Creative work of O. Bogomazov: new finds, research and attribution
Authors: Олена Кашуба-Вольвач  
Published: December 2018

The creative work of one of the brightest representatives of Ukrainian avant-garde Olexander Bogomazov (1880–1930), despite the growing interest of both public and collectors, remains undervalued both in terms of the scale of this figure for the national art and the significance of problems that he raised in art. The lack of a comprehensive picture of his creative development, definition of the exact time frame, a clear sequence of the master’s stylistic periods and understanding of the breaks and changes in O. Bogomazov’s artistic trends raises many questions in the attribution of his works.The problem with his works attribution lies mainly in the dating of the graphic materials and the author’s manuscripts containing theoretical notes; most of his well-known paintings currently have no author’s signatures (it should be noted that many of his graphic works have either the author’s monogram or inscriptions). His works often were dated many years after his death and reflect rather the conditional definition of the master’s particular stylistic periods than the exact date of creation.In connection with the preparation of the exhibition “Olexander Bogomazov” and the catalog by the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) scientific processing of a large amount of graphic and archival documents of Olexander Bogomazov’s creative heritage from various museum and archival collections was carried out. This made it possible to revise a great number of attributions in terms of the definition of authorship, titles of works, time periods, techniques and identification of the existing author’s signatures and inscriptions on the works. To clarify the size of the works selected for the exhibition was a separate task.During the study of works in the collection of “Mystetskiy Arsenal” National Cultural and Art and Museum Complex (NCAMC) the canvas “Prison” from the collection of Igor Dycheko was examined with special attention. Taking into account the biographical factors and stylistic features of this picture, the name of the picture given in the catalog must refer to the picture we have examined, so the date of the picture Prison can be determined as 1916, the peak year of the artist’s mature experiments.The study of numerous sketches, preparatory drawings and full-scale sketches and comparing them with the works collected for the exhibition gave us a possibility to make the attribution of Olexander Bogomazov’s painting Landscape Motif dated as the beginning of the XX century from the collection of the Zaporizhskiy Regional Art Museum.Simultaneously with the research of the works from the collections of Ukrainian museums, the the research of the collection of Central State Archive of Literature and Arts of Ukraine (TSDAMLM Ukraine) was made. Scientific processing of graphic and archival documents from the basic collection No.360 “Bogomazov Olexander Konstiantinovich (1880–1930), Ukrainian artist, theorist of art and art teacher” was carried out both in the main part of collection No.360 and in the exhibits section from the museum archive repository where the personal belongings of the artist, works of art among which there are the first paintings of 1901–1904 and the boards for the lino-prints of the early 1910s are stored. The personal belongings of the artist — a sketchbook, brushes and a palette present scientific value for art historians, restorers and museums.During the study of works, exhibits and collections of the archive as such and the materials of Central State Archive of Literature and Arts of Ukraine, Zaporizhski Art Museum, Sumski Art Museum and Chernigivski Art Museum, periodicals of the early 1900–1920s, materials from private collections and modern editions devoted to creative work of Olexander Bogomazov were used (the main historical aspects and the aspects the biography of the artist were presented by the author of the article in previous studies that saw the light of the day in 2005–2017).A new important issue emerged during the study of the collection at Central State Archive of Literature and Arts of Ukraine. It was necessary to determine the painter’s artistic method stylistic features during 1906–1930s, clarify the chronological boundaries and titles of some works and it was also necessary to determine the techniques and materials of Olexander Bogomazov’s works from the archive collection for further most complete presentation of the artist’s works at exhibitions and fundamental monographs.During visual examination of paintings from the museum archive collection author’s monograms were found with the dates 1901–1904 and specification of the sizes and techniques in which these works had been performed was carried out. The clarification of the information is necessary for modern cataloguing of the artist’s works. The new information and updated data are documented and presented in “Appendix. Scientific processing of works of O. Bogomazov from the museum collection and the main collection at TSDAMLM Ukraine — research and attribution”.As a result of the research, the existing works of the artist in the collection of archival museum of the Central State Archive — the Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine were processed and ordered and further prospects in the study of the artist’s creative work have been outlined, which requires a generalization of factual material and fundamental research.