Oleksandr Bohomazov is a Ukrainian artist, teacher and a cubofuturism theoretician. He named a regular square a perfect shape in art a year before the conceptual Black Square by Kazimir Malevich emerged. He gave artistic work an independent place in the “artist – painting – viewer” triangle. 

In the summer of 1911, Oleksandr Bohomazov travelled between well-known resorts in the Principality of Finland during a business trip on behalf of the Kyivska Dumka newspaper. He discovered Nordic modernism with its crude granite slabs, local flora and fauna, and national folklore characters. This is how The Tower painting appears, portraying the exterior of Valtionhotelli, a famous hotel in Imatra. 

In general, the artist covered a tourist route popular among wealthy Russians of the time: Imatra with its rapids and waterfalls, rolling and winding ridges in Punkaharju (currently Lappeenranta), and the fortress city of Nyslott (currently Savonlinna). All these locations were within the water system of beautiful Saimaa Lake in eastern Finland. 

“Dina, Dina! How beautiful it is, I wish you could see it! I am now sitting next to the waves of Little Imatra and cannot leave… I am admiring it and cannot get enough of it: these wonderful pearly colours, power, and speed! White tufts of foam rising high above burn and sparkle, fall and come back again as if charmed!”, this is what Bohomazov wrote excitedly to his bride Vanda Monastyrska on 24 June 1911.

The Finnish landscape reflects Bohomazov’s passion about modernism based on symbolic and romanticized images, the decorative quality of colour, and smooth lines.

The #UkraineEverywhere program is an interdisciplinary program of the Ukrainian Institute - Український інститут to showcase Ukraine's contribution to the world culture via online projects.