futurist painting and wrote one of the major theoretical tracts for the movement, " Painting and its Elements". From 1915 to 1917, Bogomazov taught drawing at the School of Gerjusi in the Caucasus where the mountainous landscape stimulated his expressionist and futurist imagination. In 1917, he was appointed professor of drawing at both the School of Commerce and the Jewish School in Kiev and his daughter Jaroslava was born. In 1918, inspired by the political developments, he took an active part in the new artistic organizations such as the Congress of Plastic Ukrainian Art. Along with Exter, Rabinovic, Meller and Tysler, he participated in the decoration of the celebrated "Propaganda Train" of the 12th Division of the Red Army.In 1922 he became Professor of Painting at the New Institute of Plastic Arts in Kiev where he would teach for 8 years. Also teaching there were Bojcuk, Tatlin, and Malevich. In 1930, Bogomazov died at age 50 of tuberculosis .