Suprematism
Started: 1913
Ended: Late 1920s
KEY ARTISTS
 | Kazimir Malevich Quick View  Artist Page |
| Kazimir Malevich |  |
| Kazimir Malevich was a Russian modernist painter and theorist who founded Suprematism. Along with his painting Black Square, his mature works feature simple geometric shapes on blank backgrounds. Art Story: Kazimir Malevich Artist Page | ||
 | Ilya Chashnik Quick View Further External Info  |
| Ilya Chashnik | |
| Ilya Chashnik was a Suprematist artist, a pupil of Kazimir Malevich and a founding member of the UNOVIS school. He painted, was proficient in metalwork, and designed ceramics produced at the Imperial Porcelain Factory. The University of Texas at Austin held an exhibition dedicated to his works in 1981. Further External Info | ||
 | El Lissitzky Quick View Artist Page |
| El Lissitzky | |
| El Lissitzky was a Russian avant-garde painter, photographer, architect and designer. Along with his mentor Kazimir Malevich, Lissitzky helped found Suprematism. His art often employed the use of clean lines and simple geometric forms, and expressed a fascination with Jewish culture. Lissitzky was also a major influence on the Bauhaus school of artists and the Constructivist movement. Art Story: El Lissitzky Artist Page | ||
 | Alexander Rodchenko Quick View Artist Page |
| Alexander Rodchenko | |
| Aleksander Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles - usually high above or below - to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He was one of the founders of Constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova. Art Story: Alexander Rodchenko Artist Page | ||
 | Olga Rozanova Quick View Artist Page |
| Olga Rozanova | |
| Olga Rozanova was a Russian avant-garde artist who painted in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primitivism, and Cubo-Futurism. Her paintings took an entirely original departure into pure abstraction, in which the compositions were organized by the visual weight and relationship of color. Art Story: Olga Rozanova Artist Page | ||
 | Nikolai Suetin Quick View Further External Info |
| Nikolai Suetin | |
| Nikolai Suetin was a Russian Suprematist artist. He worked as a graphic artist, a designer, and a ceramics painter. Suetin studied at the High Institute of Art, under Kazimir Malevich. He was the chief artist and designer of the USSR pavilions for the 1937 World Exhibitions in Paris. Further External Info | ||
"Suprematism has advanced the ultimate tip of the visual pyramid of perspective into infinity.... We see that Suprematism has swept away from the plane the illusions of two-dimensional planimetric space, the illusions of three-dimensional perspective space, and has created the ultimate illusion of irrational space, with its infinite extensibility into the background and foreground."
Summary of Suprematism
Suprematism, the invention of Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was one of the earliest and most radical developments in abstract art. Its name derived from Malevich's belief that Suprematist art would be superior to all the art of the past, and that it would lead to the "supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts." Heavily influenced by avant-garde poets, and an emerging movement in literary criticism, Malevich derived his interest in flouting the rules of language, in defying reason. He believed that there were only delicate links between words or signs and the objects they denote, and from this he saw the possibilities for a totally abstract art. And just as the poets and literary critics were interested in what constituted literature, Malevich came to be intrigued by the search for art's barest essentials. It was a radical and experimental project that at times came close to a strange mysticism. Although the Communist authorities later attacked the movement, its influence was pervasive in Russia in the early 1920s, and it was important in shaping Constructivism, just as it has been in inspiring abstract art to this day.
Key Ideas
Saying "In 1913, trying desperately to liberate art from the ballast of the representational world, I sought refuge in the form of the square," Kasimir Malevich invented Suprematism. For him the elemental shape was, "The first step of pure creation."
Important Art and Artists of Suprematism | |
  | Study for Decor of Victory Over the Sun (1913)Artist: Kazimir Malevich Artwork description & Analysis: Malevich collaborated with Alexei Kruchenykh and Mikhail Matiushin on the decor for the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun (1913). This sketch for the backdrop of Act 2, Scene 5, foreshadows the development of Suprematism in its use of a geometric motif, though it doesn't prefigure any particular Suprematist piece. Without the use of color or shading, the square moves beyond a sense of Cubist space with its confrontational flatness. The black and white in this composition, which can signify presence from absence (creation), hints again at the birth of Malevich's new movement. The opera was a particularly appropriate place for the debut of Malevich's ideas, since the Futurist movement that inspired it was also important in shaping Suprematism. Just as Futurism aimed at a total renewal of Russian culture, so Suprematism claimed to supersede all art movements that had gone before it. Malevich's designs for the opera marked a major break with theatrical convention, since they were neither decorative nor did they illustrate a scene such as a landscape or a room. Their strange darkness also chimed with Mikhail Matiushin's belief that the opera was about "Victory, over the old accepted concept of the beautiful sun." Pencil on paper - State Theatre Museum, St. Petersburg |
 | Black Square (c. 1915)Artist: Kazimir Malevich Artwork description & Analysis: Once described as Malevich's "living, royal infant," the Black Square has been seen as a major landmark in the history of abstract art, a point of both beginning and ending. Malevich would paint four versions of it between 1915 and the early 1930s, and it is said that the last version was carried behind his coffin during his funeral. Pared down from a design he painted for the Victory Over the Sun (1913), this first version depicts a purely black square against a thin border of white, further obscuring any sense of normal space or perspective. At the 0.10 exhibition in 1915, Malevich emphasized its status by hanging it across the corner of a room, emulating the Russian tradition for the placement of religious icons. Oil on canvas - Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow |
 | Suprematist Painting, Eight Red Rectangles (1915)Artist: Kazimir Malevich Artwork description & Analysis: The three levels of Suprematism were described by Malevich as black, colored and white. Eight Red Rectangles is an example of the second, more dynamic phase, in which primary colors began to be used. The composition is somewhat ambiguous, since while on the one hand the rectangles can be read as floating in space, as if they were suspended on the wall, they can also be read as objects seen from above. Malevich appears to have read them in the latter way, since at one time he was fascinated by aerial photography. Indeed he later criticized this more dynamic phase of his Suprematist movement as 'aerial Suprematism,' since its compositions tended to echo pictures of the earth taken from the skies, and in this sense departed from his ambitions for a totally abstract, non-objective art. The uneven spacing and slight tilt of the juxtaposed shapes in Eight Red Rectangles, as well as the subtly different tones of red, infuse the composition with energy, allowing Malevich to experiment with his concept of "infinite" space. Oil on canvas - Museum of Modern Art, New York |
More Suprematism Artwork and Analysis:
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First published on 21 Jan 2012. Updated and modified regularly. 
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