DOCUMENT RESUME ED 405 255 SO 026 704 AUTHOR Wisotzki, Paula; Freifeld, Susan TITLE Kazimir Malevich Teaching Packet. INSTITUTION National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 90 NOTE 69p.; Twenty color slides not available from EDRS; 6 study prints reproduced in black and white in EDRS version. AVAILABLE FROMNational Gallery of Art, Department of Education Resources, Extension Programs Section, Education Division, 4th and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20565 (free loan). PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher)(052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Art; Art Criticism; Art Education; *Art History; *Artists; Cultural Context; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Interdisciplinary Approach; Symbolism; Visual Arts; Western Civilization IDENTIFIERS *Abstract Art; *Malevich (Kazimir); Russia; Russian History; Spatial Illusion (Visual Arts); *Suprematism ABSTRACT The resources of this packet provide an overview of the career of Kazimir Malevich, (1878-1935), a Russian painter from Kiev (Ukraine) and a leader in geometric abstraction who developed a style called "Suprematism." Influences on and innovations of Malevich's art are examined, and his art is related to the historical and cultural context in Russia during the early decades of the 20th century. The guide accompanies 20 colored slides that are reproduced as black and white in the text. Contextual information, discussion questions and student activities are given for each slide reproduction. The guide concludes with a time line, time line discussion questions and activities, and a bibliography. A second booklet provides extensive information on the life and times of Malevich, gives excepts from historic writings about the artist, and includes an annotated chronology of his life, a description of "Malevich's Teaching Charts," and suggested readings. Six study prints are given. 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A document do not necessarily represent II official OERI position or policy BEST COPY AVAIl ArilC Kazimir MALEVICH Kazimir Malevich Teaching Packet The goals of this packet are to: A Provide an overview of the career of Kazimir Malevich, a Russian painter from Kiev who became a leader in geometric abstraction and developed a style called suprematism A Examine influences upon and innovations of Malevich's art A Relate Malevich's art to the historical and cultural context in Russia during the early decades of the twentieth century A Suggest discussion questions and teaching activities that can be adapted by the teacher to the interests and levels of the students This teaching packet was prepared by Paula Wisotzki and Susan Freifeld for the Department of Teacher and School Programs, Education Division, National Gallery of Art, and produced by the Editors Office. © 1990 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Contents The teaching packet contains several components: ABooklet containing background and historical information about Malevich's art: 5 Kazimir Malevich at a Glance 6 Nonobjective Art 8 Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde 10Text sheets providing specific information about the slides, as well as related discussion questions and activities 46Timeline and related activities 48Select Bibliography A Twenty color slides (those marked with an asterisk are also reproduced in color prints): 1. On the Boulevard, 1903 2. Landscape, early 1900s 3. Shroud of Christ, 1908 4. Self-Portrait, c. 1908-1909 5. Bather, 1911 6. Chiropodist (at the Bathhouse), 1911-1912 7. Taking in the Rye, 1912* 8. Knife Grinder/Principle of Flickering, c. 1913* 9. Cow and Violin, 1913 10. Portrait of the Composer M. V Matiushin, 1913* 11. Enemy, 1913 12. Black Square, 1929 13. Red Square (Peasant Woman, Suprematism), 1915 14. Suprematist Painting, 1915* 15. Suprematist Painting, 1917-1918* 16. Suprematism, Splitting of Construction Form 78, c. 1917-1919 1 7. Front Program Cover for the First Congress of Committees on Rural Poverty, 1918 18. Future Planits for Leningrad. The Pilot's House, 1924 19. Woman with a Rake, c. 1928-1932* 20. Girl with a Red Staff, 1932-1933 Please review the materials, and adapt them for your students' needs. 5 .- R C C A c. Z.; UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS Leningrad Moscow N 0 R II PACIFIC 114 ti O C 4.111refr 1! BEST COPY AVA1LArt.LE Kazimir Malevich at a Glance 1. Kazimir Malevich was a Russian artist. The objects selected for this packetcover the most important years of his career: 1903-1933. 2. Early in his career Malevich worked his way through French stylesof the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: impressionism, post-impressionism,symbolism, and fauvism. (See slides 1-4.) 3. Malevich was part of a group of avant-garde Russian artistsincludingNatalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, and Vladimir Tat linwho had been similarlyinfluenced by French art. 4. Malevich and his colleagues became concerned with producingan indigenous Russian art, rather than imitating the French. To this end, they developeda style called neo-primitivism, influenced by Russian folk art and religious icons. (See slides 5-7.) 5. Eventually, Malevich and his colleagues combined ideas from theEuropean styles of cubism and futurism to shape their idea of an art for the future. (See slides8-10.) 6. Interest in cubo-futurist theories led these Russian artistsaway from imitating the appearance of the natural world, and toward experimentation with painting thatsoon became an end in itself. 7. Around 1915, Malevich developed a nonobjective style he calledsuprematism to indicate that it was the ultimate in art. Suprematist worksare characterized by simple geometric forms of pure color. (See slides 12-14.) Considering hispaintings the ultimate rejection of representation and the absolute simplification of color and form, Malevichbelieved that his art communicated "pure feeling" andbecause of its puritycouldraise mankind to a higher spiritual plane. 8. Other artists, working independently in several countries,were developing nonobjective styles at this same time. Among these artistswere Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. 9. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, nonobjective art, includingsuprematism, received the official support of the new Soviet government. During thenext decade Malevich concentrated his efforts on administration, teaching, theory, andarchitecture. (See slides 17, 18.) 10. By the late 1920s, nonobjective art had fallen out of favor with theSoviet government, and in the final years of his career Malevich returned to figurativeart. (See slides 19, 20.) Nonobjective Art The terms abstract, nonrepresentational, and nonobjective are used virtuallyinterchangeably to refer to art that is not tied to the natural world. Of the three terms, abstractis probably used most frequently, but it is also the most problematic, because it actually has twomeanings when applied to art: it can denote art that does not attempt to reproducewhat is visible to the eye, or art that simplifies or refines natural appearance, but does not eliminate it.Nonrepresentational emphasizes that the art portrays nothing of the natural world, while nonobjectiveoffers a variation on the same idea, designating art that does not representobjects. Whatever word is employed, these terms describe the work of several artists who, in thesecond decade of the twentieth century, began to produce paintings independent of references to nature. KazimirMalevich's contribution to the development of nonobjective art was unique, buthe was by no means alone in that achievement. Rejecting representation (the attempt to present an image of thenatural world) as the primary function of painting was not a step that artists took suddenly.Instead, the process was a gradual one, with roots in the mid-nineteenth century. The adventof photography in 1839 played a significant role in freeing painting from the need toreproduce nature, although there was no simple cause-and-effect relationshipbetween the development of the modern camera and nonobjective art. France dominated Western art throughout the nineteenth century,and therefore French artists provide the most instructive examples of the sources ofabstraction. In the 1860s, Edouard Manet presented the world he experienced every day, rather than onethat was the product of his imagination and intellect. His contemporary subjects were produced in a mannerthat asserted that they were paintingstwo-dimensional surfaces rather thanillusions of a window into another world. Impressionist artists, such as Claude Monet and AugusteRenoir, recorded their observations of the world, but captured those "impressions" withthick paint and loose brushstrokes that made the viewer aware of the act of painting. The shifting balance between the importance of image and painting wasbest articulated by the artist Maurice Denis in 1890: "A picturebefore being a warhorse, anude woman,