kazimir malevich biography

Kazimir Malevich

Russian Painter, Sculptor, and Stage Designer

Summary of Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich was the founder of the artistic and philosophical school of Suprematism , and his ideas about forms and meaning in art would eventually constitute the theoretical underpinnings of non-objective, or abstract, art. Malevich worked in a variety of styles, but his most important and famous works concentrated on the exploration of pure geometric forms (squares, triangles, and circles) and their relationships to each other and within the pictorial space. Because of his contacts in the West, Malevich was able to transmit his ideas about painting to his fellow artists in Europe and the United States, thus profoundly influencing the evolution of modern art.

Accomplishments

• Malevich worked in a variety of styles, but he is mostly known for his contribution to the formation of a true Russian avant-garde post-World War I through his own unique philosophy of perception and painting, which he termed Suprematism. He invented this term because, ultimately, he believed that art should transcend subject matter -- the truth of shape and color should reign 'supreme' over the image or narrative.
• More radical than the Cubists or Futurists , at the same time that his Suprematist compositions proclaimed that paintings were composed of flat, abstract areas of paint, they also served up powerful and multi-layered symbols and mystical feelings of time and space.
• Malevich was also a prolific writer. His treatises on the philosophy of art addressed a broad spectrum of theoretical problems conceiving of a comprehensive abstract art and its ability to lead us to our feelings and even to a new spirituality.

Important Art by Kazimir Malevich

In The Reaper , Malevich explored the human figure through a pictorial vocabulary reminiscent of the work of the French Cubist Fernand Leger. The body and the dress of the peasant are rendered in conical and cylindrical forms adopted by Malevich from the Cubist school. The flat and vibrant palette of the painting derive from Post-Impressionism and later modernists, indicating Malevich's exposure to the dominating artistic styles of his time. The peasant theme, part of the more general modernist attraction to the "primitive" is reinterpreted from the traditional folk motif, known as Lubok, which was in vogue in popular prints and textile designs within the Russian avant-garde milieu. While still clearly figurative, this composition anticipates the move toward abstraction by the employment of abbreviated and stylized forms.

Oil on canvas - The Fine Arts Museum, Nizhnij Novgorod, Russia

Woman With Pails: Dynamic Arrangement

In this composition, also derived from Fernand Leger (through Paul Cézanne, who believed that all forms in nature could be reduced to the sphere, cylinder, and cone), Malevich moved more decisively toward abstraction by dissecting the figure and picture plane into a variety of interlocking geometric shapes. The figure is still identifiable, as are the pails that she carries; Malevich has not yet abandoned representation entirely. The general palette is comprised of cool colors dominated by blues and grays, though the accents of red, yellow, and ochre add to the visual dynamic of the composition, thus bringing us closer to the feeling that Malevich intended to communicate as indicated by the title. The few identifiably figurative elements, such as the figure's hand, seem to be lost inside the whirlpool of completely abstracted forms that structure the canvas.

Oil on canvas - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Black Square

Now badly cracked, the iconic Black Square was shown by Malevich in the 0.10 exhibition in Petrograd in 1915. This piece epitomized the theoretical principles of Suprematism developed by Malevich in his 1915 essay From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting . Although earlier Malevich had been influenced by Cubism, he believed that the Cubists had not taken abstraction far enough. Thus, here the purely abstract shape of the black square (painted before the white background) is the single pictorial element in the composition. Even though the painting seems simple, there are such subtleties as brushstrokes, fingerprints, and colors visible underneath the cracked black layer of paint. If nothing else, one can distinguish the visual weight of the black square, the sense of an "image" against a background, and the tension around the edges of the square. But according to Malevich, the perception of such forms should always be free of logic and reason, for the absolute truth can only be realized through pure feeling. For the artist, the square represented feelings, and the white, nothingness. Additionally, Malevich saw the black square as a kind of godlike presence, an icon - or even the godlike quality in himself. In fact, Black Square was to become the new holy image for non-representational art. Even at the exhibition it was hung in the corner where an Orthodox icon would traditionally be placed in the Russian home.

Oil on canvas - Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Airplane Flying

As early as 1914, Malevich had become interested in the possibilities of flight (as had the Futurists) and the idea that the airplane might be a symbol for the awakening of the soul surrounded by the freedom of the infinite. Malevich was also interested in aerial photographs of landscapes, although he later backed away from this source of inspiration, feeling that it led him too far from his vision of a totally abstract art. However, at the time, in Airplane Flying Malevich was able to further explore the pictorial potential of pure abstraction. The rectangular and cubic shapes are arranged in a solid, architectonic composition. The yellow contrasts starkly with the black, while the red and blue lines add dynamic visual accents to the canvas. The whiteness of the background remains unobtrusive but contrasting, and has infused the interplay of colorful shapes with its energy. Malevich believed that emotional engagement was required from the viewer in order to appreciate the composition, which constituted one of the key principles of his theory of Suprematism. Indeed, Malevich wrote about expressing the feeling of the "sensation of flight, metallic sounds..." and other technological advances of the modern age. His abstract painting was meant to convey the concept (abstract idea) of the plane flying in space.

White on White

Malevich repeatedly referred to "the white" as a representation of the transcendent state reached through Suprematism. White was the artist's symbol for the concept of the infinite as the white square dissolves its material being into the slightly warmer white of the infinite surrounding. This painting can be seen as the final, complete stage of his "transformation in the zero of form," since form has almost literally been reduced to nothing. The pure white of the canvas has negated any sense of traditional perspective, leaving the viewer to contemplate its "infinite" space. The slight change in tonality, however, distinguishes the abstract shape from the background of the canvas, and encourages close viewing The picture is thus bled of color, the pure white making it easier to recognize the signs of the artist's work in the rich paint texture of the white square, texture being one of the basic qualities of painting as the Suprematists saw it. Painted some time after the Russian Revolution of 1917, one might read the work as an expression of Malevich's hopes for the creation of a new world under Communism, a world that might lead to spiritual, as well as material, freedom.

Self-Portrait

In the late years of his life, Malevich returned to exploring the more conservative themes of his earlier work such as peasants and portraits. In fact, Malevich was forced to abandon his modernist style under Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. The artist's Suprematist goal of achieving a "blissful sense of liberating non-objectivity" did not square with the prescribed Social Realist style that was being dictated at the time. In the work pictured here, Malevich paints himself as a Renaissance artist, seriously posed in red and black against a neutral background, his gesture a reflection of that of the artist Albrecht Dürer in his renowned Self-Portrait (1500). Here, the unity of the mind and the hand of the artist, highlighted on the central axis, bears a slightly different meaning: his hand is open and willing, but suspended, as his mind broods over the closing down of artistic freedom under Stalin's rule. And yet, the artist has "signed" the painting with his own black square in the lower right corner.

Oil on canvas - Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Biography of Kazimir Malevich

Childhood and education.

Malevich was born in Ukraine to parents of Polish origin, who moved continuously within the Russian Empire in search of work. His father took jobs in a sugar factory and in railway construction, where young Kazimir was also employed in his early teenage years. Without any particular encouragement from his family, Malevich started to draw around the age of 12. With his mind set firmly on an artistic career, Malevich attended a number of art schools in his youth, starting at the Kyiv School of Art in 1895.

In 1904, Malevich moved to Moscow to attend the Stroganov School of Art. He also took private classes from Ivan Rerberg, an eminent art instructor. Malevich continued his training in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, where such artists as Leonid Pasternak and Konstantin Korovin taught him Impressionist and Post-Impressionist techniques of painting. Malevich's early work was largely executed in a Post-Impressionist mode; however the influence of Symbolism and Art Nouveau on his early development was just as significant.

Mature Period

A shift toward decidedly more avant-garde aesthetics occurred in Malevich's work around 1907, when he became acquainted with such artists as Wassily Kandinsky , David Burliuk , and Mikhail Larionov . In 1910, Larionov invited Malevich to join his exhibition collective named the Jack of Diamonds. Malevich also held memberships in the artistic groups Donkey's Tail and Target, which focused their attention on Primitivist , Cubist , and Futurist philosophies of art. After quarreling with Larionov, Malevich took on a leading role in the association of the Futurist artists known as the Youth Union (Soyuz Molodezhi) based in Saint Petersburg,

Most of the Malevich's works from this period concentrated on scenes of provincial peasant life. From 1912 to 1913, Malevich mostly worked in a Cubo-Futurist style, combining the essential elements of Synthetic Cubism and Italian Futurism , resulting in a dynamic geometric deconstruction of figures in space. In 1913, Malevich took part in one of the most significant artistic collaborations of modern times, creating set designs for the opera Victory over the Sun . In 1915, Malevich laid down the foundations of Suprematism when he published his manifesto, From Cubism to Suprematism , abandoning figurative elements in his painting altogether and turning to pure abstraction.

The October Revolution of 1917 opened a new chapter for Malevich. In 1918, he joined the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment as an employee of its Fine Arts Department, known as IZO. The new agency was to administer museums and to oversee art education in the new Soviet Republic. Malevich also taught at the Free Art Studios (SVOMAS) in Moscow, instructing his students to abandon the bourgeois aesthetics of representation and to venture instead into the world of radical abstraction. That same year, Malevich designed the decorations for a performance of Vladimir Mayakovsky's Misteriya-Buffa, which marked the first anniversary celebration of the Communist Revolution.

In 1919, Malevich completed the manuscript of his new book O Novykh Sistemakh v Iskusstve (On New Systems in Art) in which he attempted to apply the theoretical principles of Suprematism to the new state order, encouraging the deployment of avant-garde art in service to the state and its people. Later that year, however, Malevich left the capital for the town of Vitebsk, where he was invited to join the faculty of the local art school directed by Marc Chagall , and also El Lissitzky was on the faculty and ran the printing press.

When Chagall left Vitebsk for Paris (or was effectively pushed out by the charismatic Malevich that developed a strong following), Malevich remained as the influential leader of the Vitebsk school. There he organized students into a group under the name of UNOVIS, an abbreviation, which could be translated as Affirmers of New Art. Quite particularly, the group was a collective where no individual signed a work with their own name, only with the name of the group. No longer focused on painting proper, the UNOVIS group, especially after its move to Petrograd in 1922, designed propagandistic posters, textile patterns, china, signposts and street decorations, reminiscent of the activities undertaken at the Bauhaus School in the German Weimar Republic.

Malevich continued to develop his Suprematist ideas in a series of architectural models of utopian towns called Architectona. These maquettes were composed of rectangular and cubic shapes arranged to enhance their formal qualities and aesthetic potential. Malevich was allowed to take these models to exhibitions in Poland and Germany, where they sparked critical interest from local artists and intellectuals. Malevich left several Architectona models, as well as theoretical texts, paintings, and drawings in Germany after his hasty departure for Russia. In Soviet Russia, however, a different cultural paradigm was set in motion. The artistic flourish of the 1920s was curtailed by the advent of state-sponsored Socialist Realist art, which eventually came to suppress all other artistic styles.

Late Years and Death

Malevich and his work were doomed to descend into obscurity in such belligerently conservative socio-cultural circumstances. In 1930, Malevich was arrested and questioned about his political ideologies upon his return from a trip to the West. As a precautionary measure, the artist's friends burned some of his writings. In 1932, a major state-endorsed exhibition commemorating the 15 th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution was held in Moscow and Leningrad (formerly Petrograd, and Saint Petersburg before that). Malevich was included, only now his paintings were accompanied by pejorative slogans, labeled as essentially "degenerate" and anti-Soviet. Barred from state schools and exhibition venues, in his late years the artist returned to old motifs of peasant and genre scenes, while also executing a number of portraits of friends and family. He died of cancer in Leningrad in 1935 and was buried in a coffin of his own design, with the image of the Black Square placed appropriately on its lid. Having previously been consigned to the basements of Soviet museums, it was only under Gorbachev in 1988 that Malevich's works were brought out and shown to the public. Before glastnost , there were only a few of Malevich's works available for viewing in America -- the ones available were the results of the extraordinary measures taken by New York's Museum of Modern Art's Alfred Barr , who smuggled 17 of Malevich's paintings - some of which were rolled up in his umbrella - out of Nazi Germany in 1935.

The Legacy of Kazimir Malevich

Malevich conceived of Suprematism prior to the 1917 Revolution, but its influence was already significant amongst the Russian avant-garde. Malevich's use of non-representational imagery and his interest in dynamic geometrical form in pictorial space influenced the art of Lyubov Popova , Alexander Rodchenko , and El Lissitzky . In 1922, the artist devised his three-dimensional Suprematist works, called arkhitektony , which were studies in architectural form. In Soviet Russia Socialist Realism become the only accepted style and in the country Malevich (and his abstraction ideas) was relegated to obscurity.

Fortunately, some of Malevich's ideas were exported to the West through the exhibition of these Suprematist models for Utopian towns in Poland and Germany, where the avant-garde discourse would incorporate Malevich's theoretical perspectives on abstraction. Malevich made only one trip to the West in 1927, accompanied by a number of Suprematist canvases, which were exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where they were subsequently seen by many European artists. In Warsaw, Malevich met with artists who had studied with him in Vitebsk, and whose work was heavily influenced by Malevich's monochrome works.

More broadly, Malevich's influence is evident in the work of later artists in Europe and particularly the United States whose work consists of totally abstract shapes that represent technology, universality, or spirituality - all ideas stemming from Malevich. New York's Museum of Modern Art first director Alfred Barr purchased a large collection of his works. Via these routes, Malevich paved the way for many generations of later abstract artists - especially Ad Reinhardt and the Minimalists - to free themselves from reliance upon the real world.

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Kazimir Malevich

• Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism (2003) Our Pick By Nina Gurianova, Jean-Claude Marcade, Tatyana Mikhienko, Yevgenia Petrova, Vasilii Rakitin, Kazimir Malevich, Matthew Drutt
• Kazimir Malevich and the Art of Geometry By John Milner
• Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 By John E. Bowlt
• Kazimir Malevich: The Climax of Disclosure By Rainer Crone, David Moos
• Kazimir Malevich in the State Russian Museum By Yevgenia Petrova
• The Non-Objective World: The Manifesto of Suprematism Our Pick By Kazimir Malevich
• Kazimir Malevich: Black and White By Kazimir Malevich
• Malevich IV: The Artist, Infinity, Suprematism: Unpublished Writings 1913-33 By Kazimir Malevich, Xenia Hoffman, Troels Andersen
• Kazimir Malevich: Beyond Figuration, Beyond Abstraction By Donald Goddard
• From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting by Kazimir Malevich
• Database of Paintings by Kazimir Malevich
• The Malevich Society
• Kazimir Malevich: The Man Who Liberated Painting By Frances Spalding / The Guardian / July 4, 2014
• Becoming Revolutionary: On Kazimir Malevich By Boris Groys / e-flux / September 2013
• The Prophet: Malevich's Revolution Our Pick By Peter Schjeldahl / The New Yorker / June 2, 2003
• Malevich's Search for a New Reality By Michael Brenson / The New York Times / September 17, 1990
• Art, Revolution, and Kazimir Malevich Our Pick By Hilton Kramer / The New Criterion / September 1990
• Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde at the Stedelijk Museum Our Pick
• Malevich and the American Legacy at Gagosian Gallery Our Pick
• Why This Black Square is Art: Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism Our Pick
• Black Square: Malevich and the Origin of Suprematism
• Kazimir Malevich Paintings at the "0.10" Exhibition, 1915
• Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1918
• Breaking Free of the Earth: Kazimir Malevich 1878-1935 (1990)

Similar Art

Table, Napkin, and Fruit (A Corner of the Table) (1895-1900)

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

Proun 99 (1925)

Related artists.

Related Movements & Topics

Content compiled and written by Ivan Savvine

Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

Pioneers of Paint

Kazimir Malevich: The Master of Abstract Art – A Biography

Kazimir Malevich was one of the most influential and innovative artists of the 20th century. He pioneered a revolutionary style of abstract art known as Suprematism, which focused on basic geometric shapes and pure color. Born in 1879 to Polish parents in Kiev, Ukraine, Malevich was exposed to traditional Ukrainian folk art from a young age. However, as a young artist he embraced new modernist movements like Cubism, Futurism, and Symbolism. He sought to push the boundaries of painting further into pure abstraction.

In 1915, Malevich created his most famous work – the Black Square. This simple black square on a white background was a startling break from tradition. Malevich called it the “zero degree” of painting, referring to its lack of depth or perspective. The Black Square would become an icon of the emerging abstract art movement. That same year, Malevich published his manifesto From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism, formally establishing this new direction in artistic expression.

Over his long career, Malevich continued to produce innovative abstract compositions focused on shape and color, such as White on White. His Suprematist works radically pared down painting to its most fundamental elements. Having supported the Russian Revolution early on, Malevich ran afoul of the Soviet regime in later years. Nevertheless, his pioneering art and writings left a lasting impact. Malevich is recognized today as a leading figure in modern art, opening the door for pure abstraction through his development of Suprematism. His creative vision liberated painting from the constraints of objet realism and expanded possibilities for artistic expression in the 20th century.

Introduction

Kazimir Malevich was born in 1879 in Ukraine to Polish parents. From a young age, he was exposed to the colorful folk art traditions of his Ukrainian homeland. As a budding artist, Malevich embraced new modern styles like Impressionism, Symbolism, and Art Nouveau. However, he sought to take art further into pure abstraction, reduing painting to its fundamental elements of shape, color and composition.

In 1915, Malevich painted his groundbreaking Black Square – a radical work that marked a turning point in the history of art. That same year, he announced his new artistic philosophy of Suprematism, which focused solely on abstract geometric forms and their arrangements on the canvas. Malevich continued to create innovative abstract compositions until his death in 1935. Despite periods of persecution, he left behind an enormous legacy and profoundly influenced the evolution of modern abstract art in the 20th century.

Early Life and Artistic Influences

Upbringing in ukraine.

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born on February 23, 1879 in Kiev, which was then part of the Russian Empire. His parents, Ludwika and Seweryn Malewicz, were ethnic Poles who had settled near Kiev after the Polish uprisings against Tsarist Russia. They were Roman Catholic, though his father occasionally attended Orthodox services.

As a boy, Malevich was exposed to the colorful folk art of Ukraine – the embroidered cloths, ceramics, and religious paintings that were part of traditional Ukrainian peasant culture. Some art historians believe these early experiences with bold shapes and vivid colors informed Malevich’s later embrace of abstract art.

The family moved frequently around Ukraine as his father worked in sugar factories and railway construction. As a result, Malevich absorbed the sights and experiences of Ukrainian village life. These early surroundings left a lasting impression on the young artist.

Art Studies in Kiev and Moscow

Malevich showed a talent for drawing early on and was determined to become an artist. His father died in 1904, and the inheritance allowed Malevich to move to Kiev to formally study art. He enrolled at the Kiev School of Art, where he gained foundational training in drawing and painting .

In 1904, Malevich moved to Moscow. There he studied at the Stroganov School of Art and took private lessons from artist Ivan Rerberg. Malevich continued his art education at the prestigious Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He learned Impressionist and Post-Impressionist techniques that he incorporated into his early works.

Artistic Influences

As a young painter, Malevich passed through various modern art movements at the turn of the century. He was heavily influenced for a time by Symbolism and Art Nouveau. The works of Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch, and Jan Toorop introduced him to the expressive use of color.

In 1907, Malevich met avant-garde artists Wassily Kandinsky and Mikhail Larionov. They exposed him to radical new directions in art, such as Primitivism and Cubism. Under their influence, Malevich shifted toward more abstract and brashly modern styles.

By 1912, Malevich was producing Cubo-Futurist compositions, combining the abstract forms of Cubism with the dynamism of Italian Futurism. However, he soon found even these styles too limiting for his vision of pure abstraction.

Development of Suprematism

Abstract compositions.

By 1913, Malevich had begun producing completely abstract paintings devoid of any reference to objective subject matter. His Alogcal Composition of Female Figures and Vases of Flowers (1913) features boldly colored geometric shapes floating against a white background.

In 1914, Malevich created an important work titled An Englishman in Moscow . The painting depicts a man in contemporary dress rendered in an abstract, Cubist style – flattened shapes and fractured planes. The work shows Malevich stylizing the figure and the cityscape toward abstraction.

Black Square  and Suprematist Philosophy

In 1915, Malevich made his most pivotal contribution – the painting of the Black Square on a white ground. This was the most radically abstract painting yet seen – no subject, no perspective, no depth. Just a black square against a bare white backdrop representing the ultimate reduction of painting.

Malevich called this “the zero degree of art.” The Black Square marked his break from the rest of the art world and the beginning of his new philosophy of Suprematism. For Malevich, the square represented feeling, while the white field around it represented the void.

That same year, Malevich published his manifesto, From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism , formally announcing his new art theory. In the treatise, Malevich argues for the supremacy of pure feeling and abstraction in art. He believed art should not represent the natural world, but rather exist in and of itself.

Further Explorations in Abstraction

In the years after the Black Square , Malevich continued his Suprematist explorations. He produced multiple variations of his radical new vision. Paintings like White on White (1918) took abstraction even further, reducing the composition to little more than a white square against a slightly differentiated white background.

Malevich explored different arrangements of shapes and colors – floating blocks and bars over contrasting backgrounds to create a dynamic sense of movement. Works like Red Square and Black Square (1915) and Suprematist Composition (1916) exemplified his ongoing Suprematist experimentation. While remaining devoted to abstraction, he sought new ways of arranging forms and colors to evoke feeling.

Comparison Table of Selected Paintings by Kazimir Malevich

Russian revolution and later years, revolutionary art.

In the years right after the 1917 Russian Revolution, Malevich was enthusiastically swept up in revolutionary fervor. He saw abstract art as aligned with socialist ideals of modernity and progress. From 1919-1922, Malevich accepted an important post in the People’s Commissariat for Enlightenment, working to bring avant-garde art into the new communist society.

In 1920, Malevich was appointed director of the art school in Vitebsk (now Belarus). There he established the UNOVIS collective that disseminated his Suprematist teachings. Malevich designed propaganda porcelain and textiles based on Suprematist motifs, like his iconic Red Triangle . For a time, abstract art enjoyed official approval as the new revolutionary art.

Fall From Favor

However, by the late 1920s, Communist leaders like Lenin had begun denouncing modernist abstraction as bourgeois and decadent. Socialist Realism was now the only officially approved style. Malevich’s abstract art fell out of favor with the regime.

In 1930, Malevich’s works were included in a major exhibition in Moscow but were displayed with insulting captions mocking them as degenerate. Over 150 of Malevich’s paintings were confiscated by the state and some were destroyed. In 1932, he was imprisoned briefly and interrogated about his contacts with foreigners.

The final years of Malevich’s life were marked by isolation and poverty. Suprematism was completely banned and he was no longer allowed to paint in his abstract style or even exhibit his work. Nevertheless, Malevich continued to create paintings, predominately conventional portraits and genre scenes solely for his own personal collection.

On May 15, 1935, just a few months after his 56th birthday, Malevich died of cancer. He wished to be buried under an iron cube engraved with a black square, but his gravesite remained unmarked for decades due to the official disapproval of his work. He remained in obscurity immediately after his death.

Legacy and Impact

Recognition and influence.

Although obscured in his homeland during his lifetime,Malevich’s pioneering abstract art soon garnered acclaim in the West. Retrospectives of his work in Europe brought him international recognition. Western artists were especially influenced by Malevich’s use of geometric shapes and devotion to pure abstraction.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Malevich’s reputation finally rose to prominence in Russia as well. He is now recognized as one of the most important and influential figures in modern art. No other artist in the early 20th century so radically expanded the possibilities for abstract painting.

Malevich’s Black Square in particular has become one of the most iconic images of modern art. It is viewed as an emblem of the revolutionary spirit at the dawn of abstract painting. Reproductions of the Black Square can be found hanging ironically or reverentially in galleries and homes around the world.

Enduring Influence

Malevich’s Suprematist philosophy and paintings went on to directly influence several major 20th century art movements. The De Stijl movement embraced his use of basic geometric forms and bold colors. Russian Constructivists adapted his visual language. Minimalists in the 1960s inherited Malevich’s devotion to stripped down abstraction.

Additionally, Malevich’s theoretical writings have been continually studied and debated up to the present day. He expanded critical discourse around the meaning and evolution of abstract art. His theoretical positions on the emotional qualities of form and color remain relevant.

Even into the 21st century, Malevich stands as an inspiration for generations of abstract artists. Contemporary painters and sculptors still wrestle with the questions of pure abstraction first posed in dramatic fashion by Malevich’s radical Black Square over a century ago. The impulse toward minimalism and abstraction continues to exert a strong pull on the modern artistic imagination.

Frequently Asked Questions about Kazimir Malevich

Where and when was malevich born.

Kazimir Malevich was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1879.

What artistic movements influenced Malevich’s early work?

Malevich was influenced by Impressionism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Cubism, and Futurism in his early career.

What is Suprematism?

Suprematism is an abstract art movement founded by Malevich in 1915. It focused on basic geometric shapes and dynamism through asymmetrical compositions.

What was Malevich’s most famous painting?

Malevich’s 1915 work Black Square is considered his most renowned painting. Its simple abstract composition marked a radical breakthrough.

What happened to Malevich’s reputation after the Russian Revolution?

Malevich fell out of favor as the Soviet regime denounced abstract art. Many of his works were confiscated and he was briefly imprisoned.

How did Malevich die?

Malevich died of cancer in 1935 at the age of 56. He had been banned from creating abstract art in his last years.

What was Malevich’s lasting legacy?

Malevich pioneered non-objective art and profoundly influenced the course of 20th century abstract painting through his Suprematist works and theories.

Who did Malevich influence?

Malevich directly influenced the De Stijl, Constructivist, and Minimalist art movements that emerged after his death.

Why is Black Square so significant?

Black Square exemplified pure abstraction and a break from representation. It embodied Malevich’s concept of the “zero degree” of painting.

Malevich is now recognized as one of the most significant pioneers of abstract art in the 20th century. The provocative journey of his life paralleled the dramatic evolution of modern art itself. Malevich’s artistic travels took him through the major styles of his day before propelling him beyond representation. His Suprematist vision liberated painting to exist wholly on its own autonomous terms, opening up an entire creative territory we continue to map today. More than any other artist of his generation, Malevich showed the way into pure abstraction and demonstrated the expressive power of abstract geometric forms. Both his iconic paintings and his theoretical writings aim toward the liberation of feeling through pure sensation. This is the profound and enduring achievement of Kazimir Malevich. His work will continue to inspire abstract experimentation far into the future.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Biography of Kazimir Malevich, Russian Abstract Art Pioneer

• Art History
• Architecture
• M.L.S, Library Science, Indiana University

Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist who created the movement known as Suprematism. It was a pioneering approach to abstract art dedicated to the appreciation of art through pure feeling. His painting "Black Square" is a landmark in the development of abstract art.

Fast Facts: Kazimir Malevich

• Full Name: Kazimir Severinovich Malevich
• Profession: Painter
• Style: Suprematism
• Born: February 23, 1879 in Kyiv, Russia
• Died: May 15, 1935 in Leningrad, Soviet Union
• Education: Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture
• Selected Works : "Black Square" (1915), "Supremus No. 55" (1916), "White on White" (1918)
• Notable Quote: "A painted surface is a real, living form."

Early Life and Art Education

Born in Ukraine in a family of Polish descent, Kazimir Malevich grew up near the city of Kyiv when it was part of an administrative division of the Russian empire. His family fled from what is currently the Kopyl Region of Belarus after a failed Polish uprising. Kazimir was the oldest of 14 children. His father operated a sugar mill.

As a child, Malevich enjoyed drawing and painting, but he knew nothing of the modern art trends beginning to emerge in Europe. His first formal art studies took place when he received training in drawing at the Kyiv School of Art from 1895 through 1896.

Following the death of his father, Kazimir Malevich moved to Moscow to study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. He was a student there from 1904 through 1910. He learned of impressionism and post-impressionist art from Russian painters Leonid Pasternak and Konstantin Korovin.

Avant-Garde Art Success in Moscow

In 1910, the artist Mikhail Larionov invited Malevich to be part of his exhibition group known as the Jack of Diamonds. The focus of their work was on such recent avant-garde movements as cubism and futurism. After tension between Malevich and Larionov emerged, Kazimir Malevich became a leader of the futurist group known as Youth Union, with its headquarters in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Kazimir Malevich described his style at the time as "cubo-futuristic." He combined the deconstruction of objects into shapes championed by the cubists with the honoring of modernity and movement that characterized work by the futurists. In 1912, he took part in an exhibition by the group Donkey's Tail in Moscow. Marc Chagall was another of the exhibiting artists.

As his reputation grew in Moscow, the Russian capital, Malevich collaborated with other artists on the 1913 Russian futurist opera "Victory Over the Sun." He designed the stage sets with music by Russian artist and composer Mikhail Matyushin.

The reputation of Malevich expanded into the rest of Europe with his inclusion in a Parisian exhibit in 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, Malevich contributed a series of lithographs that supported Russia's role in the war.

Suprematism

In late 1915, Malevich participated in an exhibition titled "O.10 Exhibition." He also released his manifesto, "From Cubism to Suprematism." He exhibited the painting "Black Square," a simple black square painted on a white background. Taking abstraction to an extreme logical end, Malevich said that Suprematist works would be based on "the supremacy of pure artistic feeling" instead of a depiction of recognizable objects.

Another of Malevich's key works from 1915 is known as "Red Square" because the painting is simply that, a red square. However, the artist titled it "A Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions." He saw the painting as letting go of a materialistic attachment to the world. His painting was able to move beyond those earthly ties and enter a spiritual realm.

In a 1916 brochure titled "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism," Malevich referred to his own work as "nonobjective." The term and the idea of "nonobjective creation" were soon adopted by many other avant-garde abstract artists.

Kazimir Malevich painted many works in the Suprematist style. In 1918, he presented "White on White," a white square slightly tilted over the background of another white square in a slightly different tone. Not all Suprematist paintings were as simple. Malevich frequently experimented with geometrical arrangements of lines and shapes, as in his piece "Supremus No. 55."

Malevich insisted that viewers should not analyze his work with principles of logic and reason. Instead, the "meaning" of a work of art could only be understood through pure feeling. In his "Black Square" painting, Malevich believed the square represented emotions, and the white was a sense of nothingness.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution , Malevich worked within the government of the new Soviet Republic and taught at the Free Art Studios in Moscow. He taught his students to abandon representational painting, thought to be part of bourgeois culture, and explore radical abstraction instead. In 1919, Malevich published his book "On New Systems of Art" and attempted to apply Suprematist theories to the development of government and its service to the people.

Later Career

In the 1920s, Malevich worked to develop his Suprematist ideas by creating a series of models of utopian towns. He called them Architectona. He took them to exhibitions in Germany and Poland, where other artists and intellectuals expressed interest. Before returning to Russia, Malevich left many of his pieces of writing, paintings, and drawings behind. However, the rigid cultural principles of the Soviet government endorsing Social Realism in art effectively undercut the efforts of Malevich to explore his artistic philosophies further after returning home to Russia.

During a 1927 visit to the Bauhaus in Germany, Kazimir Malevich met Wassily Kandinsky, a fellow Russian abstract art pioneer who was alienated by the post-Revolution Soviet government based in Russia. Kandinsky's career flourished when he chose to remain in Germany and later move to France instead of returning to Russia.

In 1930, Malevich was arrested upon returning to Russia from Western Europe. Friends burned some of his writings as a precaution against political persecution. In 1932, a major exhibition of art honoring the 15th anniversary of the Russian Revolution included work by Malevich but labeled it "degenerate" and against the Soviet government.

Late in his life, as a result of the official condemnation of his earlier work, Kazimir Malevich returned to painting rural scenes and portraits as he did early in his career. After he died in 1935 in Leningrad, Malevich's relatives and followers buried him in a coffin of his own design with his landmark black square depicted on the lid. Mourners at the funeral were allowed to wave banners with images of the black square.

The Soviet government refused to exhibit Malevich's paintings and recognize his contributions to Russian art until 1988, when Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union.

Much of Kazimir Malevich's legacy in the development of European and American art is due to the heroic efforts of Alfred Barr, the first director of New York's Museum of Modern Art. In 1935, Barr smuggled 17 Malevich paintings out of Nazi Germany rolled up in his umbrella. Subsequently, Barr included many Malevich paintings in the 1936 "Cubism and Abstract Art" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

The first major American Malevich retrospective took place at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 1973. In 1989, after Gorbachev released much of Malevich's previously locked up work, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum held an even more extensive retrospective.

Echoes of Malevich's influence can be seen in the later development of minimalism in abstract art. Ad Reinhardt's pioneering abstract expressionist works owe debts to Malevich's "Black Square."

• Baier, Simon. Kazimir Malevich: the World as Objectlessness . Hatje Cantz, 2014.
• Shatskikh, Alexander. Black Square: Malevich and the Origin of Suprematism . Yale University Press, 2012.
• Origins and Schools of Abstract Art
• What Is the Definition of Non-Objective Art?
• 10 Topic Ideas for Art History Papers
• 54 Famous Paintings Made by Famous Artists
• The Birth of Synthetic Cubism: Picasso's Guitars
• Russian Art: Facts and Key Movements
• Surrealism, the Amazing Art of Dreams
• Artist Spotlight: Robert Motherwell
• What Is Dada Art?
• Cubism in Art History
• Henri Matisse: His Life and Work
• Biography of Louise Bourgeois
• The Paintings of Canadian Artist Lawren Harris
• Diego Rivera: Renowned Artist Who Courted Controversy
• Artist Spotlight: Jennifer Bartlett
• The Lore: Van Gogh Sold Only One Painting During His Life

Kazimir Malevich – Pioneering Suprematist Artist and Theorist

Kazimir Malevich was a prolific Russian avant-garde artist; he was not only a painter but also a writer. He formulated new art theories that would eventually become what he is still most known for, the art style Suprematism. Maybe a minimalist at heart, Malevich paved a way for non-objective art during a period of world history in the trenches. In this article, we explore Kazimir Malevich as a man and artist in more detail.

Table of Contents

• 1.1 The Birth and Early Life of Kazimir Malevich
• 1.2.1 Malevich’s Manifesto: From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism
• 2 Artistic Characteristics of Kazimir Malevich
• 3.1 The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 (December 19, 1915, to January 17, 1916)
• 3.2 Malevich and the American Legacy (March 3 to April 30, 2011)
• 4 Kazimir Malevich Artworks
• 5.1 Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde: Featuring Selections from the Khardziev and Costakis Collections (2014) by Linda Boersma and others.
• 5.2 Kasimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World: Bauhausbücher 11 (2021) by Walter Gropius (Editor), László Moholy-Nagy (Editor), and Kazimir Malevich
• 5.3 Malewicz: Beyond Censorship (2022) by Andréi Nakov
• 6 Malevich Reigning Supreme 
• 7.1 What Was Kazimir Malevich’s Art Style?
• 7.2 Who Painted the Black Square?
• 7.3 What Did Kazimir Malevich Believe About Painting?

Artist in Context: Who Was Kazimir Malevich?

We will start by exploring Kazimir Malevich’s early life and where he was born. This will be followed by his education and artistic career, including mention of his early artistic influences and travels and how he became one of the famous Russian avant-garde artists in art history .

The Birth and Early Life of Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born in February 1879 in Kyiv, Ukraine; his name is originally spelled Kazimierz Malewicz. From Poland, his parents’ names were Ludwika and Seweryn Malewicz and there were reportedly 14 siblings comprising the family with nine that lived; Kazimir was the first-born. During Malevich’s life growing up, his family relocated on numerous occasions due to his father working, of which worked at a sugar factory at one stage.

It has also been written that Malevich started delving into the arts when he was 12 years old.

He also delved into peasant art styles because of his lifestyle on plantations compared to city life. However, although sources state he was not exposed to as much city culture or professional artists, it is clear he was exposed to some cultures growing up, which would have undoubtedly left an imprint on his imagination and artistic curiosities.

Education and Career

Malevich’s education spans numerous art schools and training. In 1895 he studied at the Kyiv School of Art, and it was around 1904, the same year his father died, that he started his studies in Moscow, where he moved to.

In Moscow, he trained in art at the Stroganov School of Art and at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, which was until around 1910. Some of the notable teachers in his life during this period included Fedor Ivanovich Rerberg.

During the 1900s, Malevich was exposed to a range of styles of art, notably Impressionism , Post-Impressionism, Art Nouveau, as well as Symbolism. He was also part of several artistic groups that explored Cubo-Futurism and Futurism as a style.

Some of the first groups Malevich joined and was invited to exhibit with were, namely, The Knave of Diamonds, also called The Jack of Diamonds, and then The Donkey’s Tail, which was started by members from the previously mentioned group who were more radical in their approaches.

One of the primary artists and founders of both groups included the Russian, Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov, who was also known as pioneering Russian abstract art.

Additionally, he also gave both groups their names. His artistic style also moved around Impressionism, Post-Impressionism , Primitivism, and Cubo-Futurism. In around 1910, the Jack of Diamonds group held their first exhibition in Moscow, Kazimir Malevich joined and displayed. In 1912, Malevich also joined the first exhibition for The Donkey’s Tail, which is also noted where his Cubo-Futurist style developed.

Malevich did not remain with Larionov’s groups and reportedly joined the more Futurist artistic group called the Youth Union, otherwise Soyuz Molodyozhi. Malevich participated in several exhibitions along with other artists like Vladimir Tatlin, who was one of the founders of the Constructivism art movement in 1915.

The same Soyuz Molodyozhi group organized the Russian opera Victory Over the Sun (1913), of which Malevich was the stage set designer. This was also where he reportedly started his famous Black Square painting (1915), which was part of a curtain for the stage. He painted it in 1915, which became one of the most important abstract art pieces in Modern art history. 

During 1914 Malevich also exhibited at the Paris Salon des Indépendants, collaborated as an illustrator for the publications by the Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov, namely Selected Poems with Postscript, 1907 – 1914 and Roar! Gauntlets, 1908 – 1914.

He also produced lithographs that were in honor of Russia during World War I.

Malevich’s Manifesto: From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism

During 1915 Malevich introduced new ideas to the world of art and the world at large; his ideas would mark him as one of the pioneering abstract artists , also termed non-representational, artists of our time, alongside other artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

Malevich’s manifesto titled From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism (1915) described a new type of art style removed from how art has been regarded, not only logically, but intuitively, it was called Suprematism. The artist started his ideas around 1913, the beginnings of which are evident in the artwork he produced for the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun , including the Black Square painting previously mentioned.

What exactly was Suprematism about? It is important to remember that throughout his artistic career his style changed from Post-Impressionistic, Cubic, Futuristic, Primitivist, to Cubo-Futuristic, all of which developed into his new ideas of abstraction and the non-objective.

Suprematism was about going back to the fundamental forms of art, beyond reality. In his manifesto, he wrote about seeing the pure in art, once the “Madonnas and Venuses in pictures disappear”. He also wrote about how he transformed himself in the “zero of form” and out of academic art .

It was the reference to “zero” that held considerable significance in Malevich’s theories. He further wrote that he destroyed the “horizon-ring that has imprisoned the artist and the forms of nature”.

He believed in going back to the absolute fundamentality of form beyond the objective world, as he described it in his publication from 1927 The Non-Objective World , and into the world of feeling. The fundamental shapes he turned to were squares and circles. The exhibition called The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 started on December 19, 1915, to January 17, 1916, in what was then Petrograd, now Saint Petersburg, at the Dobychina Art Bureau.

This marked the beginning of the Suprematism art movement and displayed reportedly 39 Malevich art pieces, and overall, there were apparently 155 artworks from other artists. The significance of the “0,10” lies in the zero, which referred to a new world, so to say, however, various sources state that the meaning of this is still unclear.

Pronounced as “zero-ten”, the ten could further denote Malevich’s belief in how “0” was beyond reality, referring to his writing about it and the “zero of form”, and so form goes beyond reality.

Additionally, many believe the “10” was included to denote the number of artists who were part of the exhibition, however, apparently there were 14 artists. Nevertheless, this exhibition and its name went together with the nature of the new Suprematism movement; this marked a turning point in Malevich’s artistic career.

There was also a journal titled Supremus , although the first edition was not published and the journal was not entirely successful, which was also partly due to the revolution in Russia and World War I. The word Suprematism originates from the word “superior”, which is rooted in the Latin supremus , meaning “highest” or “supreme”.

It was Malevich’s wish and belief through his endeavors that Suprematism would become the supreme form of art, so to say. He is often quoted as writing about explaining that it is the “supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts”.

Artistic Characteristics of Kazimir Malevich

If we look at the artistic characteristics of Kazimir Malevich’s art, we will look directly at the characteristics of his art movement called Suprematism, mentioned above. The primary characteristics comprising the Malevich paintings are fundamental geometric shapes like squares and circles in basic colors, and usually on a white background.

However, Malevich as an artist did not start with the level of abstraction in his art that we have come to expect from him. We will notice in his earlier paintings that his style ranged from Impressionist, Fauvist, Symbolist, as well as Cubist.

We could also say that Malevich’s art could be divided into his earlier figurative art that developed into a non-objective art style. 

In his early works like Landscape with a Yellow House (Winter Landscape) (1906), there is the influence from Impressionism because of the areas of color denoting the composition, as well as giving the impression, so to say, of the Yellow House and its surroundings. His style consists of thick brushstrokes with brighter with bolder areas of color. It is more expressive in a way that is so different from his later artworks. 

Another example from the earlier Malevich art collection is the Symbolist The Triumph of Heaven (1907), which depicts a religious scene composed of three groups of figures with halos over their heads and a large figure presiding over them with outstretched arms at the top of the painting.

The three groups of figures are standing with their hands by their chests in a prayer position. There are two groups on each side standing in clouds, while the group in the center stands on a grassy hill. The large overhead figure could possibly be symbolizing God, he too, is immersed in white balls of clouds.

This composition is reminiscent of icon paintings we would find from a Byzantine or Early Renaissance. Religious themes were important to Malevich and how he reportedly painted with the idea of peasant art in mind, which was a large part of his early life, including Eastern European folklore art.

Malevich explored the Cubism and Futurism art styles, which we will see in numerous of his paintings. The geometric motifs and stylization became dominant artistic characteristics, which he would continue to refine to simplicity in his Suprematism style.

Some Cubo-Futurist artworks include Woman at the Tram Stop (1913) and An Englishman in Moscow (1914). Both depict what is termed a deconstruction of the pictorial space. Although we can still understand certain motifs, which are figurative in nature, it hinges on abstract as the meaning of the figurations is also lost and simultaneously reconstructed.

The title of the painting tells us there is supposed to be a woman, however, we are not able to deduce the figure of a woman. We can notice images that appear like a calendar, photos of a bottle and a man, and many other different objects and shapes that could suggest the woman’s essence, but not the woman herself.

Malevich leaves it open-ended for the viewer.

Similarly, in An Englishman in Moscow Malevich placed various motifs to make a whole composition, ranging from the figurative with what appears to be a half image of a man, a church or mosque, a candle, a fish, a ladder, a pair of scissors, a spoon, and various letters in and numbers placed throughout the composition in what appears to be the Cyrillic script.

In another example, Reservist of the First Division (1914), Malevich utilizes not only oil paints, but real objects like a thermometer, postage stamps, and more. The artist created a collage of different motifs to convey the message of the composition on a more emotional level, beyond the “rational”. This also refers to the style, or technique, called zaum that Malevich adopted from the Futurist artists of Russia, he also reportedly termed it “zaum realism” along with other paintings.

Bordering on non-representational, Malevich’s paintings The Woodcutter (1912) and Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement (1912-1913) depict that characteristic deconstruction of the figurative, while still being able to discern the figure presented.

Both above-mentioned paintings also depict the characteristic geometric shapes that Malevich utilized to convey the subject matter. We see in The Woodcutter , the male figure, a peasant, holds an ax in both hands, however, he is shaped by what are “cylindrical” and “conical” forms, reminiscent of the Cubism art style.

This painting has been described as having stylistic elements from Post-Impressionism, Cubism, as well as Symbolism regarding the theme of peasantry and folklore. This is an intersection of different characteristics, which we will also find in Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement , although this composition appears more abstracted with a neutral color scheme. We can barely identify the woman here, however, there is evidence of her and the pails on both sides of her body. Again, Malevich introduces the geometric forms that are conical and cylindrical.

Malevich was believed to be inspired by the work of French Joseph Fernand Henri Léger as well as the stylistic theories from Paul Cézanne, both of which explored figuration through geometric shapes.

Malevich’s artistic characteristics started taking a turn into the non-figurative and wholly non-objective style. Examples include his Supremus No. 56 (1915-1916), Airplane Flying (1915), Black Square (1915), and a red square painting titled Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions (Red Square) (1915), among others. 

All the above-mentioned paintings by Malevich depict his Suprematist style, which was a simplified refinement of geometric shapes as well as color. There is also more focus on the square, rectangular, and linear shapes, especially in his famous Black Square and the similar Red Square (1915) paintings.

His White on White (1917-1918) painting is another example of one of the artist’s primary characteristics, so to say, which is depicting a space that seemingly moves beyond the reality we all know, a “new realism” as Malevich called it. In it, we see a white square over a white background.

Malevich’s paintings changed in style during his later years, although he retained his belief in Suprematism, but ventured back into the figurative world of art, simultaneously exploring themes with peasants. We see this in examples like Two Peasant Figures (1928-1930), Sportsmen (1931), and his Self-Portrait (1933). 

Important Exhibitions

Kazimir Malevich participated in numerous exhibitions throughout his life, below we will list several significant exhibitions including post-humous exhibitions. He participated in various earlier exhibitions mentioned above, namely through the artistic groups like The Jack of Diamonds (1910) and The Donkey’s Tail (1912), among others. Other retrospective exhibitions included the seminal Cubism and Abstract Art (1936) by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

Additionally, in 1973, what was known as the first retrospective in the United States of the Malevich art collection, was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 (December 19, 1915, to January 17, 1916)

This was one of the first exhibitions that marked a turning point in Kazimir Malevich’s art career, intruding his new style called Suprematism. It was held in Petrograd, which is Saint Petersburg now in Russia, at the Dobychina Art Bureau.

There were 155 artworks on display and there were around 14 artists who participated. Reportedly there were 39 Malevich paintings. We can view the exhibition space from what has been known as a single surviving black and white photograph, depicting various paintings next to the others, spaced out on two walls. 

In the upper top corner just below the ceiling, is the Black Square painting placed not entirely flat on the wall’s surface, but bridging the gap between the two walls. All the paintings depict the characteristic geometric square, rectangular, and circular shapes in different sizes. 

Some of the artists who exhibited alongside Malevich included Vladimir Tatlin, Nathan Altman Ksenia Boguslavskaya, Vasily Kamensky, Anna Mikhailovna Kirillova, Ivan Kliun, Mikhail Menkov, Vera Pestel, Liubov Popova, Ivan Puni, Olga Rozanova, Nadezhda Udaltsova, and Maria Ivanovna Vasilieva.

Malevich and the American Legacy (March 3 to April 30, 2011)

A posthumous exhibition from 2011 was Malevich and the American Legacy, held by the Gagosian Gallery in Madison Avenue, New York. It featured six Malevich paintings alongside the artworks of several contemporary American artists . The exhibition sought to bring the Russian avant-garde in closer proximity to America, as it has always been in Russia and not easily viewed.

Furthermore, the exhibition explored many facets of Malevich’s art and how it influenced others on display like Barnett Newman, Alexander Calder, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd , Carl Andre, Agnes Martin, and others. 

From the exhibition’s description on its website, it is explained that it is “not only formal analogy that connects Malevich and American artists but also deeper aesthetic, conceptual, and spiritual correspondences. In dialogue with his work and ideas, later artists searched for elemental and universal forms consistent with simplified aesthetic aims”.

Kazimir Malevich Artworks

Below we provide a list of several of Kazimir Malevich’s paintings from his early years to his later years. This will include the title, date, dimensions, and media used for more detailed information about each painting. Many of the Malevich paintings are housed in different art museums throughout Russia and the United States at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

Book Recommendations

Below we provide a few book recommendations for further reading about Kazimir Malevich, his art theories, and his artworks. For any art enthusiast or art student, it is important to understand Malevich’s approach as he was one of the leading artists who pioneered abstract art. Furthermore, he was an important figure in the Russian avant-garde, proving essential reading for anyone researching Russian art.

Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde: Featuring Selections from the Khardziev and Costakis Collections (2014) by Linda Boersma and others.

This publication gives a thorough exploration of Kazimir Malevich’s art career and the different art styles he worked in like Impressionism, Fauvism, Symbolism, Cubism, and his later style, Suprematism. The artworks are from Nikolai Khardziev and Georges Costakis, who were prominent Russian avant-garde art collectors. Reviewers have written that this book has beautiful images of paintings, which would make it a worthwhile and versatile resource for art lovers and students. 

• Tracing the breadth of Malevich's career through his various artworks
• All phases of the artist's development are represented here
• Contextualized alongside works by Malevich's contemporaries

Kasimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World: Bauhausbücher 11 (2021) by Walter Gropius (Editor), László Moholy-Nagy (Editor), and Kazimir Malevich

This is a copy or facsimile of Kazimir Malevich’s publication, also titled The Non-Objective World (1927), which he wrote when he started his new art style Suprematism. He wrote this after his first Manifesto in 1915. This was published by Lars Müller Publishers and their Bauhausbücher series. Malevich’s art style inspired the Bauhaus school of design, which provides the intersection of the two styles. Reviewers wrote that this book is worth buying and worth the read.

• A copy of the Bauhaus edition of Malevich's treatise on Suprematism
• Translated into English with the original design and typography
• The follow-up to Malevich's original Suprematist manifesto

Malewicz: Beyond Censorship (2022) by Andréi Nakov

This book is written about Kazimir Malevich and his life, especially his earlier life and factors like his Polish history and interests in Russian religious art, as well as who he was an artist and leader of the Suprematism art theory and style. The author Andréi Nakov is an art historian and has written numerous other books and papers about Malevich and Russian avant-garde art in general.

• A scholar of the Russian avant-garde evaluates its most iconic artist
• Critical study of the foundational myths about the artist's background
• An interrogation of anti-Modernist visual and cultural prejudices

Malevich Reigning Supreme 

Kazimir Malevich was an artist during tumultuous times in the world’s history, not only did he live through the First World War, but also the Russian Revolution from 1917 until 1923. As a result of the strict political upheavals, Socialist Realism became the dominant mode of artistic expression.

With this, Malevich fought for his own self-expression, which was radically threatened by thwarting regimes. This also put a stopper to his seemingly overflowing non-objective art creativity. He was called anti-Soviet and barred from exhibiting his works or creating them. His artistic style somewhat changed to more acceptable subject matter during his later years.

Nonetheless, his artwork did make it to other parts of Europe and the United States, which opened the doors for other artists especially art styles like Minimalism to find their own modes of self-expression. Kazimir Malevich has continued to influence pop culture, from novels to films, even to the Winter Olympics in 2014, which was held in the Russian city of Sochi. He was and still is a notable figure in the art world, but more so, a godfather of the abstract, that which goes beyond form, into other dimensions and spaces where a “new realism” presides.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was kazimir malevich’s art style.

Kazimir Malevich painted in different art styles, starting with influences from Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Futurism, which led to his style being primarily Cubo-Futuristic. He then developed his art theory and style named Suprematism, which became one of his most famous art styles and characterized him as an artist, as well as his art. 

Who Painted the Black Square ?

The Russian artist Kazimir Malevich painted the Black Square in 1915. This was the start of his art style called Suprematism, which also included similar geometric paintings like Red Square (1915) and White on White (1918).

What Did Kazimir Malevich Believe About Painting?

Kazimir Malevich sought to portray art devoid of subjectivity, he was a pioneer of non-objective art; a forefather of abstract art. Through his art theory and style called Suprematism, he believed in creating a so-called new realism through pure artistic feeling.  His artworks were characterized by geometric shapes like squares.

Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.

Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20 th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.

Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team .

Cite this Article

Isabella, Meyer, “Kazimir Malevich – Pioneering Suprematist Artist and Theorist.” Art in Context. March 10, 2022. URL: https://artincontext.org/kazimir-malevich/

Meyer, I. (2022, 10 March). Kazimir Malevich – Pioneering Suprematist Artist and Theorist. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/kazimir-malevich/

Meyer, Isabella. “Kazimir Malevich – Pioneering Suprematist Artist and Theorist.” Art in Context , March 10, 2022. https://artincontext.org/kazimir-malevich/ .

Similar Posts

Yayoi Kusama – Japan’s Troubled Polka Dot Genius

Joan Miró – Exploring the Life and Art of This Barcelona Surrealist

Famous French Painters and Their 15 Most Popular Paintings

Famous Contemporary Artists – The Most Famous Artists of Today

Katsushika Hokusai – The Life and Works of This Famous Japanese Artist

Maliheh Afnan – Influential Maliheh Afnan Artworks

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

The Most Famous Artists and Artworks

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors…in all of history! 

MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS AND ARTWORKS

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors!

Kasimir Malevich

• Painterly Realism of a Football Player—Color Masses in the 4th Dimension, Summer/fall 1915 Kasimir Malevich
• From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism (Ot kubizma i futurizma k suprematizmu), 1916 Kasimir Malevich
• A Game in Hell: A Poem (Igra v adu: Poema), 1914 Kasimir Malevich
• The Word As Such (Slovo kak takovoe), 1913 Kasimir Malevich
• Black Square, Second State, 1915/20 Kasimir Malevich
• Into Wagons of the French, German Corpses Were Tightly Wrenched; Their English Brothers Carried Kegs Stuffed with Germans Who Lost Their Legs, c. 1914 Kasimir Malevich
• Threesome (Troe), 1913 Kasimir Malevich
• Let’s Grumble (Vozropshchem), 1913 Kasimir Malevich
• A pork-butcher came around to Lodz and we said “Good day.” From Lodz to neighboring Radom he passed, and left behind one sorry ass. (Podoshel kolbasnik k Lodzi / my skazali : ‘Pan dobrodzi!’ Nu, a s Lodz’iu riadom Radom / i ushel s podbitym zadom.), c. 1914 Kasimir Malevich
• Roar!: Gauntlets of 1908-1914 (Riav!: Perchatki 1908-1914), 1914 Kasimir Malevich
• Explodity (Vzorval’), 1913 Kasimir Malevich

Related Content

• Exhibition Closed Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test Oct 27, 2017 – Jan 15, 2018

Explore Further

Related artworks.

• Charity Concert, 1916 Abel Pann
• Worldbackwards (Mirskontsa), 1912 Natalia Goncharova
• Costume Design for Electra, for Helen of Sparta, n.d. Léon Bakst
• Costume Design for Woman with a Lorgnette, for Ballet Boutique Fantastique, 1918 Léon Bakst
• Costume Design for Woman in a Black Coat, for Ballet Boutique Fantasque, 1917 Léon Bakst
• Set Design for the Boutique, 1918/24 Léon Bakst
• Costume Design for Young Woman in Red Bonnet, for Ballet Boutique Fantasque, 1917 Léon Bakst
• The Dove, n.d. Alexandre Alexeieff
• War Bonds, 1916 A. O. Wakcunid
• War 5 1/2% Loan, 1914/17 Yankovsky
• The Battle, n.d. Nikolai Roerich
• Young Girl Asleep, n.d. Raphael-Schwartz
• The Horse of Death, 1914 Natalia Goncharova

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

• News and Exhibitions Career Opportunities Families
• Public Programs K-12 Educator Resources Teen Opportunities Research, Publishing, and Conservation

Gallery actions

Image actions, suggested terms.

• Free Admission
• What to See in an Hour

Kazimir Malevich Biography

• Kazimir Malevich

* As an Amazon Associate, and partner with Google Adsense and Ezoic, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A ground breaking artist and art theorist who took ideas from his age and developed and refined them through his own work, Kazimir Malevich was a leading figure in the Suprematist abstract art movement.

Born in 1878 to a Polish Catholic family, Malevich lived through, and at times suffered, the turbulence of Russian politics prior to his death in 1935. Much is made of Malevich's humble beginnings, and rightly so. His story is one of natural talent and unique insight raising the individual above their circumstances. Malevich's parents were Polish and essentially refugees, having fled Poland after the failed January Uprising against the Tsarist army in 1863. At the time of his birth they were living in Kiev, however his father worked among the sugar factories and at times in railway construction. As a result the family moved around the Ukraine, sometimes living in the middle of sugar-beet plantations.

Kazimir was the oldest of fourteen children, although only nine of his siblings survived to adulthood. In his early life he had little or no contact with art- he himself was also employed in railway construction for a time. Yet aged 12 and with no noticeable encouragement he began to draw and had decided that he would be an artist. In truth there was art around him during his childhood, as society at large is full of art in different styles and forms. Malevich was interested in peasant embroidery and could paint in a peasant style, he enjoyed wall paintings and painted stoves- the things around him that were art. His circumstances were humble and an unlikely start for an artist, but his own passion and enthusiasm were the driving force in achieving his ambitions.

Family Life

Kazimir's father died in 1902. Although he had previously studied art in Kiev, the inheritance he received made it possible for he and his family to move to Moscow to further his art studies. Information about Malevich's personal life is patchy at best. He was married three times. From 1899-1909 he was married to Kazimira Zgleits whom left him. From 1909-1923 (when she died after contracting tuberculosis) he was married to Sofia Rafalovich and from 1927 until his death in 1935 Natalia Manchenko was his wife. In total 5 children are attributed to him: Georgy (1901), Anatoly (1902), Galina (1905) Una (1920) and Ivanna (unknown). Sadly only Galina and Una survived to adulthood; Una having worked to restore his reputation after his death.

Malevich in Moscow

The move to Moscow allowed Kazimir to study art at the Stroganov School of Art and to take private lessons from Ivan Rerburg. He next went on to train at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he was taught in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist techniques. These played a significant part in his early work, until the Symbolist and Art Nouveau styles changed his direction. Malevich became acquainted with the artists Wassily Kandinsky and Mikhail Larionov from 1907, hailing a change in his style towards the avant-garde from this time onwards. In 1910 he was invited to join the Jack of Diamonds (an exhibition collective) by Larionov. In addition he was also a member of the Donkey's Tail and Target artistic groups.

In essence Malevich was showing his interest in abstract ways of expressing himself. Primitivist, Cubist and Futurist art theories were brought into focus by these alliances. Malevich fell out with Larionov, leaving the Jack of Diamonds and instead became a key figure in the Futurist artist group called Youth Union or Soyuz Molodezhi. Between 1912-1913 most of his work was Cubo-Futurist in nature, mixing the styles of Italian Futurism with Synthetic Cubism.

From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism

Ultimately Cubo-Futurism was not abstract enough to satisfy Malevich. In his 1915 essay 'From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism' he outlined his ideas of pure abstraction, paving his own way forward in art. It was also in 1915 that Malevich produced one of his best known paintings: Black Square. Today it is still an iconic work, often discussed and referred to. It is exactly what it says it is, a black square with a white background painted on top, but it is also much more than that.

The black square has depths of brush strokes, fingerprints and colour that are visible to the viewer. In addition Malevich saw the black square as a representation of something- of feeling- whilst the white background was nothingness. The idea behind this (and other Suprematist works) is to remove form from the work in order to remove logic and reason. This freed the viewer to be able to concentrate on pure feelings instead, and to formulate this into absolute truth. The Black Square, and by association Malevich, mark a turning point in twentieth century art. It has been referred to as a zero point in painting, both for the ideas of pure abstraction that it represented and because of its impact on art.

The October Revolution

Malevich was a supporter of the revolution, and the era immediately after the revolution was one of new opportunity and possibility for him. He took up teaching posts at the Free Arts Studio in Moscow, the Kiev State Art Institute, the Leningrad Academy of Arts, the Vibetsk Practical Art School in Belarus and was a member of the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment. He continued to encourage his students to abandon the painting of form in order to explore pure abstraction. He also tried to relate his ideas of Suprematism to the new state order through his book O Novykh Sistemakh v Iskusstve (On New Systems in Art).

Interestingly Malevich was not blind to the volatility of the times he was living through. Whilst he and the UNOVIS group that he had formed produced propaganda for the new regime, he believed that post-Lenin and Trotsky state interest in art would move away from Modernist theories, and this was proved true.

Malevich in Europe

In 1927 Malvich was given permission to travel and exhibit his works. He was given a hero's welcome in Warsaw, meeting former students and being influenced about the new art movement of Unism. He also visited Berlin and Munich where he showed a retrospective that brought him international recognition. It was because of this trip that there is so much of Malevich's work to enjoy still. Having recently been arrested and interrogated by the state he arranged to leave much of the work for his show behind in Germany, in expectation of a change in his popularity back in Russia. He was right- within a short period the tide had turned and his style was more than out of favour.

The Later Years

The Stalinist regime was not kind of Malevich. In a very short period he fell very hard. By the time of his death he was not allowed to produce or exhibit the art that had brought him to prominence or to teach his theory of art. Social Realism was Stalin's preferred art movement and everything else was superfluous. Many of his works were confiscated and destroyed and he was imprisoned and interrogated again. His works were included in a state-funded exhibition, but were labelled with slogans that suggested his work was degenerate and anti-Soviet.

Malevich continued to paint, but his work reflected the changing times. Instead of the abstraction he had espoused he now produced works of peasants and genre scenes, whilst also producing portraits of family and friends. Kazimir Malevich died of cancer in 1935, obscure and overlooked. His ashes were buried, according to his wishes, at his home at Nemchinovka. He had requested to have an architekton to mark his grave, but this was not permitted. Instead it was marked by a white cube with a black square until this was destroyed during the Second World War.

The humility of his passing has long been eclipsed by the influence that his work has extended over the art world. There have been major exhibitions in recent years, including one at the Tate Modern in 2015 to celebrate the centenary of the Black Square. His revolutionary work continues to influence artists today.

Article Author

Tom Gurney in an art history expert. He received a BSc (Hons) degree from Salford University, UK, and has also studied famous artists and art movements for over 20 years. Tom has also published a number of books related to art history and continues to contribute to a number of different art websites. You can read more on Tom Gurney here.

Kazimir Malevich

Products and publications

Art Lesson Exhibition Catalogue

30.00 € 28.51 €

"Masterworks from Budapest" exhibition catalogue (Spanish, Paperback)

34.00 € 15.50 €

The Impressionists and Photography. Exhibition catalogue. English Hard Cover

38.00 € 36.10 €

Who are they?

Who is Kazimir Malevich?

Meet Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), an artist whose radical artwork tells one of the most important stories in modern art

Kazimir Malevich Self Portrait 1908-1910 © State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Kazimir Malevich started his life as an artist painting landscapes, farming and religious scenes. He lived during the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

Kazimir Malevich Harvesting Study for a painting , 1928-1929 © State Russian Museum St Petersburg

He invented a style of art called suprematism, a visual language of simple shapes and colours. He used squares, circles and rectangles and only used a few colours to make his artwork. Suprematism was about seeing and feeling art in a new way. Just because he used a few colours and shapes, it doesn't mean his art is impersonal or cold. The trace of the artist's brush strokes are visible in the paint and the slight changes of colour on the canvas.

Kazimir Malevich Dynamic Suprematism (1915 or 1916) Tate

Don't you think that the shapes above look like they are floating or falling? Why do you think he did this?

Kazimir Malevich Black Square 1913 © State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

His most famous piece was Black Square 1915. By reducing painting to a simple shape and a single colour, Malevich removed all the things art had always been about (such as animals, people, food and landscapes). That was why it was so radical at the time! Black Square became one of the most important works of modern art. It was so special that the painting was revealed to the world after months of secrecy and was hidden again for almost 50 years!

Kazimir Malevich Suprematism 1915 © State Russian Museum, St Petersburg

Malevich's colourful abstract art still inspires and puzzles people today. What do you think? What do you feel when you look at Black Square ? Why not make your own Malevich-inspired artwork using the Tate Kids painting games ?

More to explore

Who is Frank Stella?

Make a Collage

Have Fun with Textures

Show us your art.

VOX — Centre de l’image contemporaine

Kazimir malevich.

Kazimir Malevich was a key figure of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde and, as the inventor of Suprematist painting, one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. He reappeared fifty years after his death with The Last Futurist Exhibition , a show that opened in 1985 in a Belgrade apartment. The following year, the same exhibition took place in the Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Art in America published “A Letter from Kazimir Malevich”, a document sent from Belgrade in September 1986. Since then, works of Kazimir Malevich (Belgrade), all dated 1985, have been seen in “Art Histories” at VOX as well as :

– Anfang Gut. Alles Gut. , Basso, Berlin & Kunsthaus, Bregenz (Austria), 2011 – Kontakt Sofia , Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria), 2011 – Kontact Collection , Audian Gallery, Vancouver, 2011 – Museum of Parallel Narratives, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona – MACBA, Barcelona (Spain), 2011 – Seconde Main , Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2010 – Autobiography , Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, 2009 / Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2008 – What is Modern Art?, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2006 – Kontakt , Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien – MUMOK, Vienna (Austria), 2006 – East Art Map , KEOM, Hagen (Germany), 2005 – Conquering New Spaces, The Kosovo Art Gallery, Prishtina (Kosovo), 2005 – International Exhibition of Modern Art , Kunsthaus, Dresden (Germany), 2003 / Venice Biennial, 2003 – Fiction Reconstructed , Műcsarnok, Budapest (Hungary), 2002 / Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (Serbia), 2001 / Moderna Galerija, Celje (Slovenia), 2001 / Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2000 – Collection 2000+ , Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2000 – _The New Museum Benefit Sho_w, New York, 1994 – Kontext-Kunst , Neue Galerie, Graz (Austria), 1993 – Recent Portraits , Hereford Salon, London, 1992 – Trigon , Neue Galerie, Graz (Austria), 1991 / 1987 – International Exhibition of Modern Art , Gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (Serbia), 1986 / Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 1986

Finally, works by Kazimir Malevich (Belgrade) were also exhibited on numerous occasions as an integral part of the Retroavangarda installations of the IRWIN group.

Related Content

Art Histories

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Europe Celebrates Kazimir Malevich, a Pioneer in Abstract Art

By Kevin Holden Platt

• May 25, 2016

One hundred years after the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich shook up the art world with the first exhibition of his Suprematist paintings, museums across Europe, from Austria to France to Spain, are celebrating his legacy with a series of exhibitions.

In his works, Malevich depicted planes of color speeding across an expanding cosmos, seeking to render moments of what he called “supreme” worlds floating through time and space. His use of purely abstract forms broke with centuries of artistic tradition. Malevich introduced his vision to the world in the winter of 1915-16 with a show in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) called “The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10.”

“The ‘Zero-Ten’ show is one of the most important exhibitions in the history of Modernism,” said Matthew Drutt, who last winter recreated it for the Fondation Beyeler museum in Switzerland. As the great powers sought to destroy each other in World War I with fearsome new weapons like tanks, poison gas and armed airplanes, Malevich was envisioning a postwar utopia visible only in the new world of abstract art, Mr. Drutt said.

The Swiss show also traced the arc of Malevich’s influence on generations of artists, including Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko and the installation designer Olafur Eliasson .

Other museums featuring Malevich works this year include the Albertina in Vienna (through June 26) and a new satellite of the State Russian Museum in Málaga, Spain (through July 31). This fall, Malevich and other Russian avant-garde artists will be an important part of “Icons of Modern Art,” an exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris that will display the collection of Sergei Shchukin, a Russian textile merchant who opened the first private galleries for modern art in Moscow in the twilight of czarist rule.

That Malevich’s provocative works survived the turbulent world in which they were created is something of an art-world miracle. It is a story of how art can become entangled in political movements, and the difficulty, decades later, of determining who has a legitimate claim to that art.

In 1927 Malevich, who had been well received in Germany, brought more than 100 of his abstract masterpieces to the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. While there, he received a letter from his wife warning that Stalin was escalating attacks on experimental artists, and pleading that he defect in Berlin.

Instead, Malevich decided to save his paintings by leaving them in Berlin and risked his life by returning to the Soviet Union to try to get his family out.

Branded a counterrevolutionary, Malevich was jailed and barred from leaving the Soviet Union. He died in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) in 1935.

Malevich’s descendants were themselves the target of the Soviet leadership. They remained behind the Iron Curtain until the collapse of the Soviet government in 1991 freed them to begin searching for the paintings Malevich had hidden in Berlin.

Before leaving Germany, Malevich appointed two friends — Alexander Dorner, a museum director in Hanover, and Hugo Häring, an architect — to safeguard his artworks.

Dorner displayed the paintings until pressure from the Nazi Party impelled him to hide the art. He risked imprisonment by showing them in 1935 to Alfred H. Barr Jr., founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, according to Clemens Toussaint , a German art historian and expert on Malevich who has been helping the artist’s descendants trace and stake a claim to some of his works.

Persuaded by Barr to lend 16 works to MoMA, Dorner smuggled them out of Germany in shipping crates filled with technical drawings. When the Nazis expelled Dorner from his museum post, Barr then helped Dorner escape from Germany, Mr. Toussaint said.

Dorner entrusted the remaining canvases to Häring for safekeeping.

After the war, Häring agreed to lend 80 works to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, which promised to restore and exhibit them. The museum said later — in testimony in an American lawsuit — that Häring had agreed to sell it the works.

In 1999, the Museum of Modern Art agreed to return one of the works to the Malevich descendants, in a settlement brokered by Mr. Toussaint. He said that parallel efforts to recover paintings from the Stedelijk were unsuccessful.

Then, the Stedelijk sent 14 Malevich paintings to the United States for a show at the Guggenheim in 2003 organized by Mr. Drutt. Just before the paintings were to be sent back to the Netherlands, some of Malevich’s descendants filed suit in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia to recover them.

Howard Spiegler, a lawyer who represented the descendants in the case, Malewicz vs. City of Amsterdam, said that heads of state and even government-owned museums like the Stedelijk had traditionally been protected from such lawsuits by the doctrine of sovereign immunity, but that American court rulings had whittled away at that shield.

In its decision in the case , the court ruled that the exhibition in the United States of artworks taken in violation of international law could open the foreign lending museum to a lawsuit. In rejecting the Stedelijk’s claim of immunity, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer found that there was nothing sovereign about Amsterdam’s acquisition of the Malevich paintings “other than that it was performed by a sovereign entity.”

Evgeny Bykov, a great-grandson of Malevich, said that the decision “gave us hope that in our case justice would be met and that in the future it will help other families who are struggling for restitution of masterpieces that once belonged to them.”

While preparing to appeal the district court’s decision — but facing the prospect of losing all 14 paintings it had sent to the United States — the Stedelijk agreed in a settlement to return five artworks to the Malevich family.

Museum directors across America have been pressing Congress to enact legislation that would counter the Malevich ruling, arguing that exposing their foreign counterparts to suits by dispossessed owners could halt cultural exchanges.

The Senate is reviewing a bill that could again block access to the courts by those who seek restitution for what they say are illegally confiscated artworks, including works taken during the Cuban revolution, said Mari-Claudia Jiménez, an expert in art law in New York. Similar legislation was proposed in 2012 and met resistance from Jewish groups and others who believed an exemption for Nazi-era art was too narrowly drawn.

Mr. Toussaint said that while Malevich’s descendants continue their search for canvases, they have recovered eight paintings of the 100 left in Berlin, with one auctioned for $60 million.

“For the avant-garde art movement, Kazimir Malevich is a guru,” Mr. Toussaint said. “His works disappeared into the dictatorships but later re-emerged — like a phoenix — in a very mystical way.”

Showcasing these masterpieces in Paris will fulfill one of the artist’s most powerful dreams, he said: Malevich was planning to spirit his family and canvases off to a new life in Paris just before being detained in one of Stalin’s political prisons.

Arts and Culture Across Europe

When activists urged Tate Britain in London to take an offensive artwork off its walls, the institution commissioned Keith Piper  to create a response instead. The result recently went on display.

The new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam has been in the works for almost 20 years. It is the first institution to tell the full story  of the persecution of Dutch Jews during World War II.

At a retrospective of John Singer Sargent’s portraits in London, where the American expatriate fled after creating a scandal in Paris, clothes offer both armor and self-expression .

The street artist Frank “Frankey” de Ruwe has been delighting Amsterdam with his whimsical, witty pieces .

A major Yoko Ono retrospective at Tate Modern in London instructs visitors to draw their own shadows , shake hands through a canvas and imagine paintings in their heads.

The British Museum recovered hundreds of engraved gems and other items of jewelry that museum officials say a former curator stole. Now the institution is putting some on show .

Link to this page

HTML CODE (for blogs):

BBCODE (for forums):

Link To This Page | Upload Missing Images

• The Complete Works

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich The Complete Works

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich Biography In Details

Life and work

Kasimir Severinovich Malevich was born near Kiev, Kiev Governorate of Russian Empire. His parents, Seweryn and Ludwika Malewicz, were ethnic Poles, and he was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church. 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.

In 1904, after the death of his father, he moved to Moscow. 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). In 1911 he participated in the second exhibition of the grop 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. 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 and Mikhail Larionov, Russian avant-garde painters who were particularly interested in Russian folk art called lubok. 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 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. 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 together with Alexander Archipenko, Sonia Delaunay, Aleksandra Ekster and Vadim Meller, among others.

The great mysteries

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. 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. In 1916-1917 he participated in exhibitions of the Jack of Diamonds group in Moscow together with Nathan Altman, David Burliuk and A. 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. 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..." (Excerpted from Ms. Bekman Chadaga's paper delivered at Columbia University's 2000 symposium, Technology, and Modernity in Russia and Eastern Europe').

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 1918-1919). 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 Munchen 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 Soviet authorities towards the modernist art movement would take place after the death of Lenin and Trotsky's fall from power, were proven correct in a couple of years, when the Stalinist regime turned against formes of abstractism, considering them a type of "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.

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. 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 died of cancer in Leningrad on May 15, 1935. On his deathbed he was exhibited with the black square above him. His ashes were sent to Nemchinovka, and buried in a field near his dacha. A white cube decorated with a black square was placed on his tomb. The city on Leningrad bestowed a pension on Malevich's mother and daughter. "No phenomenon is mortal," Malevich wrote in an unpublished manuscript, "and this means not only the body but the idea as well, a symbol that one is eternally reincarnated in another form which actually exists in the conscious and unconscious person." (From Wikipedia)

Report an error on this page

For exclusive news and discounts

Copyright © 2002-2017 kazimir-malevich.org

Report error on this page

This website is licensed under a Creative Commons License

This website is licensed under a Creative Commons License Copyright © 2002-2017 kazimir-malevich.org

• All artworks
• Marketplace
• PRO atrworks
• Digital copies
• Debut works
• My artworks
• Sell an artwork
• All artists
• PRO artists
• Modern artists
• Old masters
• Order an artwork
• Arthive for artists
• Add an artist
• All museums and galleries
• All museums
• All galleries
• Arthive for galleries
• My museums and galleries
• All exibitions
• My exhibitions
• Add museum/gallery
• Add an exhibition
• Encyclopedia
• My publications
• Add a publication
• All products and prices
• Websites for Artists
• Websites for Galleries
• PRO account
• Mobile apps
• Collections
• Reference book
• To galleries
• To collectors
• To art lovers
• About the project
• Frequently asked questions
• Add artwork

Welcome to the brand new Arthive! Discover a full list of new features here .

Kazimir Malevich

Works by kazimir malevich at sotheby's.

Kazimir Malevich Biography

Most widely known as the founder of Suprematism – an artistic and philosophical mode that believes Art should transcend subject matter – Kazimir Malevich’s writing and painting transformed the art historical canon of the 20th century, and formed the basis for abstract art. Malevich was born in Ukraine in 1879 to Polish parents, and the family moved frequently in search of employment. Because of the family’s multiple relocations, he studied at a number of schools before moving to Moscow in 1904, where he began formal training at the Stroganov School of Applied Arts. Throughout his studies, Malevich was exposed to a wide array of movements and styles, including Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau.

It was Malevich’s introduction to Expressionism and abstraction, namely through the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Mikhail Larionov, that caused his decided stylistic shift. He began reading literature on, and incorporating elements of, Cubism, Futurism and Primitivism. Works from this period of his career largely centered on everyday life, specifically scenes of peasantry. He also began experimenting with abstraction, culminating in his seminal work The Black Square of 1915, (which the New Yorker recently referred to as “the most famous, most enigmatic, and most frightening painting known to man.”).

His philosophically inspired artistic inquiries effectively peaked with the October Revolution in 1917 — of which he joined the People’s Commissariat for Enlightenment, working in the Department of Fine Arts. Over the next few years, Malevich would write his seminal text, O Novykh Sistemakh v Iskusstve (On New Systems in Art), which would mark the advent of Suprematism.

Although Malevich continued to work and teach his theories on art, including teaching alongside Marc Chagall in Vitebsk, Russia, the cultural state of Soviet Russia and the rise of government endorsed Social Realism relegated him to obscurity late in his career. The artistic repression he suffered under the new Russian regime culminated in the inclusion of his work in the 1932 state-sponsored exhibition of “degenerate art.” During his last years, he returned to genre painting, as he was banned from teaching or exhibiting within Russia. He died in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) in 1935.

Despite the disappointing reception of his work in Russia during the later part of his life, his paintings nonetheless have inspired subsequent generations of artists—from fellow Russians such as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko to Minimalists later on.

More from Sotheby's

Museums with works by kazimir malevich, related artists.