Kazimir Malevich

**Kazimir Malevich**  (Kiev, 23 February 1879 – 15 May 1935) was a Russian painter and art theoretician. He was born in Russia of ethnic Polish parents. who settled near Kyiv in Kyiv Governorate of the Russian Empire during the partitions of Poland. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde Suprematism movement.

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 in Paris in 1907, as all the main Russian avant-garde artists of the time (including Malevich) immediately absorbed the cubist 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 Independants_ in Paris.

## Suprematism

In 1915, Malevich laid down the foundations of Suprematism. He published his manifesto _From Cubism to Suprematism_. In 1916–1917 he took part in exhibitions of the _Jack of Diamonds_ group in Moscow. Famous examples of his Suprematist works were exhibited there, including _Black Square_ (1915) and _White on White_ (1918).

After the October Revolution, 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 to 1919).

He taught at the Vitebsk Practical Art School in the USSR (now part of Belarus) (1919–1922), the Leningrad Academy of Arts (1922–1927), the Kiev State Art Institute (1927–1929), and the House of the Arts in Leningrad (1930). He wrote the book _The World as Non-Objectivity_ (Munich 1926; English trans. 1959) which outlines his Suprematist theories.

In 1927 he traveled to Warsaw, and then to Berlin and Munich, for a retrospective exhibition. This finally brought him international recognition.

Malevich arranged to leave most of the paintings behind when he returned to the Soviet Union, because he could see what was going to happen.

Malevich thought a shift in attitude of the Soviet authorities towards the modernist art movement would take place after the death of Lenin. This proved correct. In a couple of years the Stalinist regime turned against forms of abstractism, considering them a type of 'bourgeois' art which could not express social reality. As a consequence, many of his works were confiscated and he was banned from creating and exhibiting similar art.

Critics derided Malevich for "negating everything good and pure: love of life and love of nature". Malevich responded that art can advance and develop for art's sake alone, regardless of its pleasure: art does not need us, and it never did.

Malevich's work only recently reappeared in art exhibitions in Russia after a long absence. Since then art followers have worked to reintroduce the artist to Russian lovers of painting. A book of his theoretical works with an anthology of reminiscences and writings has been published.

## Present valuation

On 3 November 2008 a work by Malevich entitled _Suprematist Composition_ from 1916 set the world record for any Russian work of art and any work sold at auction for that year. It sold at Sotheby’s in New York City for just over $60 million U.S. (far surpassing his previous record of $17 million set in 2000).

## 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_
- 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_
- 1919–26 – _Untitled (Suprematist Composition)_
- 1928–32 – _Complex Presentiment: Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt_
- 1932–34 – _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_.

## Other websites

- Malevich works, MoMA
- Kazimir Malevich, Guggenheim Collection Online
- Kasimir Malevich Works Online, Artcyclopedia

## Infobox (artist)

- **name**: Kazimir Malevich
- **image**: Self-Portrait (1908 or 1910-1911).jpg
- **image size**: 220px
- **caption**: Self-Portrait, 1912
The strong colours suggest the
influence of Matisse and Fauvism.
- **birth name**: Kazimir Severinovich Malevich
- **birth place**: Kyiv Governorate of Russian Empire
- **death place**: Leningrad, Soviet Union
- **nationality**: Russian Empire, Soviet Union
- **field**: Painting
- **training**: Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
- **movement**: Suprematism
- **works**: _Black Square_, 1915; _White on White_, 1919