Kazimir Malevich
Self-Portrait, 1912
Birth name	Kazimir Severinovich Malevich
Born	February 23, 1878 Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire
Died	May 15, 1935 Leningrad, Soviet Union
Field	Painting
Training	Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
Movement	Suprematism
Works	Black Square, 1915

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (Russian: Казимир Северинович Малевич, Polish: Kazimierz Malewicz, Ukrainian Казимир Северинович Малевич [kazɪˈmɪr sɛʋɛˈrɪnoʋɪtʃ mɑˈlɛʋɪtʃ], German: Kasimir Malewitsch), (February 23, 1878 – May 15, 1935) was a painter and art theoretician, pioneer of geometric abstract art and one of the most important members of the Russian avant-garde and Suprematist movement. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1878 ( MDCCCLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Kiev, also known as Kyiv ( Ukrainian:, Kyiv, ˈkɪjiw Russian:, Kiyev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e The Moscow School of Painting Sculpture and Architecture (Московское училище живописи ваяния и зодчества МУЖВЗ was one of the largest educational This term is not to be confused with Supremacism. black circle Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1878 ( MDCCCLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual The word theory has many distinct meanings in different fields of Knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. Geometric abstraction is a form of Abstract art based on the use of simple geometric forms placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective compositions The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large influential wave of Modern art that flourished in Russia from approximately 1890 to This term is not to be confused with Supremacism. black circle

Life and work

Kazimir Malevich was born near Kiev, Ukraine. Kiev, also known as Kyiv ( Ukrainian:, Kyiv, ˈkɪjiw Russian:, Kiyev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. His parents, Seweryn and Ludwika Malewicz, were ethnic Poles, and he was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church. The Polish people, or Poles, (Polacy) are a Western Slavic Ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. His father was the manager of a sugar factory. Kazimir was the first of fourteen children, although only nine of the children survived into adulthood. His family moved often and he spent most of his childhood in the villages of Ukraine amidst sugar-beet plantations, far from centers of culture. Until age 12 or 13 he knew nothing of professional artists, though peasant art had surrounded him in childhood. He delighted in peasant embroidery, and in decorated walls and stoves. He himself was able to paint in the peasant style. He studied drawing in Kiev from 1895 to 1896.

Black Square, 1915, Oil on Canvas, State Russian Museum, St. The State Russian Museum (formerly the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III, while prior to that as the Palace of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Petersburg

In 1904, after the death of his father, he moved to Moscow. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1904 to 1910 and in the studio of Fedor Rerberg in Moscow (1904–1910). The Moscow School of Painting Sculpture and Architecture (Московское училище живописи ваяния и зодчества МУЖВЗ was one of the largest educational Year 1904 ( MCMIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting on Year 1910 ( MCMX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting In 1911 he participated in the second exhibition of the group Soyuz Molodyozhi (Union of Youth) in St. Petersburg, together with Vladimir Tatlin and, in 1912, the group held its third exhibition, which included works by Aleksandra Ekster, Tatlin and others. Soyuz Molodyozhi (Union of the Youths Союз Молодежи was an artistic group and an art magazine of Russian avant-garde organized in 1910 Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( Russian: Владимир Евграфович Татлин) ( – May 31, 1953) worked as a painter and architect Alexandra Ekster or Exter ( Александра Александровна Экстер January 6, 1882 - March 17, 1949) was a In the same year he participated in an exhibition by the collective Donkey's Tail in Moscow. Donkey's Tail ( Osliniy khvost, Ослиный хвост was a Russian artistic group created from the most radical members of the Jack of Diamonds group By that time his works were influenced by Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, Russian avant-garde painters who were particularly interested in Russian folk art called lubok. Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (Наталья Сергеевна Гончарова June 4, 1881 - October 17, 1962) was a Russian Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov ( Russian: Михаил Фёдорович Ларионов, June 3, 1881 &ndash May 10, 1964 In Russian, Lubok (Cyrillic Лубок) means a variety of Russian Folk art such as prints in Woodcut, characterized by simple Graphics In March 1913 a major exhibition of Aristarkh Lentulov's paintings opened in Moscow. Aristarkh Lentulov (Лентулов Аристарх Васильевич ( January 4, 1882 - April 15, 1943) was a major Russian avant-garde The effect of this exhibition was comparable with that of Paul Cezanne 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. Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European Already in the same year the Cubo-Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun with Malevich's stage-set became a great success. "Russian Futurists" redirects here For the band see The Russian Futurists. Victory over the Sun (Russian Победа над солнцем) is a Russian Futurist Opera premiered in 1913 at the Luna Park in In 1914 Malevich exhibited his works in the Salon des Independants in Paris together with Alexander Archipenko, Sonia Delaunay, Aleksandra Ekster and Vadim Meller, among others. The Société des Artistes Indépendants ( Society of Independent Artists) formed in Paris in summer 1884 choosing the device "No jury nor awards" ( Sans Alexander Porfiryevich Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr Oleksandr or Aleksandr) ( May 30, 1887 - February 25, 1964) Sonia Delaunay (née Terk (1885 &ndash 1979 was a Jewish - French artist who with her husband Robert Delaunay and others cofounded the Orphism Alexandra Ekster or Exter ( Александра Александровна Экстер January 6, 1882 - March 17, 1949) was a Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, ( Russian: Вадим Георгиевич Меллер, 1884–1962 was a Ukrainian - Russian Soviet

It remains one of the great mysteries of 20th century art, how, while leading a comfortable career, during which he just followed all the latest trends in art, in 1915 Malevich suddenly came up with the idea of Suprematism. This term is not to be confused with Supremacism. black circle The fact that Malevich throughout all his life was signing and re-signing his works using earlier dates makes this u-turn in his artistic career even more ambiguous. Be that as it may, in 1915 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. The Skoptsy (скопцы also transliterated as Skoptzy, Skoptzi, Skoptsi, Scoptsy and other spellings were a secret Sect of Verbovka Village Folk Centre was an artisan cooperative in the village of Verbovka founded by Natalia Davidova in the Ukrainian province of Kiev. In 1916-1917 he participated in exhibitions of the Jack of Diamonds group in Moscow together with Nathan Altman, David Burliuk and A. Jack of Diamonds («Бубновый валет» also called Knave Of Diamonds, was a group of artists founded in 1909 in Moscow. Nathan Isaevich Altman ( Russian ru Натан Исаевич Альтман – December 12, 1970) was a Russian avant-garde Artist David Davidovich Burliuk (Давид Давидович Бурлюк Давид Давидович Бурлюк ( July 21, 1882 – January 15, Ekster, among others. Famous examples of his Suprematist works include Black Square (1915) and White on White (1918).

Malevich also acknowledged that his fascination with aerial photography and aviation led him to abstractions inspired by or derived from aerial landscapes. Aerial photography is the taking of Photographs of the ground from an elevated position Aviation refers to activities involving man-made flying devices ( Aircraft) including the people organizations and regulatory bodies involved with them Abstract art uses a Visual language of form color and line to create a composition which exists independently of visual references to the world (This article concerns painting and other non-photographic media Harvard doctoral candidate Julia Bekman Chadaga writes: “In his later writings, Malevich defined the 'additional element' as the quality of any new visual environment bringing about a change in perception . . . . In a series of diagrams illustrating the ‘environments' that influence various painterly styles, the Suprematist is associated with a series of aerial views rendering the familiar landscape into an abstraction. Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land including physical elements such as Landforms living elements of flora and fauna abstract elements such as lighting . . " (Excerpted from Ms. Bekman Chadaga's paper delivered at Columbia University's 2000 symposium, Technology, and Modernity in Russia and Eastern Europe').

Self-portrait, 1933 (detail)

Malevich was 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). Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Narkompros (Наркомпрос is an abbreviation for the People's Commissariat for Education (Народный комиссариат просвещения the 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). Vitebsk, also known as Vitsyebsk ( Belarusian: Ві́цебск 'vʲitsʲepsk Russian: Ви́тебск Vitebsk The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St Petersburg Academy of Arts, was opened by Count Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy 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 Germany for a retrospective which brought him international fame. Warsaw (Warszawa; also known by other names) is the Capital and Largest city of Poland. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. He arranged to leave most of the paintings behind when he returned to the Soviet Union. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 When the Stalinist regime turned against modernist art, considering it a type of "bourgeois" art, many of his works were confiscated. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Critics derided Malevich for reaching art by negating everything good and pure: love of life and love of nature. The Westernizer artist and art historian Alexandre Benois was one such critic. Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois (Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Бенуа́ ( St 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 needed us since stars first shone in the sky.

Malevich's work only recently reappeared in art exhibitions in Russia after a long absence. Since then art followers have labored 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. Many stains on his reputation in Russia remain, however. Recently Ukrainian art followers established the precise birthdate of the artist: February 23, 1879. Malevich and Ukraine, by professor D. Gorbachev, 2006, Kiev, reveals many new biographical details.

Malevich in Popular Culture

• The smuggling of Malevich paintings out of Russia is a key to the plot line of Martin Cruz Smith's thriller Red Square. Popular culture (or pop culture) is the Culture — patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance — Martin Cruz Smith (né Martin William Smith) was born in Reading Pennsylvania, in 1942 Red Square is a crime novel by Martin Cruz Smith, set in the Soviet Union in the year 1991
• 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.

Selected works

Flower Girl, 1903	Landscape with a Yellow House, 1906	Bathers, 1908	Winter, 1909
Head of a Peasnt Girl, 1912-1913	Bureau and Room, 1913	Cow and Fiddle, 1913	Englishman in Moscow, 1914
Black Circle, signed 1913, painted 1915	Suprematism (Self-Portrait), 1916	Suprematism, Museum of Art, Krasnodar 1916	Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1917
Suprematism, 1921-1927	Boy, 1928-1932	Red-cavalry, 1928-1932	Summer Landscape, 1929
Mower, 1930	Running man (Holodomor?), 1932

• 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 and Red Square
• 1915 Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions
• 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. Krasnodar (Краснода́р is a city in Southern Russia on the Kuban River. The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season 56
• 1916-17 Suprematism (1916-17)
• 1917 Suprematist Painting (1917)
• 1928-32 Complex Presentiment: Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt
• 1932-34 Running Man

See also

• Lyubov Popova
• Aleksandra Ekster
• El Lissitzky
• UNOVIS
• Suprematism
• Supremus
• IRWIN
• Aerial landscape art
• OBERIU
• ru:Витебский музей современного искусства

References

• Shishanov V. A. Vitebsk Museum of modern art: a history of creation and a collection. 1918-1941. - Minsk: Medisont, 2007. - 144 p.

External links and references

• Paintings by Kazimir Malevich
• Kasimir Malevich. Black Square

• Guggenheim: Kazimir Malevich
• Feel it... The "Black Square" based on Kazimir Malevich.
• "Black Square"
• "White on White"
• "Malevich on Film"
• DA Collection
• Kazimir Malevich at Olga's Gallery
• "Victory Over the Sun" discussed
• smARThistory: Suprematist Composition: White on White
• Das schwarze quadrat (The Black Square) - Exhibition at Kunsthalle Hamburg