Building an Archive for Moissey Kogan
Today is Moissey Kogan‘s 143th birthday. To celebrate, we would like to remind you of our efforts towards building an archive of material related to Kogan‘s life, career and oeuvre. Please see our new webpage dedicated to the Moissey Kogan Archive.
Our aim in building an archive for Moissey Kogan is twofold. Firstly, any material that helps us to further our research into Kogan‘s life and works, following the loss of his documentary archive, and in the absence of an archive or museum dedicated to the task of documenting his life and oeuvre, is very much appreciated. It will contribute to a greater understanding of Kogan as a major member of the 20th-century European avant-garde and assist us in properly relocating him in the various milieux and contexts, within which he operated, exhibited and produced work in a large variety of media. Secondly, it is our intention to digitise this rich and varied archive and to make it available online to researchers, museums, and other interested parties, to stand alongside the Moissey Kogan Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture & Prints. What better way to ensure Kogan‘s work is fully documented for posterity.
Amassing material on Kogan since 1994
Since 1994, our director, Helen Shiner, has been amassing material of all kinds in relation to Kogan. This includes correspondence to and from Kogan and his patrons, clients, friends, and galleries, museums and exhibiting fora internationally, as well as art journal and newspaper articles of various kinds, exhibition reviews, and photographic material, and much else that documents his life, oeuvre, career, persecution and death.
Sadly, as we can see in the featured photograph above, Kogan appears to have carefully maintained portfolios of his work. Barring a miracle, it seems such resources are now lost to us.
Helen is enormously grateful to everyone who has generously assisted her with the identification of, and access to, this rich and valuable collection. We are equally very much obliged to all those who have submitted copies of documentation in their possession, or who have alerted us to material which might otherwise not be known to us, since Helen founded the Moissey Kogan Catalogue Raisonné Project in 2018 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Kogan’s death.
All of this material goes to support the research undertaken in the preparation of the Moissey Kogan Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture & Prints and a monograph on Kogan’s life and career, as well as other related projects.
An Online Archive for Posterity
Ultimately, however, our aim is to fully digitise the Moissey Kogan Archive and make it available online for posterity.
If you own documentary material or photographs relating to Kogan, or know of their whereabouts, we urge you to contact us via our new Moissey Kogan Archive page. Your contribution will help us to ensure that Moissey Kogan is properly honoured and remembered as the major European avant-garde artist he was, and to assist us in bearing witness to his life and career as a too-long forgotten victim of the Holocaust. It will help us to protect his legacy and, above all, assist us in our work to research his life and career, and to increase knowledge of, and appreciation for, his oeuvre in all media for posterity.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Featured image: Moissey Kogan working on a tapestry in his studio, c. 1936, with bookshelves behind.