THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Ka-feMf The Metropolitan Museum of Art February 7-March 24, 1991 Things have disappeared like smoke; to As access to his work and archival left a rich body of ambitious philosphical gain the new artistic culture, art documents has improved, it has gradu and autobiographical texts (many of approached creation as an end in itself ally become possible to explore and which remain unpublished), they are and domination over the forms of chart the development of Malevich's often elliptical in expression and resis nature. career. Yet scholars have had to face an tant to interpretation. No less problem Kazimir Malevich, 19161 array of problems. Although Malevich atic has been the dating of his artistic Although Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) has long been recognized as one of the seminal figures in the history of twentieth-century art, he remains, for many reasons, little understood. In the immediate aftermath of the 191 7 Revolution in Russia, the Bolshevik regime had encouraged avant-garde artists such as Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, THE METROPOLITAN and Wassily Kandinsky to create a com MUSEUM OF ART parable revolution in art. These artists and others, placed in positions of power, were asked to organize all art schools and the entire artistic life of the country. However, by the early 1920s, some artists began to feel that the abstract formalist approach of Malevich Thomas J. Watson Library and other members of the avant-garde was too limited in its appeal and essen tially unintelligible to the general public, and an organized opposition movement began to gather momentum. Official political opposition followed, growing steadily over the next decade. In 1931, the conservative association of prole tarian artists formulated its concept of art as ideology, and in 1934 socialist realism, based on naturalistic depictions of workers, was officially adopted as the exclusive style for all forms of Soviet art. Thus, during the final decade of his life, Malevich witnessed the decline of his own reputation. Until recently, West ern scholars were granted only limited access to his paintings, most of which Airplane Flying, 1915, oil on canvas (no. 45), Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York had been hidden for decades in the stor age rooms of Russian museums. Archival sources also were largely inaccessible. Soviet scholars encountered similar obstacles in their quest to document the The exhibition in New York is made possible by the IBM Corporation. extraordinary career of this artist. Additional support has been provided by The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation. production. Following an intensely A striking Self Portrait from 1908- innovative period of non-objective 1909 (no. 12) attests to the height painting between 1915 and 1919, ened emotional pitch of these new Malevich concentrated for almost a works. The nearly hallucinatory decade on philosophical writing, intensity of the artist's face is en teaching, and developing principles hanced by the saturated reds of the for suprematist architecture and nude figures in the background. As is design. When he took up painting typical of Malevich's work from this again in the late 1920s, he returned period, color no longer depends on to a largely figurative vocabulary. direct observation of nature, but is In some cases he resumed earlier unified in an overall scheme that styles, literally recreating, for exam determines the chromatic "mood" of ple, impressionist paintings that he the picture in the manner of symbol made in the beginning of the cen ist painting. This portrait may have tury. In other cases the late pictures been exhibited in 1910 in Moscow evoke earlier works in their similar or together with other works grouped even identical subject matter. In under the rubric "red series." style, however, they reflect the In spite of its affinities with French Self Portrait, 1908-1909, gouache and varnish on paper suprematist path that he had since (no. 12), State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, Gift of George art, Malevich's art came to rely in traveled. Many of these late pictures Costakis, 1977 creasingly on Russian precedents. In inexplicably carry dates from earlier 1910 the artist met the dynamic periods, thus presenting puzzling Malevich was painting outdoors in an neo-primitivist painters Mikhail Larionov dilemmas for art historians attempting impressionist manner by 1903, and (1881-1964) and Natalia Goncharova to establish an accurate history of his works such as Portrait of a Woman, (1881-1962). These artists, seeking an career In the current exhibition, the c. 1906 (no. 5), illustrate Malevich's antidote to the artistic hegemony of dates assigned reflect the combined mastery of light-filled compositions and their Parisian contemporaries, looked to efforts of many scholars. a high-keyed palette. He even experi indigenous Russian art forms such as Although Malevich received little for mented with the divisionist technique of ¡con painting and folk art, particularly mal education, he was apparently deter Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, exem the popular print or "lubok." In 1911- mined to be an artist at an early age. In plified in the exhibition by two tiny, 1912 Malevich made an impressive the last years of the nineteenth century, freshly painted landscapes (nos. 3-4). group of large gouaches in this new he discovered the works of the Russian Malevich's stylistic shift away from neo-primitivist manner. The neo- naturalist painters called the "Wan impressionism was in part stimulated by primitives based their subjects on the derers," and his early works were based examples of progressive art from West lives of the Russian peasantry, for whom on their example. Although few of these ern Europe. Many Russian artists who Malevich always maintained a special works have survived, his own written had traveled to European cities such as sympathy. In The Bather (no. 18), a giant account, composed at the end of his Paris brought back photographs and figure strides heavily across a non life, describes the young artist's passion: reports of current artistic developments. descript landscape, flailing limbs of "... as soon as I got off work, I would By the 1890s, Russian artists could study monstrous proportions. Malevich filled run to my paints and start on a study contemporary French art in exhibitions the entire frame of his picture with this straightaway. . . This feeling for art can as well as in two remarkable collections powerful, monolithic figure, vigorously attain huge, unbelievable proportions. It assembled in Moscow by the collectors applying gouache in thin layers of can make a man explode."2 Sergei I. Shchukin (1854-1935) and brilliant color. He undoubtedly saw A dramatic change occurred in Male- Ivan A. Morosov (1871 -1921 ). In addi Henri Matisse's large paintings, Dance II vich's art while he was living in Kursk, tion, reproductions of advanced French and Music, both 1910, which arrived in working as a technical draftsman for the art were available in both Russian and Shchukin's house at the end of 1910. In railroad: "...while sketching, I stumbled foreign periodical literature. comparison to Malevich's peasant, upon an extraordinary phenomenon in By 1907, when the artist had settled Matisse's powerful compositions seem my perception of nature. It was a sunny in Moscow with his new wife, Malevich's the very embodiment of French day, the sky was cobalt blue. One side art manifested an increasingly indepen refinement. of the house was in the shade and the dent vision. He developed a mystical Malevich continued to explore other side was lit by the sun. For the and sometimes overtly religious content, themes of rural labor in 1912 in paint first time I saw the bright reflections of as in the richly colored gouache, Shroud ings such as Peasant Woman with Buckets the blue sky, the pure, transparent of Christ, 1908 (no. 92). These subjects and Child (no. 21 ), where stiff, darkly tones I began working in bright, were conceived in the stylized, ara colored figures move awkwardly, bur joyful, sunny paints From that time besque forms of art nouveau, but also dened by heavy loads. For his magnifi on, I became an impressionist."3 betrayed echoes of Russian symbolism. cent composition, The Woodcutter (no. LEFT TO RIGHT: Bather, 1911, charcoal and gouache on paper (no. 18), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, acquired from Hugo Haring, 1958; The Woodcutter, 1912-1913, oil on canvas (no. 23), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, acquired from Hugo Haring, 1958; Knife Grinder: Principle of flickering, 1913, oil on canvas (no. 27), Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Collection Société Anonyme, acquired by Katherine S. Dreier from Galerie van Diemen exhibition, Berlin, 1922 23), Malevich employed radically sim over a knife-sharpening machine, appar under the title "Zaumnyi realism." plified, cylindrical forms that shine as if ently on a stairway landing. Kinetic Several are included in the present cut from metal. Like the earlier Bather, energy is suggested in the brilliant exhibition, including Cow and Violin this monumental worker looms large in sequential handling of polychromed, (no. 32), which features provocative the picture frame, but his movements splintered forms as well as in the sub juxtapositons of deliberately contra seem frozen, and his mechanized limbs title, "Principle of Flickering." dictory elements, resulting in displace merge with the pile of cut logs. Scholars 1913 was a decisive year for Malevich, ments of meaning and jarring clashes of have long speculated how Malevich one that witnessed the famous theatrical scale. The artist inscribed his intentions (who never went to Paris) might have production, Victory over the Sun. This on the back of the panel: "The alogical seen works such as Fernand Léger's "First Futurist Opera," the climax of many juxtaposition of two forms 'violin and Nudes in the Forest, whose tubular futurist events in 1913, was a collabo cow' as an aspect of the struggle against shapes and simplified color schemes rative production that would have logic by means of the natural order, seem to inform the Russian artist's profound consequences for Malevich's against Philistine meaning and preju peasant pictures of 1912-191 3; but art. His close associates included three of dice." By repudiating conventional only one far less characteristic painting Russia's most radical literary figures: meaning and form, Malevich, like his by Léger—Study for Three Portraits— Velimir Klebnikhov (1885-1922), Alexei literary counterparts, created a new was exhibited in Russia at the time. The Kruchenykh (1886-1968), and Vladimir pictorial language; ultimately, his aim issue of affinities between the two artists Maiakovsky (1893-1930). The last two was to transcend entirely the natural must remain a subject of speculation. had issued a futurist-style manifesto at world. As he later asserted, "I have... Malevich and his contemporaries the end of 1912, titled "A Slap in the escaped from the circle of things "s were keenly aware of the cubist can Face of Public Taste." Kruchenykh's Malevich consistently traced his vases of Georges Braque and Pablo proclamations about the "word as such," invention of suprematism back to 191 3 Picasso by this time, and Italian futurist or the word divorced from traditional and the production of Victory over the theories had also made a significant im meaning, would find a parallel in Male Sun. He wrote to his friend, the musician pact on Russian intellectual life. Always vich's art: "We were the first to say that in Mikhail Matiushin (1861-1934) in 1915, quick to absorb the fundamentals of a order to represent the new and the future "All the many things I put into your new style, Malevich soon adapted a we need totally new words and totally opera Victory over the Sun in 1913 gave highly personalized version of these new relations among those words.... "4 me a lot of innovations except that modes, which he would later call The Russian futurists invented the term nobody noticed them. As a result I have "cubo-futurist." The dynamic compo zaum meaning "transrational" to accumulated now a lot of new ideas."6 sition of Knife Grinder (no. 27) is a key describe their inventions. Although the formal and intellectual example of this new development. A Following the cue of these semantic roots of suprematism may be traced fractured, mustachioed man, more experiments, Malevich exhibited a back to Malevich's experiments for the urban artisan than rural peasant, stoops group of works at the end of 191 3 opera, there is no evidence that his suprematist paintings date earlier than ground representing an extra-natural, form life at every level on a suprematist the spring of 1915. The first public infinite space. This arrangement of forms model, Malevich and his students pro manifestation of suprematism took implies continuous motion in a dynamic duced designs for fabrics and porcelain, place in December of that year when field perpetually charged with energy. In and developed plans for suprematist Malevich dramatically revealed thirty- 1915 Malevich wrote: "art is the ability architecture. nine totally non-representational paint to construct, not on the interrelation of However, Malevich found himself at ings in a group exhibition in Petrograd form and color, and not on an aesthetic odds with forces that were increasingly called "O.10. Last Futurist Exhibition." basis of beauty in composition, but on hostile to his idealist, non-utilitarian Included in the exhibition was Black the basis of weight, speed and the philosophy. His ideas came under attack Square (Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow). It direction of movement."9 from conservative artistic groups who was hung high, like an ¡con, across a In 1919, Malevich would establish promoted naturalistic paintings on the corner. This emblem of suprematism, three stages of his suprematist work: the theme of the worker's role in society as the most reductive, uncompromisingly black, the red or colored, and the white. the only genuine proletarian art. By the abstract painting of its time, repre In the final phase, realized in the mono end of 1926 Malevich was dismissed as sented an astonishing conceptual leap chromatic paintings from 1917-1918 director of GINKhUK; the school was from Malevich's work of eventually disbanded. the previous year. With In an atmosphere of Black Square, Malevich's increasing intimidation, renunciation of the Malevich eagerly accepted an material world was com invitation in March 1927 to plete: "I have transformed show his work in Poland and myself in the zero of form Germany. Accompanying the and dragged myself out of exhibitions of his work in the rubbish-filled pool of Warsaw and Berlin, he lec Academic art,"7 he tured to enthusiastic declared in the brochure audiences with the aid of that accompanied the twenty-two didactic charts exhibition. produced under his super One of the stated goals vision by his students. Before of suprematism, an art of leaving Germany on "pure sensations," was to 5 June he entrusted his paint attain a new reality in a ings, charts, and a group of non-objective world: "The Installation photograph of "0.10. Last Futurist Exhibition," 1915 theoretical writings to two square framed with white German associates. Perhaps he was the first form of non-objective (nos. 59-61), the artist achieved the feared that his life's work would be sensation, the white field is not a field ultimate stage in the suprematist ascent destroyed if it remained in Russia. Some framing the black square, but only the toward an ¡deal world, for white sym of the works that he left in Germany sensation of the desert of non-existence, bolized the "real concept of infinity." were later acquired by The Museum of in which the square form appears as the Although the white paintings were Modern Art, New York, in the mid- first non-objective element of sensation. Malevich's last achievements within this 1930s; the remainder were acquired by It is not the end of art... but the phase of high suprematism, he did the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in beginning of true essence."8 return to the suprematist idiom ¡n his the late 1950s. Today these pictures During the course of 1913-1914 paintings from the late twenties. constitute the majority of Malevich's Malevich had arrived at a critically By 1919 Malevich had cultivated a work in the West. important turning point on his path to following of devoted students at the After his return to Russia, Malevich suprematism. In a series of paintings Popular Art Institute in Vitebsk where he resumed painting. With his teaching that he called "transrational realism," formalized his teaching program under activities severely curtailed and the pos autonomous colored planes emerged the acronym UNOVIS (Affirmation of the sibility of publishing his writings virtually from a cubo-futurist matrix, establishing New Art). UNOVIS was later relocated in extinguished, he embarked upon a a strong counterpoint within the com Petrograd (now Leningrad) where Male pictorial path that has yet to be satis position and undermining its pictorial vich exhibited unsigned works collec factorily explained. Reverting to figura unity, but introducing a new, "supra- tively with his students. Under the tive art, Malevich produced work during realist" coherence (see nos. 34-41). In auspices of GINKhUK, or the Institute of these last years that was in part closely the suprematist works of 1915-1916 Artistic Culture, Malevich continued his imitative of his earliest work (no. 85). He (see nos. 42-56), those planes of color, teaching program, which was dedicated seems to have been responding to the now fully isolated as independent to renewing art according to supre- political pressures of a socialist realist forms, are suspended on a white matist principles. In their aim to trans aesthetic (no. 86), while, at the same 1. "From Cubism and Futurism to allusions, and perhaps alluding to the Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting," 1916, threatening atmosphere in which he in Troels Andersen, ed., K. S. Malevich. Essays on lived and worked. In these late works, Art, 1915-1928 (Copenhagen, 1971, 2d ed.), vol. 1,19. The frequent awkwardness of syntax and the rigid, faceless, two-dimensional vocabulary in Malevich's writings are due to the peasants, hovering against narrow, artist's own idiosyncratic style. deserted landscapes, evoke (as one dis 2. Malevich, Letter to Lev Yudin, quoted in cerning critic wrote in 1930) "the Evgenii Kovtun, "Kazimir Malevich: His Creative Path, " Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 [exh. cat., 'machine' into which man is being Stedelijk Museum] (Amsterdam, 1988), 153. forced—both in painting and outside 3. Malevich, "Autobiography," 1933, trans. it."10 Alan Upchurch, October, no. 34 (Fall 1985), 38. 4. Alexei Kruchenykh, Troye, 191 3, as quoted in In spite of mounting adversity (he Andrei B. Nakov, Kazimir Malevich [exh. cat., Tate was imprisoned for three months in Gallery] (London, 1976), 10. 1930 and interrogated about his 5. "From Cubism," 1916, in Andersen, Malevich. Essays on Art, 1971, vol. 1, 19. philosophy of art), Malevich continued 6. Quoted in Nakov, 12. to paint. The Self Portrait from 1933 7. "From Cubism," 1916, in Andersen, Malevich. Essays on Art, 1971, vol. 1,19. Self Portrait, 1933, oil on canvas (no. 91), State (no. 91), one of his last paintings, 8. "Suprematism," 1922, in Troels Andersen, Russian Museum, Leningrad, acquired from the though an anomalous, equivocal ed., The Artist, Infinity, Suprematism, Unpublished artist's family in 1935 anachronism in "Renaissance" style, Writings, 1913-1933 (Copenhagen, 1978), vol. 4, stands as a striking evocation of "The 146. 9. Quoted in Nakov, 25. time, seeking an entirely new mode of Artist": the suprematist Malevich, mean 10. Adolph Donath, Berliner Tageblatt, expression—superficially representa while, is identified at the the lower right 9 July 1930. tional, but imbued with suprematist by a small black square. VICTORY OVER THE SUN How extraordinary life is without a recited or sang their lines, accompanied costumes survive, but Malevich's past by an out-of-tune piano. The non- original sketches for the costumes and With danger but without regrets and narrative text was composed in the set designs are included in the exhi memories "transrational" language of the future, bition (nos. 112-133). zaum, meaning "beyond the mind." These lines were written in 191 3 for the Zaum language loses much in transla futurist opera Victory over the Sun, a tion, for it relied on free association of collaboration between Malevich who sounds and ¡mages and made playful designed the costumes and set designs, use of neologism and puns. Just as Mikhail Matiushin who wrote the music, Malevich would abdicate the world of and Alexei Kruchenykh who wrote the objects in his paintings to create a new libretto. Although it was staged only pictorial language, the authors of zaum twice, on 3 and 5 December, the opera poetry set out to divest words of all played to a full house at St. Petersburg's predictable meaning. Luna Park Theater. It consisted of two Malevich painted the stage sets "actions" containing six scenes. In the himself and made brightly colored first action, the sun, symbol of logic, costumes out of cardboard. The reason, and the visible world, is cap costumes, related to the artist's cubo- tured by a band of futurist strongmen. futurist paintings of 1912-1913, were The second action takes place in the ingeniously constructed to determine "tenth land" of the future where movements for the actors that were in "everyone breathes easier and many keeping with their character. For don't know what to do with themselves example, the futurist strongman could from the extreme lightness." only flex his arms upward. Colored ¿ 't The opera's inventors outraged the spotlights enhanced the fragmented . audience by flouting every possible quality of the figures as they lumbered Futurist Strongman, 191 3, graphite pencil on paper theatrical convention. The performers about the stage in their stiff attire. (no. 120), Leningrad State Museum of Theatrical and Musical Arts, acquired from the State Research were mostly nonprofessionals who Unfortunately none of the actual Institute of Music, 1937 ceived nor based his works on primi MALEVICH ON ART tivism as a lack of skill. He knew about prehistoric primitivism, he knew the Excerpts from Troels Andersen, ed., primitiveness of the prehistoric drawing, classics, the pseudoclassics, the Realists K. S. Malevich. Essays on Art, 1915- and the new approach is an apparent and Impressionists, and he knew on 1928, vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1971, 2d ed.) primitivism towards a counter-primitive what to base his work. Cezanne's aware movement. It is essentially a movement ness of painting is more vivid than that in reverse, a decomposition and a dissi of his predecessors. He said: "I base From Cubism and Futurism to pation of what was collected into its nature on geometric principles and Suprematism: The New Realism in separate elements; it is the attempt to reduce her to geometry not for sim Painting, 1916 escape from the objective identity of the plicity's sake, but to express surface, Vol. 1, p. 19 image to direct creation and to break volume, the straight and crooked line away from idealisation and pretense. I more clearly, as sections of painterly Only with the disappearance of a habit wish to create the new signs of my inner plastic expression." In recognizing the of mind which sees in pictures little movement, for the way of the world is in necessity for such an action he was corners of nature, madonnas and me, and I do not want to copy and nevertheless unable to achieve the shameless Venases, shall we witness a distort the movement of the subject or expression of plastic, painterly composi work of pure, living art. any other manifestation of nature's tions without an objective basis; neither forms. But Gauguin, who was unable to did he apply the tendency which was I have destroyed the ring of the find forms for the colours seething in the destined to develop in the great move horizon and escaped from the circle of cauldron of his brain, was forced to ment of Cubism. things, from the horizon-ring which embody them in the world he saw on confines the artist and the forms of the island of Tahiti. nature. The apparent primitivism in many On New Systems in Art, 1919 This accursed ring, which opens up contemporary artists is the tendency to Vol. 1, pp. 98-99 newer and newer prospects, leads the reduce forms to geometrical bodies; it artist away from the target of was Cézanne who called for and illus The main axis of Cubist construction was destruction. trated this process by reducing the the straight and the curved line. The first And only a cowardly consciousness forms of nature to the cone, cube and category called forth other lines, form and meagre creative powers in an artist sphere. ing angles, and the second curves of are deceived by this fraud and base Cezanne's works are related to the reverse shape. On these axes were their art on the forms of nature, afraid of primitive, but Cézanne neither con grouped different types of painterly losing the foundation on which the texture: lacquered, prickly and matt- savage and the academy have based collages were used for textural and their art. graphic variety, plaster was introduced and the bodily texture was always con To reproduce beloved objects and structed in such a way as to achieve little corners of nature is just like a thief Cubist textural and formal rhythm, and being enraptured by his legs in irons. constructive unity amongst the elements of painterly and graphic form. Only dull and impotent artists screen It was the Cubists who first began to their work with sincerity. In art there is a consciously see, know and build their need for truth, not sincerity. constructions on the foundations of the general unity of nature. There is nothing single in nature; everything consists of On New Systems in Art, 1919 various elements and gives possibilities Vol. 1, pp. 90-91 for comparison. Take a lamp. It consists of the most varied units, both painterly We notice in art a tendency towards the and formal. Technical formation has primitive, towards simplifying what is created the organism of the lamp from a seen; we call this movement primitive mass of separate and different units; the even when it arises in our modern result is a living organism which is not a world. Many people relate Gauguin to copy. Similarly a Cubist construction is the primitive tendency, to the primeval, formed from the most varied units into a but this is incorrect. In our age there definite organization. can be no such thing as the primitive in dri Englishman in Moscow, 1914, oil on canvas (no. If the purpose of forming the organ 38), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, acquired from art, for we have passed through the Hugo Haring, 1958 ism of the lamp was burning and light- pressing dynamic power, and he has tened in the ragged, pointed painterly textures to express the movement of dynamism; it was as if a current passed through every growth, and their form made contact with world unity. All the purely Impressionist aims that have been attributed to Van Gogh are as false as in the case of the progenitor of the Impressionists, Monet, who sought painterly texture in light and shade as Van Gogh did dynamics in the texture of colour. But thanks to the fact that with Girls in the Field, c. 1928, oil on canvas (no. 71 ), Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Monet all State Russian Museum, Leningrad, accessioned from the Ministry of Culture of the U.S.S.R. in these actions were in the form of a 1977 subconscious germ they fell into the all- embracing junk of objectivity, a situation that was worsened by the critics who rings from one satellite to another. attached to them the collective label of Working on Suprematism I made the Impressionism. discovery that its forms have nothing in But in spite of all labels the subcon common with the technology of the scious and the intuitive grew, and earth's surface. All technical organisms, eventually Cezanne's "Impressionism" Suprematist Painting, 1915, oil on canvas (no. 50), too, are nothing other than little Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, acquired from developed into the Cubist body, whilst satellites, a whole living world ready to Hugo Haring, 1958 Van Gogh's became Futurist Dynamism. fly off into space and occupy its own The latter began to express dynamics special place. For in fact each of these ing, then the Cubist formation aims at with great force by means of the split satellites is equipped with a mind and is the expression of dynamics, statics and ting and scattering of things thrown by ready to live its own individual life. a new symmetry leading to the organi energie power onto the path of universal What, ¡n fact, is the canvas? What do zation of new signs in the culture of a unity of movement towards conquest of we see represented on it? Analyzing the transitional world. the infinite. canvas, we see, primarily, a window through which we discover life. The Suprematist canvas reproduces white, On New Systems in Art, 1919 Suprematism. 34 Drawings, 1920 but not blue space. The reason is Vol. 1, pp. 109-110 Vol. 1, pp. 123-124, 125 obvious: blue does not give a true impression of the infinite. The rays of The latest movements in painterly art The Suprematist apparatus, if one may vision are caught in a cupola and cannot have been greatly guided by two fig call it so, will be one whole without any penetrate the infinite. The Suprematist ures: Cubism by Cézanne and Dynamic fastenings. A bar is fused with all the infinite white allows the optical beam to Futurism by Van Gogh. elements like the globe, in itself bearing pass without encountering any limit. We ... For [Van Gogh] form was simply a the life of perfection so that every see moving bodies. Their movements tool through which dynamic power Suprematist body that is built will be and nature remain to be discovered. passed. He saw that everything trem included in a natural organization, and Having found this system I began to bles as the result of a single, universal form a new satellite. One only has to investigate the passing forms, whose movement: he was faced with conquer find the interrelationship between two whole existence ought to be discovered ing space, and everything rushed into bodies speeding through space: the and found out; they have taken their its depths. There was an incredible earth and the moon; perhaps a new place in the physical world as a whole. tension of dynamic action in his brain Suprematist satellite can be built This discovery demands a great deal of which he could see more clearly than in between them, equipped with all the work. The construction of Suprematist grasses, flowers, people or the storm. elements, which will move in orbit, colour forms is in no way connected The movements of his brain's growths creating its own new path. Studying the with aesthetic necessity. Both colours, were locked in elemental striving in his Suprematist form in motion we come to forms and figures also have a black and skull, and, perhaps, finding no outlet, the conclusion that the only way move a white period. The most important in were fated to die in the furrows of his ment to any planet can be achieved Suprematism — its double basis—are the brain. along a straight line is by a circular energies of black and white serving to His landscapes, genre-paintings, and movement of intermediate Suprematist reveal the forms of action. portraits served him as forms for ex satellites which create a straight line of 1911 CHRONOLOGY Four works shown in the second exhibition of the St. Petersburg group Adapted and abridged from the 1908 "Union of Youth." chronology by Joop Joosten, in the A large section of French artists such catalogue for the present exhibition. as Cézanne, Gauguin, and Matisse is in 1912 cluded in the exhibition "Golden Goncharova and Larionov organize Note: "Old Style" dates before 1918, Fleece," also organized by the "Blue the exhibition "Donkey's Tail," asserting when the Western calendar was intro Rose." independence from Western artistic duced, precede Western dates, which are Exhibits Studies for Fresco Painting sources. Several neo-primitivist paintings within parentheses. Numbers for specific (nos. 6-9) at the "Moscow Association of by Malevich are shown (including nos. works correspond to those in the cata Artists." 15, 16, 17, 19, 20). Four of these are logue for the present exhibition. included in the third "Union of Youth" 1909 exhibition. Shows five transrational 1878 His wife leaves him. He marries Sofia realist paintings at the first "Contem Kazimir Severinovich Malevich is born Mikhailovna Rafalovich, with whom he porary Art" exhibition in Moscow. 14 (26) or 11 (23) February in Kiev. has one daughter. 1913 1889 At the "Target" exhibition in Moscow, The family moves to Parkhomovka exhibits "cubo-futurist" works including: where Kazimir attends the agricultural Morning in the Village after Snowfall (no. school. He teaches himself to paint in a 24), Peasant Woman with Buckets (no. simple peasant style and eventually 25), and Knife Grinder: Principle of Flicker attends classes at the Kiev School of ing (no. 27). Designs costumes and sets Drawing. for a futurist opera, Victory over the Sun (see nos. 112-1 33), which is staged ¡n 1896 December. In the final "Union of Youth" The family moves to Kursk when exhibition, Malevich shows cubo-futurist Malevich marries Kazimira Ivanovna paintings and transrational realist works Zgleits. They have two children, Galina (including Face of a Peasant Girl, no. 26, and Anatolii; Anatolii later dies of and Perfected Portrait of I.V. Kliun, typhoid fever. no. 29). 1904 1914 Begins studies at the Moscow The Italian futurist poet Filippo Institute for Painting, Sculpture, and Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) visits Architecture. Russia in January. The following month, Malevich and a friend hold a futurist 190S demonstration in downtown Moscow. "Bloody Sunday," 9 (22) January, Germany and Austria declare war on St. Petersburg, in which working-class Russia. Malevich makes six anti-German citizens demonstrating for improve posters in the style of Russian folk prints. ments in working and living conditions are massacred. 1915 Malevich participates with striking Exhibits Lady in a Tram (no. 35), workers in the Battle of the Barricades in Malevich in Vitebsk, c. 1920 Aviator (no. 37), Lady at the Advertising Moscow. Returns to Kursk for a time Column (no. 40), and An Englishman in and paints outdoors in a neo- 1910 Moscow (no. 38) at the "Futurist impressionist style. Meets neo-primitivist painters Natalia Exhibition: Tramway V" in Petrograd Goncharova (1881-1962) and Mikhail (formerly St. Petersburg). 1907 Larionov (1881-1964) whose work, At the "0.10. Last Futurist Exhibition" The first recorded inclusion of his inspired by Russian folk art and ¡cons, in Petrograd, Malevich exhibits thirty- work in an exhibition sponsored by the influences his own. Goncharova invites nine completely nonrepresentational "Moscow Association of Artists." him to take part in the first exhibition of works that he calls suprematist. He Exhibition of the Moscow Symbolist the "Jack of Diamonds," a collaboration publishes a brochure, "From Cubism to group "Blue Rose" makes a profound of the avant-garde; he exhibits three Suprematism in Art, to New Realism in impression on Malevich. works, including Still Life (no. 14). Painting, to Absolute Creation." 1916 program called "Affirmation of the New Participates in the futurist exhibition, Art" (UNOVIS). "The Store" with paintings including: "Sixteenth State Exhibition," Mos DJUtóJi , i Cow and Violin (no. 32), Aviator cow, a retrospective exhibition of (no. 37), and An Englishman in Moscow Malevich's work. (no. 38). Malevich is ordered to report for mili 1920 rP*?mí tary duty, and, in December, to the front. Daughter Una (1920-1989) born in 1 April. 1* y 1917 In December UNOVIS publishes 2 March (15), Czar Nicholas Malevich's book Suprematism: 34 abdicates. Drawings. V 25 October (7 November), the October Revolution establishes the 1921 n Soviet Regime. Aleksander Rodchenko (1891 -1956) With signing of the armistice at and four colleagues participate in the Brest-Litovsk, Russia's participation in exhibition "5x5 = 25;" the catalogue World War I ends. announces the "end of painting" and the move toward contructivism. By the 1 1918 end of the year considerable differences Western calendar is introduced. emerge between this group and Male Central government moves from vich's suprematist group. Petrograd to Moscow. Malevich with his daughter Una, 1927-1929 The government establishes Free 1922 State Art Studios (SVOMAS) in Begins writing a major philosophical 1923 Petrograd and Moscow. Malevich has a text, "Suprematism. The World as Non- Sketches designs for suprematist free studio in both cities as well as a Objectivity." architecture (nos. 156-160). textile studio in Moscow. Malevich leaves for Petrograd with a Second wife, Sofia, dies. Collaborates on designs for the number of students from Vitebsk to "Congress of Committees on Rural promote UNOVIS there. Participates in 1924 Poverty" held at the Winter Palace in UNOVIS exhibition at INKhUK. 21 January, Lenin dies. Malevich Petrograd (nos. 1 34-1 36). At the "First Russian Art Exhibition" in writes a long, eulogistic essay. Berlin, exhibits cubist and suprematist 26 January, Petrograd renamed 1919 works including a "white on white" Leningrad. Civil War breaks out; extreme painting. The American collector The Petrograd Museum for Artistic economic difficulties result. Petrograd Katherine Dreier buys the cubist work Culture replaced by the Institute for Museum of Artistic Culture, housing Knife Grinder: Principle of Flickering Artistic Culture and eventually given only contemporary art, is established. In (no. 27). official status. It consists of a museum a magazine article Malevich questions Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and five scholarly departments, one of the validity of traditional museums of (U.S.S.R.) is established in December. which, the formal-theoretical depart older art. ment, is directed by Malevich. Exhibits suprematist At the Venice Biennale, he works in Moscow at the exhibits Planit (architectural) "Tenth State Exhibition: drawings (nos. 156-160) and the Non-Objective Creation and paintings Black Square, Black Suprematism," including a Cross, and Black Circle (nos. 62- recently developed series of 64). "white on white" compositions (nos. 59-61). 1925 Completes first long At the Institute, presents a theoretical essay, "On the series of charts that explain his New Systems in Art." theory of the "additional As part of SVOMAS, element." teaches at the Popular Art Builds a series of models, Institute in Vitebsk. described as "arkhitektons," Promotes suprematism from rectangular blocks of within an educational ng on Girl with a Red Staffino. 88), 3 April 1933 plaster and wood, to illustrate his ideas for a suprematist architecture 1930 pre-Revolutionary "bourgeois" art. (nos. 167-170). Malevich and his department are Forced collectivization of farms Marries Natalya Andreevna expelled from the Institute. He is results in a disastrous famine during the Manchenko (1902-1990). interned for several months and winter of 1932-1933. questioned "about the ideology of 1926 existing trends." 1934 His "arkhitektons" are shown at the At the Berlin exhibition "Soviet Paint Chaired by Maxim Gorky (1868- Institute. The exhibition is attacked by ing" he shows two works back-dated 1936), the first All-Union Congress of his opponents, and Malevich is dis 191 3 and 1915, though the paintings Soviet Writers meets in Moscow and missed from the Institute. The Institute are recent. officially adopts socialist realism as the itself is dismantled and merged with the exclusive style for Soviet writers and State Institute for Art History. 1932 artists. The Soviet government dissolves all 1927 official art groups and replaces them 1935 Visits the Bauhaus in Dessau where with unions. 15 May, Malevich dies after several he meets Walter Gropius and László Malevich's painting Sportsmen (no. months of illness. His body is placed in a Moholy-Nagy. 75) included ¡n the exhibition "Art from "suprematist" coffin and cremated. Exhibits at the "Grosse Berliner the Imperialist Epoch," as an example of Kunstausstellung." Returns to the State Institute for Art History in Leningrad where he collabo rates on plans for satellite cities near Moscow. Leaves a group of writings, theoretical charts, and works of art in Germany. 1929 The First Five-Year Plan, stressing ¡ndustralization, collectivization, and the eradication of illiteracy, is inaugurated at the Sixteenth Party Congress. As a result, the Ail-Union Cooperative of Artists is established to supervise the arts and promote creative uniformity. At the Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, new works shown in a retrospective that travels to the Kiev Art Gallery, whose director is punished for showing works by the "bourgeois" Malevich. Malevich lying in state in his Leningrad apartment, 1935 MALEVICH'S TEACHING CHARTS Alison Hilton Not only an artistic style, suprematism served as both teacher and adminis of the New Art"). In 1922 Malevich developed into a comprehensive trator in the Art Department, IZO, moved with several students to Petro philosophical system, which Malevich under the Commissariat for Popular grad (now Leningrad) where he estab explored through paintings and draw Education (Narkompros), and he took lished UNOVIS within the framework of ings, as well as writings, lectures, and part in the development of the Free Art the State Institute of Artistic Culture, teachings. The twenty-two charts that Studios, SVOMAS, in Vitebsk. There, GINKhUK. were produced under Malevich's super with his assistants and pupils, Malevich Photographs, a few surviving instruc vision form an important component of developed a new plan of art training tional materials, the artist's writings, and that system. based on collective and experimental recollections by Malevich's colleagues After the 191 7 Revolution, Malevich principles, called UNOVIS ("Affirmation and students allow us to form a portrait of the artist as a teacher. He was com prompts for Malevich when he discussed Malevich's key concept of the additional mitted to freedom for art and for the the charts. (No transcripts or notes of element, by analyzing cubism in five artist, within a certain stylistic frame any lecture on the charts survive.) distinct stages. The "formative element" work. He helped students develop Like Malevich's other theoretical is taken through various stages of individually, in harmony with their per writings, the captions on the charts rely development, from the tentative, broken ceptions and inner feelings; the class on a highly specialized vocabulary. It is line of the first stage; to the more pro room was a laboratory for the careful difficult to understand Malevich's theory nounced curves of the second and third "diagnosis" of the students' natural of the "additional element" defined on stages; and then the flat planes of the creative inclinations and the formulation chart 4 as "a formula or sign that refers fourth and fifth stages. Each stage is of "prescriptions" for guiding them to to the entire composition and order of represented by a specific work. The maturity. Malevich used perceptual the painterly body, its coloring and its chart summarizes Malevich's conclu tests, assignments, interviews with stage of development within a given sions, reached after examination of individual students, and demonstrations culture." The viewer must first identify many cubist works. In his own words: and lectures illustrated with diagrams and charts. The charts help to clarify aspects of his philosophy and convey a sense of his teaching methods. The charts, made in 1925, were intended to accompany a group exhibi tion about the Institute that would travel to Germany. Malevich never succeeded in obtaining permission to send it abroad. In 1927, however, an exhibition of his own work went to Poland and Germany, and the artist traveled with it, taking the charts with him. He wrote to a colleague at home, "I demonstrated your charts as well as mine and both aroused great interest... Glory falls like rain."1 The charts reflect the overall pro gram of the State Institute, but they are most directly related to the work of DEr EriTwiCKELungsgnvD DES ErgÄnzungsELEMEiiTS gifST DÍE MOgüchKEiT JEDES, MALETEÌSIJSTEM Malevich's own department. Their in STADIEn ZU KLA551FIzlEr En arrangement in three groups corre sponds to the main emphases of Chart 5. The degree of development of the additional element allows us to classify each painterly system according to stages. Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. From left to right, the works research by Malevich and his assistants illustrated are: Georges Braque, Violin and jar, 1910, detail; Pablo Picasso, The Violin, 1912; Unidentified in the field of "painterly culture." The collage; Pablo Picasso, Guitar and Bottle, 1914; Georges Braque, The Guitar, 1919. first section (charts 1-8) concerns analy sis of a work of art through identifi cation of "formative elements" and the characteristic structural units of each We established that in new art each color scales; the second (charts 9-16) style or "painterly system" illustrated. painterly system has its own demonstrates the analysis of sensations The appropriate "additional elements" characteristic forming element... that contribute to "painterly behavior," for each of five painterly cultures are: [from] which the artist... forms various and a proof of the ideological auton impressionism (light), Cézannism (a sensations... and content. We also omy of art; the third (charts 1 7-22) modulated contour), cubism (a "sickle," called these forming elements demonstrates Malevich's new teaching or vertical line with attached curve), additional or deforming, when they methods. It is impossible to tell exactly futurism (movement), and suprematism turn one system into another, for how much Malevich himself contri (a diagonal rod). Students were not example, Cubism into Suprematism.2 buted to the charts; only one bears a expected to understand any of the notation in his own hand. Probably he concepts from one chart alone; later 1. Letter to Matiushin, in Troels Andersen, ed., K. S. Malevich. The Artist, Infinity, Suprematism. planned the sequence and supervised charts in a sequence built upon ideas set Unpublished Writings 1922-35 (Copenhagen, the work of his assistants Anna out in earlier charts. Above all, Malevich 1978), vol. 4, 214. 2. "New Art,"1928-1930, in Troels Andersen, Leporskaia, Lev Yudin, and Konstantin intended the charts to guide and assist ed., K. S. Malevich. Essays on Art, 1915-1928 Rozhdestvensky. The German captions the viewer in a process of analysis (Copenhagen, 1971), vol. 2, 124. were for the viewers; the texts In leading to creative development. Russian probably were intended as The example shown here develops Saturday Evening Films PUBLIC PROGRAMS Constructing the Future: Early Soviet Cinema Kazimir Malevich February 8 February 2 4:00 and 6:30 1878-1935 2:00 Art in Revolution Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) February 7 - March 24, 1991 February 9 February 9 4:00 and 6:30 All programs are free with Museum 1:15 Victory over the Sun: A Futurist The Extraordinary Adventures of admission unless otherwise noted. Opera Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Lev Kuleshov, 1924) Admission to Friday Evening Lectures Sunday Panel Discussion and Saturday Evening Films is by ticket Uris Center Auditorium February 16 4:00 and 6:30 only. Free tickets are available, limit two March 10 Boccioni's Bike (Skip Battaglia, 1981 ); per person, one hour before start, at 2:00 Abstract Art and Meaning: The Man with the Movie Camera the Uris Center Information Desk. Historical Reflections and (Dziga Vertov, 1929) Contemporary Contexts Friday Evening Lectures and Films February 23 4:00 and 6:30 Aelita, Queen of Mars Uris Center Auditorium- Lowery Sims, Associate (Yakov Protazanov, 1924) March 1 Curator, Twentieth Century Art, The Metropolitan All screenings include live piano 6:00 From Figuration to Abstraction: The Museum of Art accompaniment except 6:30 Art of Kazimir Malevich and Liubov screenings on February 2 and 16. Popova Eleanor Heartney, Magdalena Dabrowsky, Associate Contributing Editor, Art in Catalogue Curator, Department of America, Contemporanea, and A fully illustrated catalogue of the Drawings, The Museum of New Art Examiner, and exhibition is available in the Museum Modern Art Editorial Associate, Art News Bookshop. The special Museum prices 7:30 Kazimir Malevich are $29.95 (paper) and Film Gary Sangster, Curator, $60.00 (hardcover). The New Museum of March 8 Contemporary Art Uris Library and Resource Center 6:00 Malevich's Legacy: Contemporary The exhibition catalogue and related Soviet Art books are available in the Uris Library Innesa Levkova-Lamm, Terry Adkins, Artist and Resource Center. All readers are independent curator and art critic welcome. 7:30 Black Square Dana Duff, Artist Film Teacher Resources and Training Sunday at the Met Packets of slides with background Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium March 15 information are available for a free 7:30 Art in Revolution March 24 two-week loan from the Uris Library Film 12:00 Victory over the Sun: A Futurist and Resource Center. Reserve in Opera advance by calling 212-570-3788. March 22 Film 7:30 Victory over the Sun: A Futurist 1:00 Kazimir Malevich For information regarding teacher Opera Film workshops on related topics, call Film 2:00 Spirit and Revolution in the Age of 212-570-3932. Malevich Afternoon Films Lecture by Gail Harrison Roman, This exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, The Armand Hammer Museum of Uris Center Auditorium Rye Arts Center Art and Cultural Center, and The Metropolitan 3:00 A Transformed Consciousness: Museum of Art, following an initiative by February 5 Kazimir Malevich's Objectless World Dr. Armand Hammer. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal 2:00 Kazimir Malevich Lecture by Charlotte Douglas, Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Associate Professor, Depart February 6 ment of Slavic Languages, The introductory essays were written by Maria Prather. This publication was prepared by the 2:00 Art in Revolution New York University, and department of twentieth-century art and the Institute of Fine Arts division of education, and produced by the February 7 4:00 Malevich: Suprematism editors office, National Gallery of Art, Washington. © 1990, Board of Trustees, 2:00 Kazimir Malevich Film National Gallery of Art, Washington.