EVGENY ANDREEVICH AGAFONOV (1879–1955) Man in a city street

signed ‘E. Agofonoff’ (lower left) oil on canvas laid down on panel 48.5 × 40.5 cm Evgeny Andreevich Agafonov (1879–1955) was a Ukrainian-American painter, graphic artist and theatre designer associated with the Russian avant-garde. Born in Kharkov, he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg from 1899 to 1907 under Petr Kovalevsky and Franz Roubaud. In 1910, he was awarded a gold medal for his painting Draymen at the South Russian Regional Exhibition in Ekaterinoslav. Active in the artistic circles of Kharkov, Agafonov participated in the Zveno (Link) exhibition in Kiev in 1908, organised by David Burliuk, Alexandra Exter and Mikhail Larionov. He directed the experimental studio Blue Lily and founded the avant-garde artists’ association Koltso (The Ring) in 1911. In 1913, he joined the Jack of Diamonds group, exhibiting in St Petersburg and Moscow. In the early 1920s, Agafonov emigrated to the United States, where he continued working as a painter and graphic artist. He exhibited with the Society of Independent Artists in 1929 and held solo exhibitions in New York and Connecticut. His oeuvre encompassed portraits, landscapes, genre scenes and theatrical designs. Many of his works preserved in the Kharkov Art Museum were destroyed during the Second World War.