Thank you Antique Collecting for featuring a piece about Alexander Bogomazov and upcoming TEFAF:
“Virtually unknown in the West, Alexander Bogomazov – the “Ukrainian Picasso” – is set to create a stir at next month’s Maastricht
Ask any collector about the object or painting that changed their life and the chances are the memory will be a potent one. Such was the case for the Mayfair art dealer, James Butterwick, when he first set eyes on the work of the Ukrainian artist and art theoretician, Alexander Bogomazov (1880-1930).
He said: “I clearly recall seeing it for the first time in 1988 when four of his paintings were shown at the Barbican Gallery’s exhibition 100 Years of Russian Art from Private Collections.”
At the time, Butterwick was already a collector and specialist in Russian and Ukrainian art but what he saw astounded him. He said: “Aside from being amazed at the power and dynamism of the paintings, I was astounded that this was an unknown artist, a figure in the shadow of Malevich, Chagall and Kandinsky.
“In my opinion, he is greatly undervalued and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as that of the masters of Russian avant garde.”