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Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych Malevych ., group=nb (Запись о рождении в метрической книге римско-католического костёла св. Александра в Киеве, 1879 год
// ЦГИАК Украины, ф. 1268, оп. 1, д. 26, л. 13об—14.
– 15 May 1935) was an artist and art theorist of the Russian avant-garde, whose pioneering work and writing had a profound influence on the development of abstract art in the 20th century.Milner and Malevich 1996, p. X; Néret 2003, p. 7; Shatskikh and Schwartz, p. 84. Born in Kiev to an ethnic
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
family, his concept of
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 ...
sought to develop a form of expression that moved as far as possible from the world of natural forms (objectivity) and subject matter in order to access "the supremacy of pure feeling"Malevich, Kazimir. ''The Non-Objective World'', Chicago: Theobald, 1959. and spirituality. Malevich is also considered to be part of the
Ukrainian avant-garde Ukrainian avant-garde is a term widely used to refer the most innovative metamorphosises in Ukrainian art from the end of 1890s to the middle of the 1930s along with associated artists. Broadly speaking, it is Ukrainian art synchronized with the i ...
(together with
Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr; uk, Олександр Порфирович Архипенко, Romanized: Olexandr Porfyrovych Arkhypenko; February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian and American ...
,
Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
,
Aleksandra Ekster Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pr ...
, and
David Burliuk David Davidovich Burliuk (Давид Давидович Бурлюк; 21 July 1882 – 15 January 1967) was a Russian-language poet, artist and publicist associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. Burliuk has been described as ...
) that was shaped by Ukrainian-born artists who worked first in Ukraine and later over a geographical span between Europe and America. Early on, Malevich worked in a variety of styles, quickly assimilating the movements of
Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
,
Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sym ...
and Fauvism, and after visiting Paris in 1912, Cubism. Gradually simplifying his style, he developed an approach with key works consisting of pure geometric forms and their relationships to one another, set against minimal grounds. His ''
Black Square Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...
'' (1915), a black square on white, represented the most radically abstract painting known to have been created so farChipp, Herschel B. ''Theories of Modern Art'', Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968, p. 311-2. and drew "an uncrossable line (…) between old art and new art";Tolstaya, Tatiana
"The Square,"
''New Yorker'', 12 June 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
''Suprematist Composition:
White on White ''Suprematist Composition: White on White'' (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution. Part ...
'' (1918), a barely differentiated off-white square superimposed on an off-white ground, would take his ideal of pure abstraction to its logical conclusion.de la Croix, Horst and Richard G. Tansey, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 7th Ed., New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p. 826-7. In addition to his paintings, Malevich laid down his theories in writing, such as "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism" (1915) and ''The Non-Objective World: The Manifesto of Suprematism'' (1926). Malevich's trajectory in many ways mirrored the tumult of the decades surrounding the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
(O.S.) in 1917.Bezverkhny, Eva
"Malevich in his Milieu,"
''Hyperallergic'', 24 July 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
In its immediate aftermath, vanguard movements such as Suprematism and
Vladimir Tatlin Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and USSR, Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Towe ...
's
Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
were encouraged by
Trotskyite Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
factions in the government. Malevich held several prominent teaching positions and received a solo show at the Sixteenth State Exhibition in Moscow in 1919. His recognition spread to the West with solo exhibitions in Warsaw and Berlin in 1927. From 1928 to 1930, he taught at the Kiev Art Institute, with
Alexander Bogomazov Alexander Bogomazov or Oleksandr Bohomazov (russian: Александр Константинович Богомазов, uk, Олександр Костянтинович Богомазов; March 26, 1880 – June 3, 1930) was a Ukrainian painte ...
,
Victor Palmov Victor Nikolaevich Palmov ( uk, Віктор Никандрович Пальмов) (10 October 1888 – 7 June 1929) was a Russian and Ukrainian painter and avant-garde artist (Futurism (art), Futurist and Neo-primitivism, Neo-primitivist) from t ...
,
Vladimir Tatlin Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and USSR, Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Towe ...
and published his articles in a Kharkiv magazine, ''Nova Generatsia'' (''New Generation'').Filevska, Tetiana
"Five unknown facts about Malevich"
''Opinion'', 23 February 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
But the start of repression in Ukraine against the intelligentsia forced Malevich return to modern-day
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. From the beginning of the 1930s, modern art was falling out of favor with the new government of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
. Malevich soon lost his teaching position, artworks and manuscripts were confiscated, and he was banned from making art.Nina Siegal (5 November 2013)
"Rare Glimpse of the Elusive Kazimir Malevich"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''.
Wood, Tony
"The man they couldn't hang"
''The Guardian'', 10 May 2000. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
In 1930, he was imprisoned for two months due to suspicions raised by his trip to Poland and Germany. Forced to abandon abstraction, he painted in a representational style in the years before his death from cancer in 1935, at the age of 56. Nonetheless, his art and his writing influenced contemporaries such as
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 ...
,
Lyubov Popova Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova (russian: Любо́вь Серге́евна Попо́ва; April 24, 1889 – May 25, 1924) was a Russian-Soviet avant-garde artist, painter and designer. Early life Popova was born in Ivanovskoe, near Moscow, to t ...
and
Alexander Rodchenko Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders ...
, as well as generations of later abstract artists, such as
Ad Reinhardt Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement center ...
and the Minimalists. He was celebrated posthumously in major exhibits at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(1936), the
Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
(1973) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1989), which has a large collection of his work. In the 1990s, the ownership claims of museums to many Malevich works began to be disputed by his heirs.


Early life

Kazimir Malevich was born Kazimierz Malewicz to a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
family,N.D. (26 July 2013)
Walczą o polskość Malewicza (Advocating the Polishness of Malewicz)
''Nowy Dziennik''.
who settled near Kiev in
Kiev Governorate Kiev Governorate, r=Kievskaya guberniya; uk, Київська губернія, Kyivska huberniia (, ) was an administrative division of the Russian Empire from 1796 to 1919 and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1919 to 1925. It wa ...
of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
during the partitions of Poland. His parents, Ludwika and Seweryn Malewicz, were
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
like most ethnic Poles, though his father attended Orthodox services as well. They both had fled from the former eastern territories of the Commonwealth (present-day
Kopyl Kapyl ( be, Капы́ль, Kapyĺ, russian: Копыль, Kopyl; pl, Kopyl; lt, Kapylius; yi, קאפּוליע) is an urban settlement and the capital of Kapyl District in Belarus. It is located west-northwest of Slutsk and south-southwest o ...
Region of
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
) to Kiev in the aftermath of the failed Polish January Uprising of 1863 against the tsarist army. His native language was Polish, but he also spoke Russian, as well as Ukrainian due to his childhood surroundings. Malevich would later write a series of articles in Ukrainian about art, and identified as Ukrainian. Kazimir's father managed a sugar factory. Kazimir was the first of fourteen children, only nine of whom survived into adulthood. His family moved often and he spent most of his childhood in the villages of modern-day Ukraine, amidst sugar-beet plantations, far from centers of culture. Until age twelve, he knew nothing of professional artists, although art had surrounded him in childhood. He delighted in peasant embroidery, and in decorated walls and stoves. He was able to paint in the peasant style. He studied drawing in Kiev from 1895 to 1896.


Artistic career

From 1896 to 1904, Kazimir Malevich lived in
Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...
. In 1904, after the death of his father, he moved to
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 millio ...
. He studied at the
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...
from 1904 to 1910 and in the studio of Fedor Rerberg in Moscow. In 1911, he participated in the second exhibition of the group, '' Soyuz Molodyozhi'' (Union of Youth) in
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, together with
Vladimir Tatlin Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and USSR, Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Towe ...
and, in 1912, the group held its third exhibition, which included works by
Aleksandra Ekster Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pr ...
, Tatlin, and others. In the same year, he participated in an exhibition by the collective, '' Donkey's Tail'' in Moscow. By that time, his works were influenced by
Natalia Goncharova Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Гончаро́ва, p=nɐˈtalʲjə sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡənʲtɕɪˈrovə; 3 July 188117 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designe ...
and
Mikhail Larionov Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov ( Russian: Михаи́л Фёдорович Ларио́нов; June 3, 1881 – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Ru ...
, Russian avant-garde painters, who were particularly interested in Russian folk art called ''
lubok A ''lubok'' (plural ''lubki'', Cyrillic: russian: лубо́к, лубо́чная картинка) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Lubki ...
''. Malevich described himself as painting in a " Cubo-Futurist" style in 1912. Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, pp. 794-795. In March 1913, a major exhibition of Aristarkh Lentulov's paintings opened in Moscow. The effect of this exhibition was comparable with that of
Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...
in Paris in 1907, as all the main Russian avant-garde artists of the time (including Malevich) immediately absorbed the
cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
principles and began using them in their works. Already in the same year, the Cubo-Futurist opera, '' Victory Over the Sun'', with Malevich's stage-set, became a great success. In 1914, Malevich exhibited his works in the ''
Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...
'' in Paris together with
Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr; uk, Олександр Порфирович Архипенко, Romanized: Olexandr Porfyrovych Arkhypenko; February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian and American ...
,
Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
,
Aleksandra Ekster Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pr ...
, and Vadim Meller, among others. Malevich also co-illustrated, with
Pavel Filonov Pavel Nikolayevich Filonov ( rus, Па́вел Никола́евич Фило́нов, p=ˈpavʲɪl nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ fʲɪˈlonəf, a=Pavyel Nikolayevich Filonov.ru.vorb.oga; January 8, 1883 – December 3, 1941) was a Russian avant-ga ...
, ''Selected Poems with Postscript, 1907–1914'' by
Velimir Khlebnikov Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name Velimir Khlebnikov ( rus, Велими́р Хле́бников, p=vʲɪlʲɪˈmʲir ˈxlʲɛbnʲɪkəf; – 28 June 1922) was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of th ...
and another work by Khlebnikov in 1914 titled ''Roar! Gauntlets, 1908–1914'', with Vladimir Burliuk. Later in that same year, he created a series of lithographs in support of Russia's entry into WWI. These prints, accompanied by captions by
Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
and published by the Moscow-based publication house Segodniashnii Lubok (Contemporary Lubok), on the one hand show the influence of traditional folk art, but on the other are characterised by solid blocks of pure colours juxtaposed in compositionally evocative ways that anticipate his Suprematist work. In 1911, Brocard & Co. produced an eau de cologne called ''Severny''. Malevich conceived the advertisement and design of the perfume bottle with craquelure of an iceberg and a polar bear on the top, which lasted through the mid-1920s.


Suprematism

In 1915, Malevich laid down the foundations of
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 ...
when he published his manifesto, ''From Cubism to Suprematism''. In 1915–1916, he worked with other Suprematist artists in a peasant/artisan co-operative in Skoptsi and Verbovka village. In 1916–1917, he participated in exhibitions of the Jack of Diamonds group in Moscow together with
Nathan Altman Nathan Isaiovych Altman ( Ukrainian: , transliterated: ''Natan Isaiovych Altman''; – December 12, 1970) was a Russian, Soviet and Ukrainian artist, Cubist painter, stage designer and book illustrator. Early life He was born in Vinnytsia, i ...
,
David Burliuk David Davidovich Burliuk (Давид Давидович Бурлюк; 21 July 1882 – 15 January 1967) was a Russian-language poet, artist and publicist associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. Burliuk has been described as ...
,
Aleksandra Ekster Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pr ...
and others. Famous examples of his Suprematist works include ''
Black Square Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...
'' (1915) and ''White On White'' (1918). Malevich exhibited his first ''Black Square'', now at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, at the 0,10 Exhibition, Last Futurist Exhibition 0,10 in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) in 1915. A black square placed against the sun appeared for the first time in the 1913 scenic designs for the Futurism, Futurist opera ''Victory over the Sun''. The second ''Black Square'' was painted around 1923. Some believe that the third ''Black Square'' (also at the Tretyakov Gallery) was painted in 1929 for Malevich's solo exhibition, because of the poor condition of the 1915 square. One more ''Black Square'', the smallest and probably the last, may have been intended as a diptych together with the ''Red Square (painting), Red Square'' (though of smaller size) for the exhibition Artists of the RSFSR: 15 Years, held in Leningrad (1932). The two squares, Black and Red, were the centerpiece of the show. This last square, despite the author's note ''1913'' on the reverse, is believed to have been created in the late twenties or early thirties, for there are no earlier mentions of it. Malevich's student Anna Leporskaya observed that Malevich "neither knew nor understood what the black square contained. He thought it so important an event in his creation that for a whole week he was unable to eat, drink or sleep." In 1918, Malevich decorated a play, ''Mystery-Bouffe'', by Vladimir Mayakovskiy produced by Vsevolod Meyerhold. He was interested in aerial photography and aviation, which led him to abstract art, abstractions inspired by or derived from aerial landscapes.Julia Bekman Chadaga (2000). Conference paper, "Art, Technology, and Modernity in Russia and Eastern Europe". Columbia University, 2000. "the Suprematist is associated with a series of aerial views rendering the familiar landscape into an abstraction…" Some Ukrainian authors argue that Malevich's Suprematism is rooted in the traditional Ukrainian culture.


Post-revolution

After the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
(1917), Malevich became a member of the Collegium on the Arts of Narkompros, the Commission for the Protection of Monuments and the Museums Commission (all from 1918–1919). He taught at the Vitebsk Practical Art School in
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
(1919–1922) alongside Marc Chagall, the Leningrad Academy of Arts (1922–1927), the Kiev Art Institute (1928–1930),Filevska, Tetiana
"The Ukrainian Museum will be displaying new materials highlighting artistic modernism in Ukraine: Kazimir Malevich.Kyiv Period"
11 February 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
and the House of the Arts in Leningrad (1930). He wrote the book ''The World as Non-Objectivity'', which was published in Munich in 1926 and translated into English in 1959. In it, he outlines his Suprematist theories. In 1923, Malevich was appointed director of Petrograd State Institute of Artistic Culture, which was forced to close in 1926 after a Communist party newspaper called it "a government-supported monastery" rife with "counterrevolutionary sermonizing and artistic debauchery." The Soviet state was by then heavily promoting an idealized, propagandistic style of art called Socialist Realism—a style Malevich had spent his entire career repudiating. Nevertheless, he swam with the current, and was quietly tolerated by the Communists.


International recognition and banning

In 1927, Malevich traveled to Warsaw where he was given a hero's welcome. There, he met with artists and former students Władysław Strzemiński and Katarzyna Kobro, whose own movement, Unism, was highly influenced by Malevich. He held his first foreign exhibit in the Hotel Polonia Palace. From there, the painter ventured on to Berlin and Munich for a retrospective which finally brought him international recognition. He arranged to leave most of the paintings behind when he returned to the Soviet Union. Malevich's assumption that a shifting in the attitudes of the Nomenklatura, Soviet authorities toward the Modernism, modernist art movement would take place after the death of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky's fall from power was proven correct in a couple of years, when the government of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
turned against forms of abstraction, considering them a type of "Bourgeoisie, bourgeois" art, that could not express social realities. As a consequence, many of his works were confiscated and he was banned from creating and exhibiting similar art. In autumn 1930, he was arrested and interrogated by the KGB in Leningrad, accused of Polish espionage, and threatened with execution. He was released from imprisonment In early December. Critics derided Malevich's art as a negation of everything good and pure: love of life and love of nature. The Westernizer artist and art historian Alexandre Benois was one such critic. Malevich responded that art can advance and develop for art's sake alone, saying that "art does not need us, and it never did".


Death

When Malevich died of cancer at the age of fifty-seven, in Leningrad on 15 May 1935, his friends and disciples buried his ashes in a grave marked with a black square. They didn't fulfill his stated wish to have the grave topped with an "architekton"—one of his skyscraper-like maquettes of abstract forms, equipped with a telescope through which visitors were to gaze at Jupiter. On his deathbed, Malevich had been exhibited with the Black Square (painting), ''Black Square'' above him, and mourners at his funeral rally were permitted to wave a banner bearing a black square. Malevich had asked to be buried under an oak tree on the outskirts of Nemchinovka, a place to which he felt a special bond.Sophia Kishkovsky (30 August 2013)
Malevich’s Burial Site Is Found, Underneath Housing Development
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''.
His ashes were sent to Nemchinovka, and buried in a field near his dacha. Nikolai Suetin, a friend of Malevich's and a fellow artist, designed a white cube with a black square to mark the burial site. The memorial was destroyed during World War II. The city of Leningrad bestowed a pension on Malevich's mother and daughter. In Nazi Germany his works were banned as "Degenerate art, Degenerate Art". In 2013, an apartment block was built on the place of the tomb and burial site of Kazimir Malevich. Another nearby monument to Malevich, put up in 1988, is now also situated on the grounds of a gated community.


Painting technique

According to an observation by radiologist and art historian Milda Victurina, one of the features of Kazimir Malevich's painting technique was the layering of paints one on another to get a special kind of colour spots. For example, Malevich used two layers of colour for the red spot—the lower black and the upper red. The light ray going through these colour layers is perceived by the viewer not as red, but with a touch of darkness. This technique of superimposing the two colours allowed experts to identify fakes of Malevich's work, which generally lacked it.


Polish ethnicity

Malevich's family was one of the millions of Poles in Russia, Poles who lived within the Russian Empire following the Partitions of Poland. Kazimir Malevich was born near Kiev on lands that had previously been part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of parents who were ethnic Poles. Both Polish, Ukrainian and Russian were native languages of Malevich, who would sign his artwork in the Polish language, Polish form of his name as ''Kazimierz Malewicz''. In a visa application to travel to France, Malewicz claimed ''Polish'' as his nationality. French art historian Andrei Nakov, who re-established Malevich's birth year as 1879 (and not 1878), has argued for restoration of the Polish spelling of Malevich's name. In 1985, Polish performance artist Zbigniew Warpechowski performed "Citizenship for a Pure Feeling of Kazimierz Malewicz" as an homage to the great artist and critique of Polish authorities that refused to grant Polish citizenship to Kazimir Malevich. In 2013, Malevich's family in New York City and fans founded the not-for-profit ''The Rectangular Circle of Friends of Kazimierz Malewicz'', whose dedicated goal is to promote awareness of Kazimir's Polish ethnicity. Russian art historian gained access to the artist's criminal case and found that in some documents Malevich specified his nationality as Ukraine, Ukrainian.


Posthumous exhibitions

Alfred H. Barr Jr. included several paintings in the groundbreaking exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art" at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York in 1936. In 1939, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Museum of Non-Objective Painting opened in New York, whose founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim—an early and passionate collector of the Russian avant-garde—was inspired by the same aesthetic ideals and spiritual quest that exemplified Malevich's art.Malevich and the American Legacy, March 3 - April 30, 2011
Gagosian Gallery, New York.
The first U.S. retrospective of Malevich's work in 1973 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum provoked a flood of interest and further intensified his impact on postwar American and European artists. However, most of Malevich's work and the story of the Russian avant-garde remained under lock and key until Glasnost. In 1989, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam held the West's first large-scale Malevich retrospective, including the paintings they owned and works from the collection of Russian art critic Nikolai Khardzhiev.


Collections

Malevich's works are held in several major art museums, including the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and in New York, the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
and the
Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam owns 24 Malevich paintings, more than any other museum outside of Russia. Another major collection of Malevich works is held by the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki.


Art market

''Black Square'', the fourth version of his Masterpiece, magnum opus painted in the 1920s, was discovered in 1993 in Samara, Russia, Samara and purchased by Semion Mogilevich, Inkombank for US$250,000. In April 2002, the painting was auctioned for an equivalent of US$1 million. The purchase was financed by the Russian philanthropist Vladimir Potanin, who donated funds to the Russian Ministry of Culture, and ultimately, to the State Hermitage Museum collection. According to the Hermitage website, this was the largest private contribution to state art museums since the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
. In 2008, the Stedelijk Museum restituted five works to the heirs of Malevich's family from a group that had been left in Berlin by Malevich, and acquired by the gallery in 1958, in exchange for undisputed title to the remaining pictures. On 3 November 2008, one of these works entitled ''Suprematist Composition'' from 1916, set the world record for any Russian work of art and any work sold at auction for that year, selling at Sotheby's in New York City for just over US$60 million (surpassing his previous record of US$17 million set in 2000). In May 2018, the same painting ''Suprematist Composition'' 1916 sold at Christie's New York for over US$85 million (including fees), a record auction price for a Russian work of art.


In popular culture

Malevich's life inspires many references featuring events and the paintings as players. The smuggling of Malevich paintings out of Russia is a key to the plot line of writer Martin Cruz Smith's thriller ''Red Square (novel), Red Square''. Noah Charney's novel, ''The Art Thief'' tells the story of two stolen Malevich ''White on White'' paintings, and discusses the implications of Malevich's radical Suprematist compositions on the art world. British artist Keith Coventry has used Malevich's paintings to make comments on modernism, in particular his Estate Paintings. Malevich's work also is featured prominently in the Lars von Trier film, ''Melancholia (2011 film), Melancholia''. At the Closing Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Malevich visual themes were featured (via projections) in a section on 20th century Russian modern art.


Selected works

* 1912 – ''Morning in the Country after Snowstorm'' * 1912 – ''The Woodcutter'' * 1912–13 – ''Reaper on Red Background '' * 1914 – ''The Aviator'' * 1914 – ''An Englishman in Moscow'' * 1914 – ''Soldier of the First Division'' * 1915 – ''
Black Square Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...
'' * 1915 – ''Red Square'' † * 1915 – ''Black Square and Red Square'' †† * 1915 – ''Suprematist Composition'' * 1915 – ''Suprematism (1915)'' * 1915 – ''Suprematist Painting: Aeroplane Flying'' * 1915 – ''Suprematism: Self-Portrait in Two Dimensions'' * 1915–16 – ''Suprematist Painting (Ludwigshafen)'' * 1916 – ''Suprematist Painting (1916)'' * 1916 – ''Supremus No. 56'' * 1916–17 – ''Suprematism (1916–17)'' * 1917 – ''Suprematist Painting (1917)'' * 1918 – ''
White on White ''Suprematist Composition: White on White'' (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution. Part ...
'' * 1919–1926 – ''commons:File:GUGG Untitled (Suprematist Composition, Malevich a).jpg, Untitled (Suprematist Composition)'' * 1928–1932 – ''Complex Presentiment: Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt'' * 1932–1934 – ''Running Man'' † Also known as ''Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions''.
†† Also known as ''Black Square and Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack - Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension''.


Gallery

File:Flowergirl.jpg, ''Flower Girl'', 1903 File:Bathers.jpg, ''Bathers'', 1908 File:Winter Landscape (Malevich, 1930).jpg, ''Winter'', 1909 File:Taking in the Rye Kazimir Malevich 1911.jpeg, ''Taking in the Rye'', 1911 File:Self-Portrait (1908 or 1910-1911).jpg, ''Self-portrait'', 1912 File:Head of a Peasant Girl.jpg, ''Head of a Peasant Girl'', 1912-1913 File:Bureau and Room, by Kazimir Malevich.jpg, ''Bureau and Room'', 1913 File:Cow and Fiddle, by Kazimir Malevich.jpg, ''Cow and Fiddle'', 1913 File:Englishman in Moscow.jpg, ''Englishman in Moscow'', 1914 File:Kazimir Malevich, 1914, Composition with the Mona Lisa, oil, collage and graphite on canvas, 62.5 × 49.3 cm, Russian Museum.jpg, ''Composition with the Mona Lisa'', 1914 File:Black circle.jpg, ''Black Circle'', motive 1915, painted 1924, State Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia File:Казимир Малевич, Супрематическая композиция, 1915.jpg, ''Suprematist Composition'', painted in 1915 File:Kazimir malevich, quadrato rosso (realismo del pittore di una campagnola in due dimensioni), 1915.JPG, ''Red Square (painting), Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions'', 1915 File:Suprematist Composition - Kazimir Malevich.jpg, ''Suprematist Composition'', 1916 File:Malevich-Suprematism..jpg, ''Suprematist Painting: Eight Red Rectangles'', 1915 File:Malevici06.jpg, ''Suprematism'', Museum of Art, Krasnodar 1916 File:GUGG Untitled (Suprematist Composition, Malevich a).jpg, ''Untitled (Suprematist Composition)'', Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, c. 1919-1926 File:GUGG Untitled (Suprematist Composition, Malevich b).jpg, ''Untitled (Suprematist Composition)'', Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, c. 1919-1926 File:Malevich.black-square.jpg, ''
Black Square Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...
'', c.1923, State Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia File:Black Cross.jpg, ''Black Cross'', 1920s, State Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia File:Malevitj.jpg, ''Suprematism'', 1921-1927 File:Malevich - Boy.jpg, ''Boy'', 1928-1932 File:Malevich cavalry.jpg, ''Red Cavalry (painting), Red Cavalry'', 1928-1932 File:Malevich Summer Landscape.JPG, ''Summer Landscape'', 1929 File:Malevich142.jpg, ''Mower'', 1930 File:Malevich running-man.jpg, ''Running man'', 1932 File:Казимир Малевич — Важке передчуття.jpg, ''Complex Presentiment: Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt'', 1928-1932


See also

* List of Russian artists * Sergei Senkin * Oberiu * UNOVIS


Footnotes


Citations


References

* Crone, Rainer, Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, and David Moos. ''Kazimir Malevich: The Climax of Disclosure.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. * Dreikausen, Margret, ''Aerial Perception: The Earth as Seen from Aircraft and Spacecraft and Its Influence on Contemporary Art'' (Associated University Presses: Cranbury, NJ; London, England; Mississauga, Ontario: 1985). * Matthew Drutt, Drutt, Matthew; Malevich, Kazimir, ''Kazimir Malevich: suprematism'', Guggenheim Museum, 2003, * Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing. * Malevich, Kasimir, ''The Non-objective World'', Chicago: P. Theobald, 1959. * ''Malevich and his Influence'', Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, 2008. * Milner, John; Malevich, Kazimir, ''Kazimir Malevich and the art of geometry'', Yale University Press, 1996. * Andrei Nakov, Nakov, Andrei, ''Kasimir Malevich, Catalogue raisonné'', Paris, Adam Biro, 2002 * Nakov, Andrei, vol. IV of ''Kasimir Malevich, le peintre absolu'', Paris, Thalia Édition, 2007 * Néret, Gilles, ''Kazimir Malevich and Suprematism 1878-1935'', Taschen, 2003. * Petrova, Yevgenia, ''Kazimir Malevich in the State Russian Museum''. Palace Editions, 2002. . (English Edition) * Shatskikh, Aleksandra S, and Marian Schwartz, ''Black Square: Malevich and the Origin of Suprematism'', 2012. * Shishanov, V.A. ''Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art: a History of Creation and a Collection''. 1918–1941. - Minsk: Medisont, 2007. - 144 p.
Mylivepage.ru
' * Tedman, Gary. Soviet Avant Garde Aesthetics, chapter from Aesthetics & Alienation. pp 203–229. 2012. Zero Books. * Tolstaya, Tatyana
''The Square''
''The New Yorker'', 12 June 2015 * Das weiße Rechteck. Schriften zum Film, herausgegeben von Oksana Bulgakowa. PotemkinPress, Berlin 1997, * ''The White Rectangle. Writings on Film.'' (In English and the Russian original manuscript). Edited by Oksana Bulgakowa. PotemkinPress, Berlin / Francisco 2000,


Autobiographies

Malevich wrote two biographical essays, a shorter one in 1923–25, and a much longer account in 1933, representing the artist's explanation of his own evolution up to the appearance of suprematism at the 1915 "0–10" exhibition in Petrograd. Both are published in: * Abridged and revised translations are published in: * The 1923–25 autobiography appears in: * The 1933 autobiography appears in: * *


External links


Malevich works, MoMA

Kazimir Malevich, Guggenheim Collection Online

Floirat, Anetta. 2016, The Scythian element of the Russian primitivism, in music and visual arts
Based on the work Goncharova, Malevich, Roerich, Stravinsky and Prokofiev
Peter Brooke, ''Deux Peintres Philosophes - Albert Gleizes et Kasimir Malévitch and Quelques Réflexions sur la Littérature Actuelle du Cubisme''
both Ampuis (Association des Amis d’Albert Gleizes) 1995
History of Malevich-designed Perfume bottle of the eau de cologne “''Severny''”
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malevich, Kazimir 1879 births 1935 deaths Abstract painters Artists from Kyiv Ukrainian people of Polish descent 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian painters Futurist painters People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent Painters from the Russian Empire Russian male painters Modern painters Polish painters Polish male painters Russian avant-garde Soviet painters Suprematism (art movement) Ukrainian avant-garde Ukrainian painters Ukrainian male painters Ukrainian sculptors Ukrainian male sculptors Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in the Soviet Union 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian male artists Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni