Kazimir Severinovich Malevich is a Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist of Polish origin, teacher, philosopher and art theorist. He is considered the founder of one of the largest areas of abstractionism - Suprematism. He is better known to the general public as the creator of the painting "Black Square". However, his work is marked by a multitude of art works, many of which are now in the collections of the Russian Museum. These include about 100 paintings and over 40 graphics. According to experts, these exhibits most fully cover the entire spectrum of his creative activity.
The Russian Museum has become today a real haven for most of the creative heritage of Kazimir Malevich, which has not been sold to private collections. Here you can get acquainted with the works of the domestic reformer and teacher, which belong both to the early period of his work, and to the time of the artistic activity of a mature and formed avant-garde artist. Moreover, the master's brush on them can only be associated with a stretch of the world's most famous painting "Black Square".
It is noteworthy that, according to the will of Kazimir Severinovich, the cremation of his body after his death in 1935 was carried out in Leningrad in a Suprematist coffin made in the shape of a cross.
Historical background
Kazimir Malevich was born in 1879 in Kiev. From his artwork, one can very well understand the state of society at the beginning of the last century. According to the artist himself, his debut exhibitions of paintings were already held in 1898 in Kursk. And in 1905 he made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. At this time, his wife Kazimira Zgleits stayed with her children to live in Kursk, and the head of the family decided, even after failing in the exams, not to return back, but to try his luck in an art commune located in Lefortovo.
Living in a large team, consisting of 300 masters of the brush, in the house of the artist Kurdyumov for six months, Malevich tried to save on household expenses. However, after 6 months of even such a modest life, he spent all his savings and was forced to return to Kursk. And only in 1907, Casimir was able to move to Moscow for permanent residence. At this time, he began attending the classes of the famous artist Fyodor Rerberg. And in 1910, his level of skill had already allowed him to exhibit in galleries of the creative association "Jack of Diamonds", where the works of Russian avant-garde artists were presented.
Suprematist composition
The painting, painted on canvas in oil and called "Supermatic Composition", was presented to the metropolitan public for review in 1916, when the name of Malevich was already
well known in creative circles. It is interesting that in 2008 at the Sotheby's auction it was sold by the author's heirs at a price of 60 million US dollars. Until now, this canvas is the most expensive from a commercial point of view, the creation of the renowned artist.
The history of this painting also includes such a memorable event as the Berlin exhibition in 1927, where it was presented by Malevich himself. It is noteworthy that due to the impossibility of extending the visa by the Soviet side, the artist then interrupted his creative business trip and returned to his homeland. About 70 paintings had to be left in the care of the German architect Hugo Hering.
And since the owner of these canvases was no longer released abroad, after a while the responsible curator handed them over to the Amsterdam art museum on commercial terms.
Malevich's heirs subsequently did not give up their hopes of returning these paintings through legal proceedings. However, all attempts in Soviet times were unsuccessful. And only in 2002, during the exhibition of 14 works from the general collection in the United States (Guggenheim Museum), the American citizenship of the descendants of the famous artist made it possible to return some of them out of court. As a result, only 5 of the total canvases were returned to their current owners. Moreover, their agreement with a museum from the Netherlands implies the complete exclusion of further claims for ownership of the entire collection.
Black square
Malevich's work "Black Square", written in 1915, is the most famous work in the world that came out from under his brush, and is part of a thematic collection dedicated to Suprematism. Exploring compositional combinations of light and geometry, he developed this aspect into a triptych, which also included "Black Cross" and "Black Circle".
The creation of this work was timed to coincide with the Futurists' exhibition "0, 10". Moreover, the picture was placed like an icon in a village hut, in the so-called "red corner", in order to distinguish it in a special way from the entire composition presented. Until now, this work of Malevich is considered the most mystical and creepy in the entire history of painting in our country.
And the whole triptych, describing the main Suprematist forms (square, cross and circle), became a fundamental arrangement of the general system of Suprematism. Other forms of this type of avant-garde art emerge from them. Researchers of Malevich's works regularly do not give up their attempts to understand the first version of the picture. In this regard, in 2015, on the basis of fluoroscopy, it was possible to isolate 2 additional color images. Thus, at the base of the canvas, a cubo-futuristic composition was depicted, a simple suprematist composition was applied to it, and an image of a black square was superimposed on top.
In addition, the canvas bears the inscription "Battle of the Negroes in the Dark Cave", hidden under the top layer of paint. In this sense, the researchers draw an analogy with the monochrome painting by Alphonse Allais, painted in 1882, and explain the name of the exhibition itself, where the work was originally presented. They interpret the number "10" as the number of participants, and take "0" as the final outcome of all that exists in the philosophical understanding of being.
Three squares
The geometry of the square has always attracted the artist very seriously. He even managed to experiment a lot with the shape of the "Black Square", initially creating a triangle, and then changing it to a quadrangle with broken geometry of right angles. Experts consider this not as a negligence of the author, but as a way of creating the ideal proportion in the figure, which should embody dynamics and mobility.
In addition to the well-known "Black Square" Malevich also wrote "Red Square" and "White Square". Moreover, the first of these works, he also presented at the exhibition of avant-garde artists "0, 10".
Mystical Suprematism
The artistic work "Mystical Suprematism" was written in the period from 1920 to 1922. It also has another name - "Black Cross on a Red Oval". The canvas is made on canvas with oil paints.
At the Sotheby's auction, this painting was valued at $ 37,000. Its fate completely repeats the history of the "Suprematist construction". Both canvases at one time were exhibited in the exposition of the Amsterdam Museum of Art.
Suprematism. 18 construction
This picture was painted in 1915. And in 2015, for 34 million US dollars, it was sold by Malevich's heirs to a private collection at Sotheby's.
Suprematist composition
The painting was painted between 1919 and 1920. In 2000, its value at the Phillips auction was $ 17 million.
The history of this painting after 1935, when the Nazis who came to power in Germany did not favor the art of abstract art, is associated with an urgent crossing of the Atlantic. For many years, the picture adorned the exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art" in the New York Museum of Art. And in 1999, she passed to the heirs, along with several more graphic works by Malevich.
Self-portrait of the artist
Malevich painted his own portrait on canvas in 1910. In total, the artist has three self-portraits, written during this period of creativity. Two works are now on display at the Tretyakov Gallery, and the third was sold at Christie's in London in 2004 for £ 162,000.
Interestingly, at an auction at Sotheby's in 2015, this painting by a famous artist was already valued at $ 9 million.
Peasant head
The painting "The Head of a Peasant" (1911) is very indicative as an example for establishing a general trend in the development of the work of a domestic artist.
In 2014 it was sold at Sotheby's in London. Its cost then amounted to 3.5 million US dollars. And before that, the history of this canvas was associated with the exhibition "Donkey's Tail" (1912), a gallery in Berlin (1927), the ownership of Hugo Hering, his wife and daughter, as well as the sale to a private collection in 1975.
