Kazimir Malevich

Painter, writer

• Born: February 23, 1878
• Place of Birth: Kiev, Ukraine
• Died: May 15, 1935
• Place of Death: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Education: Kiev School of Art; Stroganov School of Art; Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture

Significance: Kazimir Malevich was a Russian artist and writer known for establishing the suprematist art movement. His most important works focused on simple geometric forms, such as squares, triangles, and circles. Malevich's artistic philosophy greatly influenced the emergence of modern art in the United States and Europe, and his ideas helped evolve the theoretical foundations of abstract art.

Background

Kazimir Malevich was born on February 23, 1878, in Kiev, Ukraine. His parents were from Poland, and his family regularly moved around Russia in search of work. As an adolescent, Malevich worked at a sugar factory with his father. He took an interest in drawing around age twelve and later attended several art schools throughout his teens. Malevich studied at Kiev School of Art in 1895. He moved to Moscow in 1904 to attend the Stroganov School of Art. During this time, he took private lessons from famed art instructor Ivan Rerberg. Malevich continued his education at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. His instructors there included Leonid Pasternak and Konstantin Korovin, who taught the young Malevich techniques in impressionist and post-impressionist painting. Post-impressionism greatly influenced the artist's early work, though elements of the symbolism and art nouveau movements were also present.

Malevich's work began to veer toward avant-gardism around 1907 as the artist became familiar with the works of his contemporaries, such as Wassily Kandinsky, David Burliuk, and Mikhail Larionov. He befriended Larionov, who later invited him to join his exhibition collective called the Jack of Diamonds. Malevich belonged to several artists clubs during this period, including Donkey's Tail and Target. These clubs emphasized the artistic philosophies of primitivism, cubism, and futurism. He and Larionov later had a falling out, after which Malevich took an active role in the Saint Petersburg–based Youth Union, a collective of futurist artists.

The early 1910s saw Malevich preferring cubist and futurist techniques, combining the two philosophies to produce works featuring geometrically deconstructed figures in space. In 1913, Malevich was hired to create the set design for the opera Victory over the Sun. His work in painting and set design led to the emergence of his own artistic philosophy, which he termed suprematism. This philosophy was first presented in Malevich's 1915 manifesto From Cubism to Suprematism. He began to discourage restraint in art, and his works were devoid of any figurative elements in favor of sheer abstraction. Suprematism focused on the most basic geometric shapes and restricted use of color.

Life's Work

The Russian Revolution of 1917 gave rise to a new authority in the country, led by the Congress of Soviets. Under Soviet rule, Russia took on a socialist government and instituted a number of offices to see to its success. In 1918, Malevich joined the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment, where the Fine Arts Department employed him. The artist helped the department oversee museums and manage art education. He taught at the Free Art Studios in Moscow, where he championed his suprematist outlook.

He published his next book, On New Systems in Art, in 1919. The text described suprematism from a socialist perspective and advocated the use of avant-garde art in service to the Soviet state and its citizens. That same year, Malevich moved to the town of Vitebsk and became an instructor at the local art school, which was directed by artist Marc Chagall. Malevich took over as head of the Vitebsk school when Chagall left for Paris, France. He then established the Affirmers of New Art, a student group that moved beyond the realm of painting into other design territories. The group designed propagandist posters, china, street decorations, signposts, and textile patterns.

In 1922, Malevich moved his group to Petrograd, Russia, where they continued to produce propagandist art. He also began a new venture that involved creating a series of small architectural models of utopian-themed towns that he called architectons. These tiny structures featured complex yet plain compositions made of basic geometric forms. Malevich toured this series through Poland and Germany before returning to Russia. By the late 1920s, a new artistic movement was taking shape that eventually superseded the abstract art movement of Malevich's era. State-sponsored socialist realist art became the dominant art form of Russia in the 1930s, eventually leading to the suppression of all other artistic styles.

With the arrival of socialist realism, Malevich's work became obsolete. He was arrested in 1930 and interrogated about his political beliefs after returning from a trip to the West. Worried about his safety, his friends burned some of his writings. Some of his works were included in an exhibition celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, but his paintings were paired with disapproving labels that suggested the painter was anti-Soviet. Malevich was eventually barred from state schools and exhibition sites. His later work consisted mainly of portraits of family and friends, as well as genre scenes painted in old artistic styles. Malevich died of a heart attack in Leningrad on May 15, 1935.

German authorities prosecuted two men for selling forged paintings and inventing provenance of multiple works, including paintings by Malevich. They were found guilty of several crimes and sentenced in 2018. Art experts believe the operation likely involved many more paintings than were known. In January 2024, one of the disputed Malevich works was presented as genuine at the Centre Pompidou, the premier modern and contemporary art museum in France. German's Federal Police said that Suprematism, allegedly created by Malevich in 1915, was proven to be fake in 2014. However, the men had not been convicted of selling the forgery, only possessing it, and under German law, authorities returned it to art dealer Itzhak Zarug. Co2Bit Technologies, a US tech company, revealed it had purchased the painting in early January 2024 for a price in the eight figures. The company insisted the work was genuine and stated Co2Bit planned to sell it. The Centre Pompidou said the painting was exhibited at a private function and the museum was unaware the painting was shown. In 1918, Malevich's Suprematist Composition (1916) had sold at auction for more than $85 million.

Impact

Malevich's works remained confined to museum basements during Russia's Soviet era. A number of Malevich's paintings were smuggled out of Germany in 1935 by American art collector Alfred Barr and put on display in American museums. His works resurfaced in 1988 following the election of Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, after which Malevich's paintings were put on public display. Malevich's art and writings inspired a number of future artists, such as Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. His work also influenced later avant-garde art movements, such as minimalism.

Personal Life

In 1899, Malevich married Kazimira Ivanovna Zgleits, with whom he had two children. She left him in 1909, and he married Sofia Mikhailovna Rafalovich later that year. Rafalovich died in 1923. Malevich married for a third time in 1927 to Natalia Andreevna Manchenko.

Bibliography

"Arkhitekton Gota (Gota architecton)." Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/inventingabstraction/?work=212. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

Forgacs, Eva. Malevich and Interwar Modernism: Russian Art and the International of the Square. Bloomsbury, 2022.

"Kazimir Malevich." Art Story Foundation, www.theartstory.org/artist-malevich-kasimir.htm#biography‗header. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

"Kazimir Malevich." Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/kazimir-malevich. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

Nelson, George. "Disputed Malevich Painting Tied to Disgraced Dealer Itzhak Zarug Presented as Genuine in Private 'Exhibition' at Centre Pompidou." ArtNews, 6 June 2024, www.artnews.com/art-news/news/kasimir-malevich-painting-dispute-co2bit-centre-pompidou-1234708956/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Oltermann, Philip. "Russian Avant-Garde Forgery Case Ends in Convictions and Disappointments." The Guardian, 16 Mar. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/16/russian-avant-garde-forgery-case-conviction-german-trial-art-market. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Shatskikh, Aleksandra. Black Square: Malevich and the Origin of Suprematism. Yale UP, 2012.

Spalding, Frances. "Kazimir Malevich: The Man Who Liberated Painting." Guardian, 4 July 2014, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/04/kazimir-malevich-liberated-painting-tate. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

"Who Is Kazimir Malevich?" Tate Museum, www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-kazimir-malevich. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.