Malevich Kazimir works of painting. Kazimir Malevich, biography, all the best paintings with descriptions

On February 23, 1879, Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, founder of Suprematism Kazimir Malevich was born in Kyiv. He is one of the founders abstract art. He became known for his interpretation of the subject form as a combination of geometric elements contrasting in color. We decided to remember a few famous paintings artist.

"Black square"

This painting was created by Kazimir Malevich in 1915. It is his most famous work. “Black Square” was conceived as part of a triptych, which included “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”. The painting was created by Malevich for the futuristic exhibition “0.10”, which opened in St. Petersburg on December 19, 1915. The painting “Black Square” was in the most prominent place, in the so-called red corner, where icons are usually hung in Russian houses.

Some felt that the artist was misleading them by hiding the original image under a black square. However, a later examination did not confirm the presence of another image on the canvas.

Malevich himself explained the concept of his first “Black Square” as follows: “The square is a feeling, the white space is the emptiness behind this feeling.”

There are two more basic Suprematist square- red and white. The red and white squares were part of the artistic and philosophical triad defined by Malevich. Subsequently, Malevich performed several original repetitions of “Black Square” for various purposes. There are now four known versions of the “Black Square”, differing in design, texture and color.

"Black Circle"

Another one famous work Malevich - "Black Circle". He also created this painting in 1915; it was also exhibited at the “0.10” exhibition. It is part of the triptych “Black Square”, “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”. The "Black Circle" is stored in private collection. Later, Malevich's students under his leadership created the second version of the painting. The second version is kept in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

"Red Cavalry Gallops"

Between 1928 and 1932, Malevich created another painting that became famous. It is known as "The Red Cavalry Rides." It is interesting that for a long time this painting was the only abstract work of the artist that entered the official history of Soviet art. This was facilitated by its title and depiction of events October revolution. Malevich put on back side date of the 18th year, although in fact it was written later. The picture is divided into three parts: sky, earth and people (red cavalry). The ratio of the width of the earth and the sky is in the proportion of 0.618 ( golden ratio). Cavalry of three groups of four riders, each rider blurred - perhaps a cavalry of four ranks. The earth is drawn from 12 colors.

"Suprematist composition"

The painting “Suprematist Composition” was created by Malevich in 1916. She exhibited in Moscow in 1919-1920. In 1927, Malevich exhibited the painting at exhibitions in Warsaw and later in Berlin. After Kazimir Malevich’s urgent departure to the USSR in June 1927, the painting was transferred to him for safekeeping German architect Hugo Goering. In total, after the exhibition, Malevich left more than a hundred of his paintings in Berlin in 1927. Goering later took these paintings from Nazi Germany, where they were to be destroyed as “degenerate art.”

(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 beet factories and in 1894 transferred to a factory in the village of Parkhomovka near railway"Kyiv-Kursk". In Parkhomovka, Malevich graduated from an agricultural school and joined 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 department in order to accumulate funds to receive 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 work from life on outdoors and to impressionism (“FLOWER GIRL”, 1903, State Russian Museum; “ON THE BOULEVARD”. 1903, State 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 entrance exams at the School, but that didn’t help either. 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 personal exhibition 1929 in 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, Art 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 Youth Union exhibition in 1911 in St. Petersburg, and then in the Donkey Tail and Target exhibitions in 1912 and 1913 .. In 1913, Malevich turned to cubism (“LADY AT THE PIANO,” 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 it visual medium doesn't 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 pointless works in traditional technique letters in oil 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 he first appeared new term: “From Cubism to Suprematism. New pictorial realism." The name was derived from 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 whole line 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 theoretical and practical development 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 to military service. In 1917 he was elected to the Moscow Council of Soldiers' Deputies, in which he became chairman of the art department. After the October Revolution, in 1918, Malevich was also elected as a member of various commissions: Commission for Arts of the People's Commissariat of Education: Commission for the Protection artistic values art and antiquity, 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 collective method 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 artistic culture(Giphook). 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 towards his research activities and ensured that the artist left 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).

The mystery of Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square” is even more difficult to explain than the smile of the Mona Lisa. At least everyone sees the latter in approximately the same way, but in “Kvadrat” everyone sees something different. Art critics are still arguing over this painting, but no one disputes that this is an event in the art world. "Black Square" has become an integral part modern culture and eclipsed Malevich's other works. Meanwhile, the catalog of this very prolific abstract artist contains several hundred paintings, real masterpieces of Suprematism. Today we will talk about some of them - and let this be a small educational program.

An old joke about main job Malevich (“This is not a black square, but white frame") can be paraphrased at least six more times. The artist painted seven squares throughout his life: four black, two “Red Squares” (located in the collection of the State Russian Museum and in the former collection of Nikolai Khardzhiev) and one “ White square"(exhibited in the Museum's collection contemporary art in NYC).

All " Black squares"Malevich are different. The paintings differ not only in size, but also in execution technique and even color (no matter how strange it may sound). For example, the first - the very same - masterpiece of 1915 was painted with matte black paint over a color composition that is visible in X-rays. Due to uneven drying of the layers, the black paint has cracked and red randomly appears from underneath. The master’s third “Square”, painted in 1929 for a personal exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, has a deep and rich black color.

In addition to “Squares,” the ideological abstractionist also loved to paint circles and crosses. Paintings " Black cross" And " black circle"(1915) formed a triptych with the "Black Square".

In the same year, 1915, Kazimir Malevich created a pair of “Black” and “ Red Square" True, it was no longer a strict square - the picture depicted irregular quadrilateral. For this or for another reason, the work received the double title “Red Square or Picturesque Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions.”

One of Malevich’s programmatic works was written in the late 20s of the last century “ Red cavalry gallops». For a long time this painting was the only one of the artist’s abstract works recognized official history Soviet art.

Painting from the series "Harvest", created in 1912-1913. Here Kazimir Malevich inherits the style of Pablo Picasso. From the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

One of the most expensive paintings brushes by Kazimir Malevich is “ Suprematist composition": On November 3, 2008, it was sold at Sotheby’s for $60 million. In the 1920s, the painting was exhibited in Germany and was transferred to the storage of the German architect Hugo Goering. Later, she and other paintings by the master were taken from Nazi Germany, where they were subject to destruction as “degenerate art,” to the USA. Currently, the painting, measuring 88.5 cm × 71 cm, is kept in a private collection.

Kazimir Malevich avoided painting portraits, but if circumstances forced him to do so, the portraits turned out to be the most unique. Take, for example, the phenomenal " Woman with buckets"(1912) - would you have guessed what it depicted without a hint in the form of a title? A brilliant example of Cubo-Futurism, the painting is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

There are no faces in the group “portrait” either. Girls in the field"(1932). Instead of them and other parts of the body, here are the correct ones geometric figures. The composition is enlivened by bright colors. This painting uses almost all the colors of the rainbow: compare it with the minimalism of “Black Squares”!

But in creating a self-portrait, the artist abandoned abstractions. In the 1910 painting, Malevich depicted himself as “young and old” at the same time, achieving this effect through the play of shadows. One half of the artist’s face shines with youth, the second - located in the shadows - bears the features of withering. " Self-portrait"is exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery.

Everyone may consider themselves an impressionist, but not everyone can impress the public. Judging by the first works of Kazimir Malevich (and this “ Scenery"was created in 1908), in the early stages of his work he was inspired by pointillism and the work of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

Fans of “traditional” painting may be attracted by a series of paintings by Malevich created in the 10s of the last century. Created in the style of impressionism and reminiscent of the works of Claude Monet and Henri Matisse, the canvas “ On the boulevard"is on display at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

On early stage creatively, the artist followed a more traditional manner. In the painting from 1910 “ Sisters» Malevich painted the faces – albeit rather schematically. The painting is exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery.

The first fun of a novice artist is with composition, color and space. This cute piece is called “Rest. Society in Top Hat" (23.8 x 30.2 cm, gouache, watercolor, cardboard) was written in 1908.

Here is an interesting “urban” landscape. The painting is simply called “ Landscape with five houses" This is no longer cubism, but primitivism. This very simple and harmonious work was written in 1932. Now exhibited at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Kazimir Malevich was born in Kyiv - on the former Bulyonskaya street (now named after him). The artist knew the language well and was inspired by Ukrainian motifs. folk art and considered himself a Ukrainian - as can be judged from his letters to friends. One of the dedications hometown became the picture " Landscape near Kyiv"with the image of a "cage of cherry blossoms", painted in 1930, 5 years before the death of the master.

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, elementary 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 Kursk Catholic Temple Dormition 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 the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but was refused. Not wanting to return home, Malevich settled in the artistic commune in Lefortovo, located in spacious house 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 re-applied 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 into furnished rooms in 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 private studio 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, on the other hand, he clearly couldn’t 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 scandalous exhibition group "Donkey's Tail", 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 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 in St. Petersburg theater“Luna Park” hosted the premiere of Matyushin’s futuristic opera “Victory over the Sun” based on the words of Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov, 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 art historyXXcentury - 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 trend in the vanguard. 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 the barricade battles in 1905. However, in the spring of 1918, the artist bitterly noted in an article for the Anarchy newspaper: “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 gigantic center for contemporary art: it was supposed to include workshops and homes of artists. 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” atX State 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 in 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 of Contemporary 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 Natalya Andreevna Manchenko turned out to be his new passion. 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 Greater 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 in Moscow State Institute art history and at the same time preparing for the next exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, the artist began restoring his early works by 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 great amount theoretical works, in which he provides a rationale for Suprematism and his color theory. 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 Suprematist decoration."

Particular attention should be paid to the color palette of 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 artist’s most often quoted thesis 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 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 carried out by him personally showed that definite form causes associations with the same color in most subjects. But, as Malevich rightly noted, in the context of a painting, colors and forms 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 prison term 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. 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, with their titles, give a complete idea of ​​his understanding of reality, unique technology performance and personal attitude towards fine arts, are presented below according to the years of their creation.

The beginning of the way

Kazimir Malevich was born in Kyiv, into a 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 what overwhelmed him. philosophical reflections and thoughts about 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 K. Malevich’s work as an artist on sketches of scenery and costumes for the production of M. V. Matyushin’s opera “Victory over the Sun.” Then for the first time the image of a black square appeared, which symbolized victory human creativity above 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 blacks in a dark cave” redirects to the painting by Alphonse Allais “Battle of blacks in a cave” late at 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. Painting " Summer landscape"was written by him in 1928 - 1929. The influence of realism is noticeable in it. In this work, the artist used to express his idea and compositional solution strokes of different textures and sizes. 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 there 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, color combinations which can be called quite harsh. 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 of personal development of the great reformer. He emphasized that the philosophy of Suprematism would allow the artist to bring art to himself.