Born into a family of immigrants from Poland, he was the eldest among nine children. In 1889-94. the family often moved from place to place; in the village of Parkhomovka near Belopolye, Malevich graduated from a five-year agronomy school. In 1895-96. studied for a short time at the Kyiv drawing school of N. I. Murashko. From 1896, after moving to Kursk, he served as a draftsman in the technical department railway In the fall of 1905 he came to Moscow, attended classes at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Stroganov School for educational purposes; lived and worked in the house-commune of the artist V.V. Kurdyumov in Lefortovo. Attended classes in the private studio of F. I. Rerberg (1905-10). Spending the summer in Kursk, Malevich worked in the open air, developing as a neo-impressionist.
Unemployed
Woman
Malevich participated in exhibitions initiated by M. F. Larionov: “Jack of Diamonds” (1910-11), “Donkey’s Tail” (1912) and “Target” (1913). In the spring of 1911 he became close to the St. Petersburg society “Youth Union”, of which he became a member in January 1913 (left in February 1914); in 1911-14 he exhibited his works at association exhibitions and participated in debate evenings.
Apple tree in bloom
Reaper on a red background
Decorative and expressionistic paintings by Malevich from the turn of the 1900s to the 1910s. testified to the assimilation of the heritage of Gauguin and the Fauves, transformed taking into account the pictorial tendencies of Russian “Cézanneism”. At the exhibitions, the artist also presented his own version of Russian neo-primitivism - paintings on themes of peasant life (canvases of the so-called first peasant cycle) and a number of works with subjects from “provincial life” (“Bather”, “On the Boulevard”, “Gardener”, all 1911, Stedelijk Museum, etc.).
Two women in the garden
Woman in a yellow hat
Since 1912, a creative collaboration began with the poets A. E. Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov. Malevich designed a number of publications by Russian futurists (A. Kruchenykh. Blown up. Drawing by K. Malevich and O. Rozanova. St. Petersburg, 1913; V. Khlebnikov, A. Kruchenykh , E. Guro. St. Petersburg, 1913; A. Khlebnikov. 2nd ed. by K. Malevich and O. St. Petersburg. Roar! Gloves. Fig. K. Malevich, St. Petersburg, 1914;
In the hayfield
Man
His painting of these years demonstrated the domestic version of futurism, called “cubo-futurism”: a cubist change in form, designed to affirm the intrinsic value and independence of painting, was combined with the principle of dynamism cultivated by futurism [“The Grinder (The Principle of Flickering)”, 1912, etc.]. Work over the scenery and costumes for the production at the end of 1913 of the futuristic opera “Victory over the Sun” (text by A. Kruchenykh, music by M. Matyushin, prologue by V. Khlebnikov) was subsequently interpreted by Malevich as the emergence of Suprematism.
Female worker
First Division Soldier
In painting at this time, the artist developed themes and plots of “abstruse realism”, which used alogism and irrationality of images as a tool for the destruction of ossified traditional art; illogical painting, expressing an abstruse, transrational reality, was built on a shocking montage of heterogeneous plastic and figurative elements that formed a composition filled with a certain meaning that shames the ordinary mind with its incomprehensibility (“Lady at a Tram Stop”, 1913; “Aviator”, “Composition with Mona Lisa”, both 1914; “An Englishman in Moscow”, 1914, etc.).
Composition with Gioconda (Partial eclipse in Moscow)
Swimmers
After the outbreak of World War I, he executed a number of propaganda patriotic popular prints with texts by V.V. Mayakovsky for the publishing house “Modern Lubok”. In the spring of 1915, the first canvases of the abstract geometric style appeared, which soon received the name “Suprematism”. Malevich gave the name “Suprematism” to the invented direction - regular geometric figures, painted in pure local colors and immersed in a kind of “white abyss” where the laws of dynamics and statics reigned. The term he coined went back to the Latin root “suprem”, which formed the word “suprematia” in the artist’s native language, Polish, which translated meant “supremacy”, “supremacy”, “dominance”. At the first stage of the existence of the new artistic system With this word, Malevich sought to fix the primacy, the dominance of color over all other components of painting.
Portrait of the artist's daughter
Runner
At the exhibition “O.10” at the end of 1915, for the first time, he showed 39 canvases under the general title “Suprematism of Painting,” including his most famous work, “Black Square (Black Square on a White Background)”; At the same exhibition, the brochure “From Cubism to Suprematism” was distributed. In the summer of 1916, Malevich was called up for military service; demobilized in 1917.
Two male figures
Carpenter
In May 1917, he was elected to the council of the professional Union of Artists and Painters in Moscow as a representative from the left federation (young faction). In August he became chairman of the Art Section of the Moscow Council of Soldiers' Deputies, where he conducted extensive cultural and educational work. In October 1917 he was elected chairman of the Jack of Diamonds society. In November 1917, the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee appointed Malevich Commissioner for the Protection of Ancient Monuments and a member of the Commission for the Protection artistic values, whose responsibility was to protect the Kremlin’s valuables.
Harvest
Peasant woman
In March-June 1918 he actively collaborated in the Moscow newspaper Anarchy, publishing about two dozen articles. Participated in the work on the decorative decoration of Moscow for the May 1st holiday. In June he was elected a member of the Moscow Art Collegium of the Art Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, where he joined the museum commission together with V. E. Tatlin and B. D. Korolev.
Pilot
Cow and violin
As a result of differences with members of the Moscow board, he moved to Petrograd in the summer of 1918. In the Petrograd Free Workshops, Malevich was entrusted with one of the workshops. He designed the Petrograd production of V. V. Mayakovsky’s “Mystery Bouffe” directed by V. E. Meyerhold (1918). In 1918, canvases of “white suprematism” were created, the last stage of Suprematist painting.
At the dacha
Portrait of Ivan Klyun
In December 1918 he returned to Moscow. He took over the leadership of the painting workshops in the Moscow I and II State Art Museums (in the first, together with N. A. Udaltsova).
In July 1919, he completed his first major theoretical work, “On New Systems in Art,” in Nemchinovka. At the beginning of November 1919, he moved to Vitebsk, where he received the position of head of a workshop at the Vitebsk People’s Art School, headed by Marc Chagall.
Non-stop station. Kuntsevo
Portrait of Una
At the end of the same year, Malevich's first solo exhibition took place in Moscow; representing the artist's concept, it unfolded from early impressionistic works through neo-primitivism, cubo-futurism and alogical canvases to Suprematism, divided into three periods: black, colored, white; The exhibition ended with stretchers with blank canvases, a clear manifestation of the rejection of painting as such. The Vitebsk period (1919-22) was devoted to the composition of theoretical and philosophical texts; In those years, almost all of Malevich’s philosophical works were written, including several versions of the fundamental work “Suprematism. The world is like non-objectivity.”
Three women
Gardener
As part of the activities of the association “Approvers of the New Art” (Unovis) he created, Malevich tested many new ideas in the artistic, pedagogical, utilitarian and practical spheres of Suprematism.
Bathers
Lumberjack
At the end of May 1922 he moved from Vitebsk to Petrograd. From the fall of 1922 he taught drawing at the architectural department of the Petrograd Institute of Civil Engineers. He created several samples and designed Suprematist paintings for porcelain products (1923). He executed the first drawings of “planites”, which became the design stage in the emergence of spatial-volumetric Suprematism.
Suprematism
Samovar
In the 1920s headed the State Institute of Artistic Culture (Ginkhuk). He also headed the formal theoretical department in Ginkhuk, which was later renamed the department of pictorial culture. As part of the experimental work of the institute, he conducted analytical research, developed his own theory of the surplus element in painting, and also began producing volumetric Suprematist structures, “architectons”, which, according to the author, served as models new architecture, the “Suprematist order”, which was to form the basis of a new, comprehensive universal style.
Head
Portrait of the artist's wife
After the defeat of Ginkhuk in 1926, Malevich and his staff were transferred to the State Institute of Art History, where he headed the committee for the experimental study of artistic culture.
Peasant
Red figure
In 1927 he went on a business trip abroad to Warsaw (8-29 March) and Berlin (29 March - 5 June). An exhibition was held in Warsaw, at which he gave a lecture. In Berlin, Malevich was given a hall at the annual Great Berlin Art Exhibition (May 7 - September 30). On April 7, 1927, he visited the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he met V. Gropius and Laszlo Moholy-Nady; in the same year, Malevich’s book “The World as Non-Objectivity” was published as part of the Bauhaus publications.
On the boulevard
Spring
Having received a sudden order to return to the USSR, he urgently left for his homeland; He left all the paintings and the archive in Berlin in the care of friends, as he intended to make a large exhibition tour with a stop in Paris in the future. Upon arrival in the USSR, he was arrested and spent three weeks in prison.
High society in top hats
Portrait of a family member
In 1928, the publication of a series of articles by Malevich began in the Kharkov magazine “New Generation”. From this year, preparing a personal exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery (1929), the artist returned to the themes and subjects of his works of the early peasant cycle, dating the newly painted paintings to 1908-10; Post-Suprematist paintings made up the second peasant cycle.
With stroller
Scenery
At the end of the 1920s. A number of neo-impressionist works were also created, the dating of which was shifted by the author to the 1900s. Another series of post-Suprematist paintings consisted of canvases where the generalized abstract forms of male and women's heads, torsos and figures were used to construct an ideal plastic image.
Reaper
Athletes
In 1929 he taught at Kiev art institute, coming there every month. The personal exhibition in Kyiv, which ran in February-May 1930, was harshly criticized - in the fall of the same year, the artist was arrested and imprisoned for several weeks in the Leningrad OGPU prison.
Yellow chaos
Suprematism
In 1931 he created sketches of the paintings of the Red Theater in Leningrad, the interior of which was decorated according to his design. In 1932-33 headed the experimental laboratory at the Russian Museum. Malevich's work in the last period of his life gravitated towards the realistic school of Russian painting. In 1933, a serious illness arose that led to the artist’s death. According to his will, he was buried in Nemchinovka, a holiday village near Moscow. Painter, graphic artist, teacher, art theorist. In 1895-1896 he studied at the Kyiv Drawing School, in the mid-1900s he attended classes at the Moscow School of Sculpture and Architecture and the Stroganov School, and studied in a private studio in Moscow.
Landscape with white houses
Red Cavalry
He participated in many exhibitions initiated by Mikhail Larionov, as well as in the events of the St. Petersburg society "Youth Union" (1911-1914).
In 1915, at an exhibition in Petrograd, he showed thirty-nine paintings under the general title “Suprematism of Painting,” including his most famous work, “Black Square.” Suprematist non-objectivity was considered as a new stage of artistic consciousness.
Flower girl
Veseny landscape
From the end of 1919 to the spring of 1922 he lived and worked in Vitebsk. After moving to Petrograd (1923), he headed the Museum of Artistic Culture, subsequently the State Institute of Artistic Culture (Ginkhuk, closed in 1926), where Nikolai Suetin, Konstantin Rozhdestvensky, Anna Leporskaya studied and worked under his leadership.
Black square and red square
Black cross
After a trip to Poland and Germany (1927) he returned to figurative painting. In 1928-32 created more than a hundred paintings and many drawings included in the “second peasant cycle”. He showed most of them at a personal exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in 1929.
Black square
(1878, near Kyiv - 1935, Leningrad). Painter, graphic artist, art theorist.
The work of K. S. Malevich occupies a special place in the history of Russian art. He is the creator of the “geometric” version of non-objective art - the famous Suprematism. The artist was born into a family of immigrants from Poland. His father worked at sugar and beet factories and in 1894 transferred to a factory in the village of Parkhomovka near the Kyiv-Kursk railway. In Parkhomovka, Malevich graduated from an agricultural school and joined the peasant world. He helped the villagers paint stoves, coat huts with clay, and this life and its imaginative world fascinated him very much. Overwhelmed with impressions, Malevich painted everything he saw around him.
Paintings by K. S. Malevich with titles
Hall 1
Hall 2
Hall 3
Hall 4
Hall 5
Hall 6
Hall 7
Hall 8
Hall 9
Hall 10
Hall 11
Hall 12
In 1894-1896 he studied at the Kyiv Drawing School. In 1896, the Malevich family moved to Kursk. Here Malevich worked as a draftsman in the railway administration in order to accumulate funds for receiving an art education. In Kursk, he was part of a circle of art lovers, which was organized by officials of the railway department. In the circle, Malevich became acquainted with the works of I. E. Repin and I. I. Shishkin through reproductions. Creative searches led him in the early 1900s to working from nature in the open air and to impressionism (“FLOWER GIRL”, 1903, Russian Museum; “ON THE BOULEVARD”. 1903, Russian Russian Museum; “SPRING - FLOWERING GARDEN”, 1904, Tretyakov Gallery). At that time, Malevich tried three times to enter the Moscow School of Painting and Art, but the attempts were unsuccessful. In 1906, he studied in the Moscow studio of F.I. Rerberg, where they prepared for the entrance exams to the School, but this did not help. More likely. Malevich never got into the School and added the legend of his stay there to his biography already in the 1920s, on the eve of his 1929 personal exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery. F. I. Rerberg introduced Malevich to the Moscow Association of Artists, where he exhibited his works in 1907-1910. There Malevich met artists who supported renewal in art - N. S. Goncharova, M. F. Larionov, D. D. Burliuk. Having met like-minded people, he abandoned attempts to become a student at the School and continued to work independently. Already in 1910, M. F. Larionov invited him to take part in the exhibition of the “Jack of Diamonds” association. In Moscow, obviously not without the influence of his new friends, Malevich became interested in icons, which he perceived as emotional peasant art. At this time, he turned to the neo-primitive (“COSAR”, 1912; “REAPER”, 1912, Picture Gallery, Astrakhan; “PEASANT WOMAN WITH BUCKETS AND A CHILD”. 1912) and with these works together with N. S. Goncharova and M. F. Larionov took part in the exhibition of the “Youth Union” in 1911 in St. Petersburg, and then in the exhibitions “Donkey’s Tail” and “Target” in 1912 and 1913. In 1913, Malevich turned to cubism (“LADY AT THE ROYAL”, 1913; “SAMOVAR”, 1913; “LIFE IN A SMALL HOTEL”, 1913-1914). Cubism became for Malevich an expression of a new approach to artistic creativity, since he considered the cubist form to be a sign of the developed psyche of a person who can already look at the world in a new way: “We have reached the point of rejecting reason due to the fact that another has arisen in us, which also has its own law and design and meaning.” “Another mind” in Malevich’s theory was called “absorbed”. One of the first results of the artist’s thoughts about new art was his collaboration with M. V. Matyushin and A. E. Kruchenykh on the opera “Victory over the Sun.” The prologue was written by V. Khlebnikov, Malevich completed sketches of costumes and scenery.
The artist considered color and a sense of dynamics to be the main and fundamental elements of painting. Color carries energy that is not associated with the subject, so this visual medium does not need a form. But objectlessness does not imply the abolition of “old” art, but is its logical continuation and completes the trend that the masters of Cubism began. It is significant that Malevich performed non-objective works using the traditional technique of painting in oils on canvas. He developed his theory of art throughout 1914, secluded in his studio. There was a great desire to amaze the audience, but it is not for nothing that they say that everything secret becomes clear. Malevich presented new works at the “Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10” in 1915, organized by his accidental visitor, the artist I. A. Puni. To maintain his primacy, on the eve of the exhibition, Malevich published a brochure on the cover of which a new term appeared for the first time: “From Cubism to Suprematism. New pictorial realism." The name was derived from the Latin word “supremus” - “highest”. Among the 39 works presented at the exhibition were the now famous paintings “BLACK SQUARE” (1914-1915) and “RED SQUARE” (1915), as well as “SUPREMATISM. SELF-PORTRAIT IN TWO DIMENSIONS" (1915) and a whole series paintings under the same name “SUPREMATISM”. In the early 1920s, this series was supplemented by the “BLACK CROSS” and “BLACK CIRCLE”. In 1916, Malevich organized the Supremus group, whose tasks included the theoretical and practical development of the ideas of Suprematism. It included I. V. Klyun, L. S. Popova, O. V. Rozanova, N. A. Udaltsova, A. A. Ekster, N. M. Davydova. In the same year, Malevich was called up for military service. In 1917 he was elected to the Moscow Council of Soldiers' Deputies, in which he became chairman of the art department. After October Revolution, in 1918, Malevich was also elected as a member of various commissions: the Commission for Arts of the People's Commissariat of Education: the Commission for the Protection of Artistic Values of Art and Antiquities, the Museum Commission. In 1919, Malevich led a workshop at the State Free Art Workshops and in the same year received an invitation to work at the Vitebsk Higher People's art school, which was headed by M. Z. Chagall. Malevich sought to introduce a collective method of education and creativity, which caused methodological disputes with M. Z. Chagall. As a result, M.Z. Chagall left Vitebsk, and Malevich took his place as head of the school. In 1920, as a result of the search for organizational forms and the name, the “new charter in art,” as Malevich himself designated the group, received the name Unovis (Approvers of the New Art). At exhibitions, all paintings were exhibited anonymously. In 1920, Malevich had a daughter, Una (named after Unovis), and in the same year he published the album “Suprematism” in Vitebsk. 34 drawings."
In 1922, Malevich with several students, including I. G. Chashnik and N. M. Cyetin, returned to Petrograd and began to embody the ideas of spatial Suprematism, developing its paths practical application. In the same year, Kazimir Severinovich took over as director of the Museum of Pictorial Culture, and in 1923 and until 1926 he was director of the State Institute of Artistic Culture (Gipkhuka). Here he headed the formal theoretical department, the department material culture and in 1925, together with his students, he created spatial Suprematist models - “architectons”. Due to a number of disagreements, the artist was forced to leave Ginkhuk. In 1927, Kazimir Severinovich visited Germany with an exhibition of his works and in 1928 returned to Russia.
During this period and until 1930, he published a number of articles on contemporary art in the Kharkov magazine “New Generation”. Colleagues at the State Institute of Art History, of which Malevich was an employee at that time, had a negative attitude toward him. research activities and got the artist to leave the institute. To this Malevich responded with the statement that “Art critics always demand that art be understandable, but they never demand that they adapt their heads to understanding.”
During this period, the artist returned to painting again in peasant theme, combining in the paintings the ideas of Cubo-Futurism and Suprematism (“PEASANT”, 1928-1932, Tretyakov Gallery; “TORSO IN A YELLOW SHIRT”, 1928-1932, Russian Russian Museum; “LANDSCAPE WITH FIVE HOUSES”, 1928-1932, Russian Russian Museum). In the State Russian Museum; “PORTRAIT OF V. A. PAVLOV”, 1933, PT).
Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, founder of Suprematism, creator of the famous Suprematist icon - “Black Square”.
Early years
Kazimir Malevich was born on February 11 (old style - 23rd) 1879 in Kyiv into a family of immigrants from Poland. On March 1 (13), the child was baptized according to the Catholic rite. The generally accepted date was taken from the parish register of the Kyiv Church of St. Alexandra, however, some researchers insist on the reliability of another date - 1878.
The boy's father, Severin Antonovich, worked as a manager at Nikolai Tereshchenko's local sugar factory. Mother, Ludviga Alexandrovna, nee Galinovskaya, looked after the children. At home they spoke Polish, and subsequently Kazimir considered himself to be Poles, although in some questionnaires he wrote “Ukrainian” in the “nationality” column.
Malevich spent his childhood in Podolia, primary education received at a five-year agricultural school. The family was forced to move frequently, as the father was constantly transferred from one plant to another.
At the age of 17, Malevich entered the Kyiv drawing school of N. I. Murashko. IN early years He was interested in the work of the Itinerants and wrote a lot from life.
In 1896, the family moved to Kursk. Here Malevich hired himself to work as a draftsman at the Administration of the Kursk-Moscow Railway, but did not give up painting. The ambitious young man even organized an art group in the city.
In 1898, Malevich married his namesake Kazimira Ivanovna Zgleits. The couple got married in the Kursk Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In 1904, the artist decided to move to Moscow. Kazimira was strongly opposed, since she was left alone with the children, and in family life there was discord.
On August 5, 1905, Malevich applied for admission to Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture, but was refused. Not wanting to return home, Malevich settled in an art commune in Lefortovo, located in the spacious house of the artist Kurdyumov.
In the spring of 1906, Malevich had no money left even for a hostel, and he was forced to return to Kursk. In the summer, he reapplied to the school, but was again not accepted.
Moscow
In 1907, the artist’s mother moved to Moscow and ordered her son to move with her family. She rented a five-room apartment and rented a dining room on Tverskaya. Later, the family was forced to move to furnished rooms on Bryusov Lane. The Malevichs quarreled again, and Kazimira, taking the children, left for Meshcherskoye, where she got a job as a paramedic in a psychiatric hospital.
Until 1910, Malevich took academic drawing and painting lessons in the private studio of F. I. Rerberg.
Malevich's debut occurred in 1907, when he took part inXIVexhibition of the Moscow Association of Artists. There he met the famous avant-garde artist, founder of the Jack of Diamonds society, Mikhail Larionov.
In 1909, Malevich divorced and remarried Sofya Mikhailovna Rafalovich. The bride's father owned a mansion in Nemchinovka - here the artist set up a studio for himself. Being self-taught, Malevich, on the one hand, was surprisingly well versed in avant-garde movements, but on the other hand, he clearly did not find a place for himself. For several years he rushed from one community to another, sometimes hostile to the previous one.
In 1910, Malevich took part in the group exhibition “Jack of Diamonds”, in February 1911 - in the exhibition of the Moscow Salon, in April-May - in the exhibition of the St. Petersburg Youth Union.
In 1912, the artist exhibited more than twenty paintings in the spirit of neo-primitivism at the scandalous exhibition of the Donkey Tail group, which broke away from the Knave of Diamonds. There he met the futurist and author of his own color theory, Mikhail Matyushin. The artists turned out to be like-minded people; friendship began.
In 1913, Malevich painted “screens” (backdrops) for the “First Evening of Speech Makers in Russia” in Moscow, and also spoke at the “Dispute about modern painting"in St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg debate was chaired by Matyushin, Malevich behaved defiantly, shouting phrases like: “You, driving in your little cars, will not keep up with our futuristic car!”
Cooperation with futurists turned out to be the most fruitful. The artist designed a number of futuristic publications and took part in a group exhibition of the Target association. The artist characterized his paintings of that period as “abstruse realism” or “cubo-futuristic realism”,
In December, the premiere of Matyushin’s futuristic opera “Victory over the Sun” with lyrics by Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov took place at the Luna Park Theater in St. Petersburg, for which Malevich created the scenery and costume designs. This moment can be called a turning point for the artist, since, according to him, it was during the preparation for the performance that the idea of “Black Square” was born.
In 1914, Malevich took part in a shocking action organized by Alexei Morgunov on the Kuznetsky Bridge. Artists walked around Moscow with wooden spoons in their buttonholes - in those days, a gesture was enough to excite passers-by.
With the onset of the First World War, Malevich turned to the book: he collaborated with the publishing house “Today's Lubok”, illustrated Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov.
In 1915 he exhibited at the “Tram B” exhibition in Petrograd.
Suprematism and "Supremus"
Kazimir Malevich is credited with creating one of the most influential movements in avant-garde art of the 20th century - Suprematism. Its origin can be dated back to 1915, when the manifesto “From Cubism to Suprematism” was published. New pictorial realism." It was published by Matyushin. In the same year, Malevich presented 39 paintings, which he called “Suprematist painting” as part of the exhibition “0.10”.
On January 1, 1916 (December 19, 1915, old style), one of the key events in the history of art took placeXXcentury - at the next exhibition “0.10” Malevich presented “Black Square” to the public. According to the artist’s plan, the square was to become part of the triptych, but its remaining parts – “Black Circle” and “Black Cross” – were demonstrated later and remained unnoticed.
During the first half of the year, Malevich managed to launch active popularization activities, making Suprematism the most important movement in the avant-garde. He organized the “Supremus” society, which included such painters as Olga Rozanova, Lyubov Popova, Alexandra Ekster, Ivan Klyun, Mstislav Yurkevich and others. He gave a report “Cubism - Futurism - Suprematism” at the “Public Scientific -a popular lecture by Suprematists." He demonstrated 60 new paintings at the next exhibition of the “Jack of Diamonds”, and fraudulently took part in the exhibition “Shop”, organized by Vladimir Tatlin. Tatlin forbade Malevich to exhibit Suprematist works, but he outwitted him by coming to the opening with the number “0.10” painted on his forehead and a homemade poster.
In the summer of the same year, the artist was drafted into the army. He ended up near Smolensk in the 56th reserve infantry regiment and was demobilized in 1917. By the summer, the first issue of the Supremus magazine was almost ready for publication, but on the eve of the revolution the ruble fell sharply, and prices for printing services soared to the impossible. In addition, his comrades abandoned the artist. I had to forget about the magazine.
In August, Malevich was appointed chairman of the art department of the Moscow Council of Soldiers' Deputies. After the revolution, he became Commissioner for the Protection of Ancient Monuments, as well as a member of the Commission for the Protection of Artistic Treasures. This did not come as a surprise to anyone: Malevich had long sympathized with the left and even participated in barricade battles in 1905. However, in the spring of 1918, the artist bitterly noted in an article for the newspaper Anarchy: “A year has passed, but what have all the theater commissions and art departments done for art? Nothing".
In October 1917, Malevich was also elected chairman of the “Jack of Diamonds,” which caused fury among his eternal rival Tatlin and bewilderment among Popova and Udaltsova. They quarreled, as a result of which Supremus broke up.
Activities after the revolution
At the beginning of 1918, Malevich spoke at the scandalous Futurist debate “Fence Painting and Literature.”
In June 1918, Malevich was appointed Lunacharsky head of the museum section in the Department of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat for Education (IZO). Malevich began his work by writing a declaration of the artist's rights. Then he began to create a project for a giant center contemporary art: it was supposed to include artists’ workshops and homes. His crazy ideas were not allowed to come true, but he continued to advance career ladder: already in the fall he received a teaching position at the State Free Art Workshops (GSAM), which replaced the pre-revolutionary MUZHVZ and Stroganovka. Over the next year, the institution accepted everyone without exams.
In 1919, Malevich exhibited another cycle of works at the exhibition “Objectless Creativity and Suprematism” atXState exhibition. In November, the artist decided to move from the capital to Vitebsk.
Here he joined the teaching staff of the People's art school“a new revolutionary model”, led by Marc Chagall. At the end of the year, Malevich’s essay “On New Systems in Art” was published. In December, the first lifetime retrospective exhibition of the Suprematist, “Kazimir Malevich. His path from impressionism to suprematism."
The artist, meanwhile, took a break and devoted himself entirely to teaching activities, began to write a lot, became interested in architecture. In 1920, a circle of devoted supporters from his students formed around him. Those included in it, L. Lisitsky, L. Khidekel, I. Chashnik and N. Kogan, founded the group UNOVIS (Advocates of New Art). When Malevich’s daughter was born, he named her Una in honor of the unification.
In 1922, Malevich completed the main theoretical work of his life - the theoretical and philosophical work “Suprematism. Peace as non-objectivity or eternal peace.” In Vitebsk around the same time, his brochure “God will not be thrown off” was published. Art, church, factory."
In the same year, Malevich and several of his students went to Petrograd. The artist works at the local Museum of Artistic Culture, and at the same time exhibits at the First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin.
In 1925, the second retrospective opened in Moscow, dedicated to the 25th anniversary creative activity artist. Malevich reads a report at the State Academy artistic sciences(GANKh), draws sketches of the design of the Petrograd State Porcelain Factory.
In the period from 1924 to 1926, Malevich served as director of the Leningrad State Institute of Artistic Culture (GINKHUK) and headed the formal theoretical department. There I also read the report “Left movements in Russian painting over 15 years.”
Malevich's passion for architecture, once inspired by the quests of El Lissitzky, grew into something more: he created the concept of architectons - picturesque architectural suprematist models. The artist became a member of the Association modern architects(OSA) and presented his ideas at the annual reporting exhibition of GINKHUK. On June 10, 1926, after the publication of G. Sery’s article, GINKHUK was closed with a scandal and completely liquidated.
In 1927, Malevich married for the third time, and his new passion turned out to be Natalya Andreevna Manchenko. He lived with her for the rest of his life at 2/9 Soyuz Svyazi Street, apt. 5.
In the spring, the artist went on a long business trip to Poland and then to Germany. He visited the Great Berlin Art Exhibition and the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he met Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy.
In 1928, Malevich returned to easel painting. Working at the Moscow State Institute of Art History and at the same time preparing for the next exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, the artist began restoring his early works from memory. Thus, the paintings of the “Impressionist period”, the “peasant cycle” and the third version of the “Black Square” were recreated. The latter had to be written again at the request of the management, since the original was already in a deplorable state.
Color symbolism
In the words of Malevich himself, “suprematist philosophical color thinking” is put at the forefront by the artist. The Suprematist painter must abandon narrative and the principle of mimesis (imitation, realistic reproduction of the surrounding world) and, discarding old forms, create something new using only color and the simplest geometric elements.
For Malevich, color becomes not just a key tool, but a full-fledged, independent pictorial unit. The relationship between form and color is hierarchical: if color is the power of the first row, then form performs applied functions.
The artist left huge amount theoretical works in which he provides a rationale for Suprematism and his theory of color. Striving for “pure painting,” Malevich assigned a decisive role to color: “Suprematism in one of its stages has a purely philosophical cognitive movement through color, and in the second - as a form that can be applied, forming a new style of Suprematist decoration.”
Particular attention should be paid color palette Suprematism. Red, black and white - the archetypal color triad - are designed to perform ontological functions. “The most important thing in Suprematism is two foundations - the energies of black and white, which serve to reveal the form of action.” Three Suprematist squares are Malevich’s ideological guidelines: “black as a sign of economy, red as a signal of revolution and white as pure action.”
Exploring the mechanisms of perception, Malevich comes to the conclusion that the Suprematist canvas should be white, because this color awakens the feeling of infinity. The most often quoted thesis of the artist from the program manifesto “Suprematism” sounds like this: “I conquered the lining of the colored sky, tore it off and put colors into the resulting bag and tied it in a knot. Swim! White free abyss, infinity before you.” The white canvas signifies the transition from emotions to “white as the true real representation of infinity,” the transition to pure Cognition.
As an apologist for non-objective painting, Malevich was extremely concerned about the problem of the relationship between color and form. A short article “Form, Color and Feeling” (1928) was written on this topic. This is another work about Suprematism and new art, subject to the requirement to convey “sensations of forces developing in the psychophysiological areas of human existence.” Suprematism expresses these feelings through simple geometric forms, cleared of semantic layers, grouped into strict compositions. As for the choice of a suitable color for these forms, Malevich argues that it should be arbitrary, depending only on the will of the artist. Taking into account the hypothesis that each shape has its own color, he still encourages making choices intuitively. Numerous experiments conducted by him personally showed that a certain shape evokes associations with the same color in most subjects. But, as Malevich rightly noted, in the context painting colors and shapes are perceived not in isolation from each other, but together; they are subordinated to general dynamics, perform one specific task, and realize the artist’s plan. Both color and form follow feelings and sensations; Malevich’s painting is not a means, but the content itself.
Sunset of life
On September 20, 1930, Malevich was arrested: he was charged with Article 58, paragraph 6 – espionage. He remained in custody for almost three months and was released only on December 6. He faced a term of imprisonment of up to three years, and if espionage was recognized as “harmful to the interests of the USSR,” then execution. A small amount of foreign currency, preserved from the time of his business trip, and several letters were confiscated from the artist.
In 1932, Malevich was working on a project for the painting “Social City,” which was never realized. From this moment on, the degradation of the artist becomes obvious. He participates in opportunistic events and paints portraits in the spirit of socialist realism. In 1933, Malevich was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
In 1935, a few months before his death, the last show of the artist’s works in his homeland took place - the next one would take place only in 1962.
Death and significance for world culture
Kazimir Malevich died on May 15, 1935 in Leningrad after a long, painful illness. According to the artist’s will, his body was placed in a “Suprematist coffin” made in the shape of a cross. He was transported to Moscow, cremated at the Donskoy Crematorium, and the urn with his ashes was buried under the artist’s favorite oak tree not far from the village of Nemchinovka. A monument with the image of a black square is erected above the grave.
During the war, the grave was lost and it is not possible to find its exact location. Already during the war, an arable field appeared in its place, so today the memorial sign is located on the edge of the forest, two kilometers from the original burial.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Malevich for world art. Along with Kandinsky, Kupka, Mondrian, he is recognized as one of the founders of abstract art, the founder of non-figurative, non-figurative painting. He influenced subsequent generations of artists of completely different directions; he can be considered one of the forerunners of actionism, minimalism, conceptualism, etc.
The famous “Black Square” was considered lost for some time and was discovered in Samara in 1993. It was purchased by Inkombank for 250000 dollars. In April 2002, the painting was bought and given to the Hermitage by Vladimir Potanin.
On November 3, 2008, “Suprematist Composition” (1916) by Malevich went under the auction hammerSotheby’ sfor a record 60 million dollars.
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879 - 1935), famous Russian and Soviet artist, worked in such painting styles as cubism and avant-garde, art theorist. He is considered the founder of one of the most powerful phenomena in abstract art, which became known as Suprematism - the expression of the entire structure of the universe through geometric shapes and lines. Malevich's paintings, the names of which give a complete picture of his understanding of reality, unique technique of execution and personal attitude towards fine art, are presented below in accordance with the years of their creation.
The beginning of the journey
Kazimir Malevich was born in Kyiv, in the Polish large family. He had four brothers and four sisters. His entire childhood was spent in the village. In 1895 - 1896 he attended classes at the Kyiv Drawing School. The first painting was painted by the artist at the age of 16, and then sold in a store by one of his friends for 5 rubles. He repeatedly tried to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but all three attempts ended unsuccessfully. Each time he was forced to return and continue working as a draftsman in the management of the Kursk Railway. In 1907, Ludviga Alexandrovna, the artist’s mother, rented a large apartment in Moscow. Kazimir Malevich gets the opportunity to communicate with like-minded people and create his paintings in the capital.
Mine creative path the artist begins with naturalism. But then he quickly became interested in impressionism, futurism and cubism. Even these very avant-garde painting styles did not give Kazimir Malevich the opportunity to tell the whole world about the philosophical reflections and thoughts that overwhelmed him. further development contemporary art. He soon realizes that it is necessary to create another direction in painting - Suprematism, in which only form and color were important.
A small selection of paintings by the artist
There are artists whose paintings’ subjects are clear to most of their admirers at first sight. And Malevich encourages viewers to think about their creations and sometimes even rethink them. There is a lot of talk and debate about Malevich’s paintings, but it has long been clear to everyone that these are the works of a man who sharply advanced avant-garde and abstract art to the heights of art and created a new direction on their basis.
The painting was created in 1913. At that time, the artist and his family rented a dacha near Nemchinovka, which was much cheaper than renting a Moscow apartment. This work by Kazimir Malevich is very unusual. And first of all, because it was written on an ordinary wooden tablet, which used to be part of a shelf. Even holes and traces of fastenings were preserved on it. But the artist could not afford to buy high-quality canvas at that time; he simply did not have the money.
In the painting, K. Malevich expresses his attitude to the accepted standards characteristic of the art of that time. In music, literature and painting, certain rules had to be strictly followed, and the artist promoted freedom. For Malevich, the most important and important thing in his work was the “law of contrasts,” which he also called “the moment of struggle.” This concept was formed in his cubo-futurist period of creativity. With the help of such contrasting images, he tried to shake the established dogmas of art. He spoke to his students about the alogism and comparison of two forms - a violin and a cow against the backdrop of a cubist building. The artist divided many of his works of that period into “Abstract Realism” and “Cubo-Futuristic Realism.” This indicated that K. Malevich saw his goal in a reality that was beyond the boundaries of objective illusoryness.
The painting was created in 1915 and is part of a series of other Suprematist works by K. Malevich. For many years it has been one of the most discussed paintings in Russian art.
The history of the creation of this painting began with the work of K. Malevich as an artist on sketches of scenery and costumes for the production of the opera “Victory over the Sun” by M. V. Matyushin. Then, for the first time, the image of a black square appeared, which symbolized the victory of human creativity over the passive form of nature; it replaced the solar circle.
K. Malevich, based on the fact that preliminary sketches for “Black Square” were made in 1913, also dated the work. But he did not attach any importance to the actual date of creation of his masterpiece. Presumably, it was completed by the artist on June 21, 1915. He created several Suprematist paintings for an exhibition that opened in St. Petersburg at the end of the same year at the Dobychina Art Bureau:
- “Black Square” was considered the first step of creativity in its purest form.
- The “black circle” is one of the main elements of the plastic system he discovered.
- “Black cross” - transformation of a square into other planes.
At this exhibition they represented three important components of the Suprematist system. These were the three standards. On their basis, new forms were to be born.
The canvas of the painting, whose size is 79.5 cm by 79.5 cm, was tried to be examined several times. The results were made public in 2015. It is discovered that there are two more color images under the top layer. The inscription belonging to the author was also recognized. The phrase “Battle of Negroes in a Dark Cave” redirects to the painting by Alphonse Allais “Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night,” 1882. Historians and art historians believe that these finds will help to imagine the entire process of painting this painting. It will be interesting for many to know that the square was originally specified as a quadrilateral. He did not have strict right angles. This expressed the artist’s desire to create such a mobile and dynamic form.
In his works, Kazimir Malevich showed himself to be a wonderful impressionist. The painting “Summer Landscape” was painted by him in 1928 - 1929. The influence of realism is noticeable in it. In this work, the artist used strokes of different textures and sizes to express his ideas and compositional solutions. The overall range is close to the real colors of nature, filled various shades soft green color. 
The plot of the film is quite simple. Almost in the center of the picture is a small female figure in a white dress. There is a table not far from the spreading tree. A path leads to a house with white walls, and in the background, in the distance, buildings are visible. And everything is literally buried in summer greenery, permeated with air and sunlight. There are no ideas of Suprematism in the picture. Malevich seems to remember the distant years of childhood spent in the village, and does not overload it with any special philosophical meaning.
The artist worked on this painting in 1928 - 1930. Her color scheme complements and emphasizes the geometric shapes of variegated and provocative shades. The background of the picture is built from planes, the color combinations of which can be called quite sharp. In the center is a woman, to depict whose figure Malevich used only two colors: black and white. In this way he completely depersonalized the rough and gloomy image. The artist uses this technique in order to show the mass character, sameness and insignificance of all life. The hopelessness and hard, backbreaking work of peasant women is the main idea of this work. But the author invites viewers to reflect on this picture and draw their own conclusions.
For many art connoisseurs, Malevich’s paintings (photos with titles) can explain the process personal development great reformer. He emphasized that the philosophy of Suprematism would allow the artist to bring art to himself.
1. Black Suprematist square, 1915
Canvas, Oil. 79.5×79.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The most famous work Kazimir Malevich, created in 1915 specifically for the final futurist exhibition “0.10”, which opened in St. Petersburg on December 19, 1915. “Black Square” is part of the cycle of suprematist (from Latin supremus - highest) works by Kazimir Malevich. Being a type of abstractionism, Suprematism was expressed in combinations of multi-colored planes of the simplest geometric shapes devoid of pictorial meaning. Suprematist works occupied separate room exhibitions. Among the thirty-nine Suprematist paintings, in the most prominent place, in the so-called “red corner”, where icons are usually hung in Russian houses, hung the “Black Square”.
“Black Square” is part of the cycle of Suprematist works by Kazimir Malevich, in which the artist explored the basic possibilities of color and composition; is, according to plan, part of a triptych, which also contains the “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”.
The “black square” has neither top nor bottom; approximately equal distances separate the edges of the square from the vertical and horizontal lines of the frame. Few deviations from pure geometry remind viewers that the picture was, after all, painted with a brush, that the artist did not resort to a compass and ruler, but drew an elementary geoform “by eye”, and became familiar with its inner meaning through intuition. We are used to thinking that the background of the “Black Square” is white. This is actually the color of baked milk. And in the abrupt strokes of the background, different layers of paint alternate - thin and dense. But on the black plane it is impossible to find a single brush mark - the square looks uniform.
Attempts by convinced fans of figurative art alone, who believe that the artist is misleading them, to examine the canvas in order to find another original version under the top layer of painting have been made more than once. However, technological examination did not confirm the presence of any other image on this canvas.
Subsequently, Malevich, for various purposes, performed several original repetitions of “Black Square”. There are now four known versions of the “Black Square”, differing in design, texture and color. All the author's repetitions of the painting are kept in Russia, in state collections: two works in the Tretyakov Gallery, one in the Russian Museum and one in the Hermitage.
It is interesting that in 1893, a painting by Alphonse Allais with a blank black field of canvas, entitled “Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night,” was exhibited.
2. Black circle, 1923
Oil on canvas. 106×105.5 cm
“Black Circle” is one of the most famous paintings by Kazimir Malevich, the founder of a new movement in painting - Suprematism.
The painting belongs to the direction of Russian non-objective painting, called Suprematism, or “new pictorial realism” by K. S. Malevich. The pointlessness of Suprematism for K. S. Malevich was called by him a conclusion from objective world, a new aspect that revealed nature, space, the Universe to the artist. Suprematist forms “fly” and are in a state of weightlessness. The “Black Circle” was one of them for the artist three main modules of the new plastic system, the style-forming potential of the new plastic idea - Suprematism.
The painting was painted in 1915, later the author made versions of it for various exhibitions - the author’s repetitions. The first “Black Circle” was painted in 1915 and was exhibited at the “Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings “0.10”. Now kept in a private collection. The second version of the painting was created by Malevich’s students (A. Leporskaya, K. Rozhdestvensky, N. Suetin) under his leadership in 1923. This painting is included in the triptych: “Black Square” - “Black Cross” - “Black Circle”. Currently kept in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
3. Red Square, 1915
Oil on canvas. 53×53 cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
“Red Square” is a painting by Kazimir Malevich, painted in 1915. The title on the back is “A Woman in Two Dimensions.” It is a red quadrangle on a white background, slightly different in shape from a square. Exhibited at the 1915 exhibition. In the catalog of the 1915 exhibition it received a second name - “ Scenic realism peasant women in two dimensions." Currently located in the Russian Museum.
In 1920, Malevich wrote about this painting that “in the hostel it acquired further significance” “as a signal of revolution.”
Ksana Blank compares Malevich's Suprematism with the work of Leo Tolstoy. In particular, Tolstoy’s story “Notes of a Madman” describes the room where Fyodor begins to experience mortal melancholy: “A clean whitewashed square room. I remember how painful it was for me that this room was exactly square. There was one window, with a red curtain.” That is, a red square on a white background is, in fact, a symbol of melancholy. Malevich himself explained the concept of his first “Black Square” that “the square is a feeling, the white space is the emptiness behind this feeling.” Ksana Blank comes to the conclusion that, as in Tolstoy’s story, the red square on a white background graphically depicts the fear of death and emptiness. However, this interpretation of Ksana Blank completely contradicts the title of the painting: “Woman in Two Dimensions,” which Malevich left on its back.
4. Red cavalry gallops, 1928-1932
Oil on canvas. 91×140 cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Written in 1928-1932, exact date unknown, Malevich put an earlier date on many of his later paintings. Currently kept in the Russian Museum.
The picture is divided into three parts: sky, earth and people (red cavalry). The ratio of the width of the earth and the sky in the proportion of 0.618 ( golden ratio). Cavalry of three groups of four riders, each rider blurred, possibly a cavalry of four ranks. The earth is drawn from 12 colors.
For a long time, the painting was the only abstract work of the artist recognized by the official history of Soviet art, which was facilitated by its name and depiction of the events of the October Revolution. Malevich put the date 18 on the reverse side, although in fact it was written later.
5. Suprematist composition, 1916
Oil on canvas. 88.5 cm×71 cm cm
Private collection
The painting was painted by the artist in 1916. In 1919-20 she exhibited in Moscow. In 1927, Malevich exhibited the painting at exhibitions in Warsaw, and later in Berlin, where the painting remained after Casimir left for the USSR in June 1927. The painting was later given to the German architect Hugo Hering, who sold it to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where it was kept for about 50 years.
Throughout the 20th century, the painting was repeatedly exhibited at various exhibitions, mainly European. The Amsterdam collection of Malevich's works is the largest outside former USSR- was acquired by the city authorities in 1958 for a substantial sum at that time of 120 thousand guilders from the heirs famous architect Hugo Haring. He took these paintings out of Nazi Germany, where they were subject to destruction as “degenerate art.” Malevich’s paintings fell into Haring’s hands by accident: the artist left more than a hundred canvases under his supervision in 1927, when they were exhibited in Berlin, and the author himself was urgently summoned to his homeland.
When in 2003-2004. The museum exhibited Malevich's paintings in the United States; the artist's heirs challenged the rights of Haring (and, accordingly, the museum) to dispose of them. After a 4-year trial, the parties reached a settlement agreement, under the terms of which the museum ceded five significant paintings from its collection to the heirs. After 17 years of legal disputes, the painting was returned to the artist's heirs.
On November 3, 2008, at Sotheby's auction in New York, the painting was sold to an unknown buyer for $60,002,500, becoming one of the most expensive paintings in history by a Russian artist.
6. Winter landscape, 1930
Oil on canvas. 54x48.5 cm
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Image winter day in this painting corresponds to the artist’s desire to change traditions and use different means of expression than before. The style of writing is primitivist, the picture seems to have been painted by an inept child’s hand, when there are no skills to draw complex objects yet, and an inexperienced artist draws geometric shapes seen. Malevich, an experienced artist, specifically used this method to convey the feeling of a winter day. His trees are made up of circles that are meant to represent caps of snow. The figure in the background shows how deep the snow is. The artist uses pure, saturated colors that are unconventional to depict winter.
7. Cow and violin, 1913
Oil on wood 48.8 x 25.8 cm.
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
In 1913, between visits to St. Petersburg, Malevich found himself in Kuntsevo, not far from Nemchinovka, where he and his family rented a dacha - it was much cheaper than renting an apartment in Moscow. The lack of money was chronic. Sometimes there was not enough money even for canvas - and then furniture was used. Three shelves of an ordinary bookcase were destined to gain immortality, becoming three paintings by Malevich. “Toilet Box”, “Non-Stop Station”, “Cow and Violin” have the same dimensions, and in the corners of their wooden rectangles there are visible sealed round holes through which the racks that once connected them once passed.
According to Malevich, the fundamental law of creativity was the “law of contrasts,” which he also called “the moment of struggle.” The first picture that clearly embodied the paradox of the open law was the Cow and the Violin. It is noteworthy that the author considered it necessary to explain the shocking meaning of the plot with a detailed inscription on the back: “An illogical comparison of two forms - “a cow and a violin” - as a moment of struggle with logic, naturalness, petty-bourgeois meaning and prejudices. K. Malevich.” In “The Cow and the Violin,” Malevich deliberately combined two forms, two “quotations” symbolizing different spheres of art.
8. Grinder, 1913
Oil on canvas 79.5x79.5 cm
Art gallery Yale University
The painting "The Grinder" was painted by Kazemir Malevich in 1913. The painting is currently in the Yale University Art Gallery. Currently, "The Grinder" is a classic painting of Russian Cubo-Futurism. Another name for the painting is “The Flickering Principle.” It is this that perfectly indicates the artist’s thought. In the picture we see a repetition of countless fragmented contours and silhouettes, which are in a gray-blue color. When looking at the picture, you can feel the flickering process of sharpening a knife. The grinder finds himself at different points in space at the same time.
9. Reaper, 1912
Oil on canvas 68x60 cm
Astrakhan regional art gallery them. B.M. Kustodieva, Astrakhan
Malevich’s paintings are very famous, which are usually attributed to the first peasant series - these are such paintings as “The Reaper”, “The Carpenter”, “Harvesting Rye” and other paintings. These paintings clearly show the turning point in Malevich’s vision of creativity. The figures of peasants busy with daily concerns are spread over the entire field of the picture; they are primitivistically simplified, deliberately enlarged and deformed in the name of greater expressiveness, iconographic in the sound of color and strictly maintained flatness. Rural residents, their work and life are exalted and glorified. Malevich’s peasants, as if composed of curved sheets of hard material with a metallic sheen, for all their sketchiness, initially had recognizable forms of real male and female figures. Roughly carved heads and powerful bodies were most often placed in profile; the characters depicted from the front impressed with their monumentality.
10. Self-portrait, 1933
Oil on canvas 73 x 66 cm
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
This unexpected realistic “Self-Portrait”, created in 1933, became the creative testament of the great Russian avant-garde artist. By that time, he had already developed a terrible illness; he had little time to live. By the way, some researchers claim that the development of prostate cancer was provoked by specific methods of influence used on Malevich during interrogations in 1930. Be that as it may, the master left unbroken. And this portrait, clearly focused on high Renaissance examples, irrefutably proves this. Malevich does not give up anything (the Suprematist background of the picture alone is worth it!), asserting the artist’s right to free creativity, which was prohibited in a totalitarian state that was preoccupied with the structure of an earthly paradise. The very granite statuesque pose, the solemn gesture itself - all this is evidence that even on the verge of death Malevich does not renounce his mission.