Kazimir Malevich
- Introduction
- Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (23 February [O.S. 11 February] 1879 – 15 May 1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist, whose pioneering work and writing had a profound influence on the development of non-objective, or abstract art, in the 20th century. Born in Kyiv to an ethnic Polish family, his concept of Suprematism 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" and spirituality. Malevich is considered to be part of the Ukrainian avant-garde (together with Alexander Archipenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Sonia Delaunay, Aleksandra Ekster, and David Burliuk) 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, Symbolism 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 (1915), a black square on white, represented the most radically abstract painting known to have been created so far and drew "an uncrossable line (…) between old art and new art"; Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918), a barely differentiated off-white square superimposed on an off-white ground, would take his ideal of pure abstraction to its logical conclusion. 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 (O.S.) in 1917. In its immediate aftermath, vanguard movements such as Suprematism and Vladimir Tatlin's Constructivism were encouraged by Trotskyite 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 Kyiv Art Institute, with Alexander Bogomazov, Victor Palmov, Vladimir Tatlin and published his articles in a Kharkiv magazine, Nova Generatsia (New Generation). But the start of repression in Ukraine against the intelligentsia forced Malevich return to modern-day Saint Petersburg. From the beginning of the 1930s, modern art was falling out of favor with the new government of Joseph Stalin. Malevich soon lost his teaching position, artworks and manuscripts were confiscated, and he was banned from making art. 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, Lyubov Popova and Alexander Rodchenko, as well as generations of later abstract artists, such as Ad Reinhardt and the Minimalists. He was celebrated posthumously in major exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art (1936), the Guggenheim Museum (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.
- Wikidata
- Q130777
- Introduction
- Malevich was a pivotal figure of the Russian avant-garde movement during the revolutionary periods of 1905 and 1917 and immediately after. He developed a style of severe geometric abstraction called Suprematism and was a leading force in the development of Constructivism. While his work was suppressed by the Soviets during the 1930s and remained little known for decades, it was rediscovered in the mid-1950s and became an influence on such movements as Hard-edge painting and Minimalism.
- Nationalities
- Russian, Soviet, Ukrainian
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Author, Designer, Writer, Decorative Artist, Painter, Sculptor, Theorist
- Names
- Kazimir Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, Kazimir Severinovič Malevič, Kasimir Malevic, Kasimir Malevitch, Kasimir Severinovitch Malevitch, Casimir Severinovitch Malévitch, Kazimir Malevitj, Kasimir Malewitsch, Kasimir Ssewerinowitsch Malewitsch, Kasimir Severinovich Malevich, Casimir SeverinoviC Malevich, T. Malevich, H. Malevich, Kazimir Malevič, Kazimir Sévérinovitch Malévitch, Ḳazimir Severinovits' Malevits', Kazimir Malevitsh, Kazimir Malewicz, Kazimir Malevitsj, Казимир Северинович Малевич, Казимир Малевич, כזימיר סברינוביץ׳ מלביץ׳, Malevich
- Ulan
- 500004959
Exhibitions
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Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented
Through Apr 10
MoMA
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505: Circa 1913
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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512: Abstraction and Utopia
Oct 21, 2019–Oct 12, 2020
MoMA
Collection gallery
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513: Design for Modern Life
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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A Revolutionary Impulse: The Rise of the Russian Avant-Garde
Dec 3, 2016–Mar 12, 2017
MoMA
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Kazimir Malevich has
64 exhibitionsonline.
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Kazimir Malevich Dynamic Figure from On New Systems in Art (O Novykh Sistemakh V Iskusstve) 1911
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Kazimir Malevich Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement 1912-13 (dated on reverse 1912)
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Kazimir Malevich Simultaneous Death in an Airplane and at the Railway (1913)
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Slovo Kak Takavoe (The Word as Such) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich Woman Reaper (front cover) from Slovo Kak Takavoe (The Word as Such) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich Troe (The Three) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich Samovar 1913
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David Burliuk, Kazimir Malevich Pobeda nad solntsem. Opera (Victory over the Sun: An Opera) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich Porosiata (Piglets) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Slovo kak takovoe (The Word as Such) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich Troe (The Three) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Vozropshchem (Let's Grumble) 1913
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Various Artists, Natan Al'tman, Natalia Goncharova, Nikolai Kul'bin, Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Vzorval' (Explodity) 1913
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Various Artists, Natan Al'tman, Natalia Goncharova, Nikolai Kul'bin, Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Vzorval' (Explodity) 1913
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Kazimir Malevich Reservist of the First Division fall-winter 1914
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Natan Al'tman, Natalia Goncharova, Aleksei Kruchenykh, Nikolai Kul'bin, Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova, Various Artists Vzorval' (Explodity) 1913–14, published 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Simultaneous Death of a Man in an Airplane and on the Railroad (plate, folio 15) from Vzorval' (Explodity) 1913–14, published 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Prayer (plate, folio 19) from Vzorval' (Explodity) 1913–14, published 1914
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova, Various Artists Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) 1913–14, published 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Vil'gel'mova Karusel' (Wilhelm's Carousel) 1914
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) 1914
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) 1914
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David Burliuk, Kazimir Malevich Stikhi V. Maiakovskogo. Vypyt (The Poetry of V. Mayakovsky. [Vypyt]) 1914
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Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) 1914
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Various Artists, Pavel Filonov, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Mayakovsky Izbornik stikhov s poslesloviem rechiaria. 1907–1914 gg. (A Selection of Poems with an Afterword by the Wordsmith: 1907–1914) 1914
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Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Mayakovsky Patriotic propaganda postcards with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914
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Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying 1915 (dated on reverse 1914)
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Kazimir Malevich Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack - Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension 1915
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Russian Book Collection, Ivan Kliun, Kazimir Malevich, M. Menkov Manifesto handbill for the 0.10 exhibition 1915
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Kazimir Malevich Ot kubizma i futurizma k suprematizmu. Novyi zhivopisnyi realizm (From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: New Painterly Realism) 1916
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Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Diagonal Construction 79 1917
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Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Painting 1916-17
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Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Drawing (c. 1916-17)
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Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Drawing (c. 1916-17)
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Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition: White on White 1918
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Kazimir Malevich Wraparound cover for the program S'ezd komitetov derevenskoi bednoty (Congress of Committees of Peasant Poverty) 1918
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Kazimir Malevich O Novykh Sistemakh V Iskusstve (On New Systems in Art) 1919. (Prints executed 1910-1919).
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