2024-04-25
A student Instagram project called "Shadows Project" aims to raise awareness of the Ukrainian identity of artists so far considered by most to be Russians. A group of volunteers decided to fight for the identity of Kazimir Malevich, the creator of suprematism.
Although Malevich (1879-1935) spent a large part of his career in both Russia and Ukraine, he was born and raised in Ukraine, and in his autobiography, he described himself as Ukrainian. Interestingly, on the Polish Wikipedia he is classified as a Russian of Polish origin. The artist is considered to be the creator of suprematism, a direction in abstract art which assumed a complete detachment from reality. Suprematist compositions were made of elementary geometric forms (square, rectangle, circle, straight line and cross). The first and most important painting was Black Square on White Background, painted between 1914 and 1915. This painting is considered to be the first non-representational work. In the 1930s Joseph Stalin forced the painter to abandon his modernist style. Malevich died of cancer on May 15, 1935 in Leningrad.
On 11 April, volunteers posted a post on their Instagram page calling on the Museum of Modern Art in New York to recognize Malevich's Ukrainian identity. Their profile also features made-up profiles of Ukrainian authors on Tinder and mock-ups of Vogue covers featuring traditional Ukrainian costumes.
"There are people who do not believe that Ukraine is a real country with a real identity. Unfortunately, we have been proven right in the worst possible way," said the originator of the project. She believes that the promotion of Ukrainian culture and heritage can be part of a victorious war with Russia.
On the website of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kazimir Malevich is still classified as a "Polish-Ukrainian-Russian avant-garde artist".