![Black square](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Black_Square.jpg)
UNOVIS (also known as MOLPOSNOVIS and POSNOVIS) was a short-lived but influential group of artists, founded and led by
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
at the
Vitebsk Art School in 1919.
Initially formed by students and known as MOLPOSNOVIS, the group formed to explore and develop new theories and concepts in art. Under the leadership of Malevich they renamed to UNOVIS, chiefly focusing on his ideas on
Suprematism
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
and producing a number of projects and publications whose influence on the
avant-garde in Russia and abroad was immediate and far-reaching.
[Essay: ''Black Square: In the Circle of Malevich and UNOVIS Group''](_blank)
The group disbanded in 1922.
The name UNOVIS is an
abbreviation
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
of "Utverditeli Novogo Iskusstva" (in Russian: Утвердители НОВого ИСкусства) or "The Champions of the New Art", while POSNOVIS was an abbreviation of "Posledovateli Novogo Iskusstva" (in Russian: ПОСледователи НОВого ИСкусства) or "Followers of the New Art", and MOLPOSNOVIS meant "Young Followers of the New Art" (in Russian: МОЛодые ПОСледователи НОВого ИСкусства).
Foundation and growth
In its short history, the group underwent many changes. First founded as MOLPOSNOVIS, the group's membership started to include some of the school's professors and quickly evolved into POSNOVIS. The group was very active, working on numerous projects and experiments, in most if not all
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
available at the time. In January 1920, Malevich was invited to teach at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919 by
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...
and immediately appointed by the director of the school at the time,
Vera Ermolaeva, to head a teaching studio. In February of the same year, under the leadership of Malevich, the group worked on a "Suprematist ballet", choreographed by
Nina Kogan, and the precursor to
Aleksei Kruchenykh
Aleksei Yeliseyevich Kruchyonykh (russian: Алексе́й Елисе́евич Кручёных; 9 February 1886 – 17 June 1968) was a Russian poet, artist, and theorist, perhaps one of the most radical poets of Russian Futurism, a mo ...
's influential
futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
opera, ''
Victory Over the Sun.'' Following the production, POSNOVIS underwent more changes and was renamed UNOVIS on February 14, 1920.
Expansion and influence
In early 1920, Marc Chagall selected Malevich to succeed him as director. Malevich accepted and radically reorganized not only UNOVIS but the entire school's curriculum. He transformed UNOVIS into a highly structured organization, forming the UNOVIS Council. Meanwhile, the group's theories and styles were rapidly evolving at the hands of Malevich and his star students and colleagues, including notable Russian artists
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
,
Lazar Khidekel,
Nikolai Suetin
Nikolai Suetin (; 1897–1954) was a Russian Suprematist artist. He worked as a graphic artist, a designer, and a ceramics painter.
Suetin studied at the Vitebsk Higher Institute of Art, (1918–1922) under Kazimir Malevich, founder of Suprema ...
,
Ilia Chashnik
Ilya Grigorevich Chashnik (1902, Lucyn, Russian Empire, currently Ludza, Latvia - 1929, Leningrad) was a suprematism, suprematist artist, a pupil of Kazimir Malevich and a founding member of the UNOVIS school.
Biography
Chashnik was born to a Jew ...
,
Vera Ermolaeva,
Anna Kagan, and , amongst others. The group's objective was now to introduce
Suprematist
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
designs and ideals to Russian society, working with and for the Soviet government:
![Уновис 1922](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/%D0%A3%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81_1922.jpg)
The group took this plan to the streets, furnishing much of Vitebsk in Suprematist art and propaganda. Still, Malevich had more ambitious plans and he urged his students to do bigger, more permanent works — namely architecture.
[UNOVIS – the Bauhaus of the East]
by Tszwai So, British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
European Studies Blog, 29 October 2019 El Lissitzky, who was director of the architectural faculty, worked with Lazar Khidekel and
Ilia Chashnik
Ilya Grigorevich Chashnik (1902, Lucyn, Russian Empire, currently Ludza, Latvia - 1929, Leningrad) was a suprematism, suprematist artist, a pupil of Kazimir Malevich and a founding member of the UNOVIS school.
Biography
Chashnik was born to a Jew ...
, a young students of his, drafting unorthodox plans for free-floating buildings and enormous steel and glass structures along with more practical designs for housing complexes and even a speaker's podium for the town square. Ilia would go on to succeed Lissitzky as head of the architectural facility along with his fellow student,
Lazar Khidekel.
Embracing the
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
ideal, the group chose to share credit and responsibility for all works produced. They signed all works with a solitary black square, a
homage to a previous artwork by Malevich. This would become the de facto
seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...
of UNOVIS and took the place of individual names or initials.
In June 1920 UNOVIS's ambitions accelerated, culminating in a print collection of UNOVIS philosophies and theories such as Lazar Khidekel and Ilya Chashnik, AERO: Articles and Designs (Vitebsk, UNOVIS. 1920), and participation in the "First All-Russian Conference of Teachers and Students of Arts," which took place in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. UNOVIS students who made the trip from Vitebsk to Moscow rapidly distributed artworks, newsletters, manifestos, flyers, and copies of Malevich's "On New Systems in Art" and copies of the "UNOVIS Almanac." UNOVIS succeeded in achieving recognition and became respected as an established and influential movement.
Dissolution and legacy
While their influence on art lasted for generations, their popularity immediately following the conference was short-lived. By 1922, the core group splintered and two contrasting, adverse factions formed. By this time most of the native artists associated with UNOVIS had moved on to other schools, cities, and movements. Even after the group's dissolution, publications bearing the UNOVIS black square appeared for years.
Notable members
File:Casimir Malevich photo.jpg, Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
File:El_lissitzky_self_portrait_1914.jpg, El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
File:Ilya_Chashnik_1923.jpg, Ilya Chashnik
Ilya Grigorevich Chashnik (1902, Lucyn, Russian Empire, currently Ludza, Latvia - 1929, Leningrad) was a suprematist artist, a pupil of Kazimir Malevich and a founding member of the UNOVIS school.
Biography
Chashnik was born to a Jewish family ...
File:Vera Ermolaeva.jpg, Vera Ermolaeva
File:Lazar_Chidekel_(1922).jpg, Lazar Khidekel
See also
*
Soviet art
Soviet art is a form of visual art produced after the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Soviet Russia (1917—1922) and the Soviet Union (1922—1991), when the short-lived Russian Republic was overthrown and replaced. This led to an arti ...
*
Suprematism
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
*
VKhUTEMAS
*
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
References
Bibliography
*''Malevich: Suprematism and Revolution in Russian Art 1910-1930'' (New York, Thames & Hudson, 1966, )
* ''Shishanov V.A.''
Vitebsk museum of the modern art history of creation and collection.
' 1918-1941. - Minsk: Medisont, 2007. - 144 p.
* Shishanov, B. "Vitebsk budetlyane" (to a question about the lighting of theatrical experiences UNOVIS in Vitebsk periodicals) / V. Shishanov / / Malevich. Classical avant-garde. Vitebsk - 12
nthology / ed. T. Kotovich – Minsk: Newact, 2010. – P.57-6
* Lazar Khidekel and Suprematism. Prestel, 2014. Edit. Regina Khidekel, and Charlotte Douglas, Magdalena Dabrowsky, Tatiana Goriatcheva, Alla Rosenfeld,
Constantin Boym
Boym Partners is design firm based in New York City.
History
Boym Partners was founded in 1986 by Constantin Boym in New York City and is run by Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym, who joined the firm in 1995. The firm is a multi-disciplinary design ...
, Boris Kirikov, Margarita Shtiglits.
External links
All Paintings of Kazimir Malevich Brief history and list of notable works
{{Authority control
Modern art
Russian avant-garde
Soviet culture
Arts organizations based in Belarus
Culture in Vitebsk