Artbidy.com
×

Kazimir Malevich is widely regarded as the founder of suprematism. He wanted to radically separate himself from art representing reality. This painter created the famous painting "Black Square", painted in 1914-1915. Interestingly, he placed it in the corner of the exhibition hall, which caused an outcry. We will try to answer the question of why in the following article. 

Malevich and suprematism

Nowadays, there are disputes about Malevich's origins. On the website of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kazimir Malevich is classified as a "Polish-Ukrainian-Russian avant-garde artist". It is certain that he was born in Kyiv in 1879. There in the years 1895-1896 he studied drawing, in the years 1905-1910 he trained to be a painter in Moscow. In 1915 in Petrograd he announced a programme of suprematism, an abstract art movement.

Suprematist compositions consisted of elementary geometric elements (square, rectangle, circle, straight line and cross). Using the simplest forms, Malevich wanted to evoke deep feelings in viewers and arouse spirituality in them. He believed that the square could become a symbol of man's superiority over chaos. Among his best-known works are:  ''Black Square'' (1914-1915) and ,  ''Suprematist Composition: White on White'' (1918).

''Black Square"

This painting was exhibited at ''Last Exhibition of Futurist Painting 0.10", held in December 1915 in St. Petersburg. The painter chose to place his work in the corner of the exhibition hall. Although to the average viewer who is not a member of the Orthodox Church this place may mean nothing today, in a traditional Russian, Ukrainian or Greek home it was the sacred place where an Orthodox icon of a saint would be located. 

The painting disappeared without a trace, but a photographic reproduction has survived. The painter painted it again in 1929. This version can now be admired in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Added 2022-05-28 in Terms dictionary by Alicja Graczyk

Related departments

Koszyk