Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1088861
8 Bogomazov's marriage to Wanda in August 1913 detonated what Dmytro Horbachov has called an 'explosion of creativity.' Wanda is the subject of another five works at TEFAF – one in ink, one in pastel and three (from 1914/15) in Cubo-Futurist charcoal, whose semi-abstract style represents a swift evolution from the more figurative approach of two deftly drawn 1913 portraits of a young man and an old man, the latter being Wanda's father Vitold. Bogomazov once described art as 'endless rhythm' (he devoted a ten-page chapter to Rhythm in his 1914 62-page treatise Painting & Elements) and likened painting to 'decisive musical chords'. He was an enthusiastic amateur musician, and sometimes chose musical subjects – as three drawings from 1913-15 testify: Artist Playing Piano, Cellist and Violinist. Each musician performs with self-absorbed gusto – the cellist outdoors, at one with Nature in a setting of Mahlerian grandeur. Bogomazov first came to Kiev from eastern Ukraine to attend high school as an 1890s teenager. He relished the city's 'diverse, profound dynamism' and 'forceful, energetic lines, with streets thrusting into the sky'. In 1915, from his back window, he dashed off a pencil View of Kiev looking across the nearby ravine, towards the River Dniepr a mile away. An ink Interior with Lamp (1913) and red chalk Interior with Chair (1914) look down on the street on the other side of the building. Four other views of Kiev (three in charcoal, one in red chalk) date from 1913/14 and focus on the city's main avenue Kreshchatik – where Bogomazov, with 88 works, was the star of the giant Koltso (Circle) exhibition that opened on 23 February 1914. One visitor was Futurist poet Alexei Kruchenykh, the husband of artist Olga Rozanova, whose vibrantly stylised cityscapes of 1913/14 have much in common with Bogomazov's work of the time. Bogomazov's artistic rhythm careered full steam ahead when depicting the trains that sped past his dacha – as in his 1913 ink drawing Locomotive – Boyarka and his 1915 charcoal Cubo-Futurist Composition (Locomotive). Four quasi-abstract charcoal drawings from 1915 reflect his interest in geometry, notably Cubo- Futurist Composition with Circle and Cubo-Futurist Composition with Triangle. Bogomazov termed the circle a 'complete form' and praised the triangle's 'powerful intensity'. His Cubo-Futurist still lifes are still in name Kreshchatik, 1914, Charcoal on paper, 30.2 x 32.3 cm Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands Kreshchatik, 1914, Charcoal on paper, 30 x 33.5 cm Private collection, Netherlands