“James Butterwick, the London collector and dealer – is one of the leading authorities on Ukrainian and Russian Art in the West today.” ART.RU
James Butterwick was born in 1962 in Maidenhead, 30 miles west of London. His grandfather, Cyril Butterwick was Head of Silver at Sotheby’s, London and his godfather Peregrine Pollen, President in New York. After taking A-levels in History, French and History of Art at Eton College. In 1985, James made his first trip to the Soviet Union, studying Russian in Minsk and Pyatigorsk before graduating in Russian & Fine Art from Bristol University in 1987 and embarking on his art world career:
1987Joins Sotheby’s on graduate trainee scholarshipAcquires first Russian picture (a Bakst figure-drawing)
1988Joins Roy Miles’ Russian Art gallery on London’s Berkeley Square
1990Teams up with London dealer in Russian Art David Harrington
1992Becomes independent Russian art dealer, operating in London and Moscow
1994Moves permanently to Moscow (‘where the action was’) trading under his own nameHelps assemble extensive collection of Russian Art for Sun Group
1995Starts own collection with works by Vrubel, Serov, Volkov & GrigorievElected only foreign member of the Russian Society of Private Collectors
1996Appointed Head of Russian Sales for London-based silver & jewellery firm Asprey;with extensive travel to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan & Russia
1999Returns to Moscow and re-launches art dealership, acquiring works by Matyushin, Larionov, Goncharova, Bohomazov, Volkov, Rodchenko & others
2005Relocates his art business to London
2008Becomes only foreign member of International Confederation of Antique & Art Dealers of Russia & the CIS
2012Opens 120m2 purpose-built gallery in Hammersmith
Exhibits his personal collection, ‘Russian Line’ at, Sotheby’s, Moscow.
2013Admitted to the prestigious Society of London Art DealersOpens exhibition of leading Impressionist paintings in KazakhstanLectures at Tretyakov Gallery in MoscowBecomes Art Advisor to Oracle Capital Group (sponsors of Houghton Revisited exhibition in conjunction with St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum)
Makes first visit to Kyiv since 1996.
2014
Exhibits ‘Alexander Bogomazov. Master of Cubo-Futurism’, at the Central House of Artists, Moscow.
2015First dealer specializing in early 20th Century Russian and Ukrainian Art to take part in TEFAF Maastricht, the world’s leading art and antiques fair. Sells four works by Bogomazov to the Kroller-Muller Museum.
2016Returns to TEFAF with a highly acclaimed show of Oleksandr Bohomazov (1880-1930) with further sales to Kroller-Muller.
2017March – ‘From Utopia to Tragedy’ Ukrainian Avant-Garde 1914-34 exhibition at TEFAF MaastrichtMay – debut at TEFAF New York with ‘Bitter Harvest’ exhibition
2018March – ‘Boris Kosarev. The Kharkov Laboratory 1918-1929’ exhibition at TEFAF Maastricht.December – joint exhibition at the Alon Zakaim Gallery, ‘Yakov Chernikhov – the Soviet Piranesi’
2019March – ‘Oleksandr Bohomazov – The Lost Futurist’, exhibition at TEFAF MaastrichtJune – exhibits at ‘Masterpiece, London’ for the first timeJuly – moves to purpose-built gallery in Bruton Street, MayfairJuly – becomes an accredited lecturer at the Arts Society, London. Begins series of national lectures, “Dark side of the boom – the mass faking of the Russian Avant Garde” and “Oleksandr Bohomazov – the lost genius of the Ukraine”
2020February – wins landmark court case against the organisers of “Avangardie Russe dal Cubofuturismo al Suprematismo” exhibition in Mantua, Italy which he had described as a ‘disgrace’March – ‘Yakov Chernikhov – the Soviet Piranesi’ exhibition at TEFAF, Maastricht. Sells Oleksandr Bohomazov’s 1916 ‘Self Portrait’ to the Kröller-Müller Museum
2021Delivers a talk at the seminal Ludwig Museum exhibition, ‘Original and Fake’Opens his first exhibition of contemporary art, ‘Three Ukrainian Artists’, in London
2022Opens a new gallery at 42 Brook Street, London, W1
Sold to the following Institutions: Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Kroller Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.
In his spare time James enjoys fishing and ‘bestriding the open spaces of Norfolk in search of peace and quiet’. A lifelong supporter of The Arsenal, he seldom misses a game at the Emirates – however hectic his schedule.
Before the war, James travelled regularly to Ukraine where he opened a representative office in 2018. James’ gallery is in Brook Street, yards from Bond Street, the hub of the art world. Begins preparation for “Oleksandr Bohomazov- Ukrainian Renaissance’, at TEFAF 2022.
James Butterwick began collecting and selling Ukrainian and Russian Art in 1985 and has established himself as one of the world’s leading dealers and experts in the field.
From 1994, he lived in Moscow, becoming the only foreign member of the Russian Society of Private Collectors, forming collections, contributing to museum exhibitions and reading lectures on the history of Russian Art. In 2008 James became the only foreign member of International Confederation of Antique and Art Dealers of Russia and the CIS. In 2013, he visited Kyiv, the first of over fifty visits to Ukraine before the start of the war.
In 2015 James became to first dealer in Ukrainian and Russian Art to be invited to exhibit at TEFAF, Maastricht Art Fair, showing a collection of works by Soviet Avant Garde painters, including the Ukrainian, Oleksandr Bohomazov (1880-1930), seven of whose works he sold to the Kröller Müller Museum in the Netherlands. He delivers regular lectures about the artist.
A fluent Russian speaker, James also lectures on the issues of authenticity that surround the Ukrainian and Russian Avant Garde. He has spoken at the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow, New York and Cambridge Universities, the Kyiv Centre of International Relations and, in January 2021, at the seminal ‘Original or Fake’ conference, at the Ludwig Museum, Cologne.
A regular on radio and television, James had his own slot of Radio Matryoshka in London and featured in the BBC programme ‘Fake or Fortune’ in 2014. Also played a major role in, ‘The Zaks Affair, Anatomy of a Fake Collection’, on BBC4 in March 2024 which exposed a collection of Russian work as being fake.
In February 2020 James won a landmark court case in Milan, Italy. Sued by organisers for having described an exhibition of 67 dubious paintings in Mantua as ‘an absolute disgrace’, James was utterly exonerated with the judge describing his comments as being based on, ‘proven recognised competence and experience.’
James has written extensively on Ukrainian and Russian Art, has published sixteen exhibition catalogues and lent extensively to museum exhibitions. ‘In the Eye of the Storm. Ukrainian Modernism 1900’s-1930’s’, which closed at the Royal Academy, London in October 2024, included a large number of pieces sourced from European private collections. All of these came through James.
James acts as a source of museum-quality paintings with flawless provenance from both the Ukrainian, Russian and European School, and has access to a wide range of leading experts, private collections and museums. Before the war, from 2013, he travelled regularly to Ukraine, opening a representative office headed by Katya Vozianova in 2018.
He will be participating in TEFAF 2025 and the Salon des Dessins in Paris with the exhibition. ‘Five Artists. Ukrainian Modernism 1900’s-1930’s’.
