Malevich's works are one of the most striking manifestations of abstract art of modern times. The founder of Suprematism, a Russian and Soviet artist, entered the history of world art with the painting "Black Square", but his work was not limited to this work. Any cultural person should be familiar with the most famous works of the artist.
Theorist and practitioner of contemporary art
Malevich's works vividly reflect the state of affairs in society at the beginning of the 20th century. The artist himself was born in Kiev in 1879.
According to his own stories in his autobiography, the artist’s public exhibitions began in Kursk in 1898, although no documentary evidence was found of this.
In 1905, he tried to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. However, he was not accepted. At that time, Malevich in Kursk had a family - the wife of Casimir Zgleits and children. There was a split in their personal life, therefore, without even entering, Malevich did not want to return to Kursk. The artist settled in Lefortovo in an art commune. In the huge house of the artist Kurdyumov lived about 300 masters of painting. Malevich lived in the commune for six months, but despite the extremely low housing costs, six months later the money ran out, he still had to return to Kursk.
Malevich finally moved to Moscow only in 1907. He attended classes of the artist Fedor Rerberg. In 1910, he began to take part in exhibitions of the creative association of the early avant-garde "Jack of Diamonds". Pictures began to appear that brought him world fame and recognition.
"Suprematist composition"
In 1916, Malevich's work is already quite well known in the capital. At that time, the Suprematist composition appears . She is painted in oil on canvas. In 2008, it was sold at Sotheby's for $ 60 million.
At the auction it was put up by the artist’s heirs. In 1927, she was exhibited at an exhibition in Berlin.
At the opening of the gallery, Malevich himself represented it, but he soon had to return, since the Soviet authorities did not extend his foreign visa. He had to leave all the work. There were about 70 of them. The German architect Hugo Hering was appointed responsible. Malevich hoped to return for the paintings in the very near future, but he was never released abroad anymore.
Before his very death, Hering transferred all the works of Malevich, which he kept for many years, to the city museum of Amsterdam (also known as the Museum of Steleleik). Hering concluded an agreement according to which the museum had to pay him a certain amount every 12 years. Ultimately, immediately after the death of the architect, his relatives who executed the inheritance received the entire amount at a time. Thus, the “Suprematist composition” fell into the funds of the Amsterdam City Museum.
The heirs of Malevich accepted attempts to return these paintings, starting from the 70s of the XX century. But they were unsuccessful.
Only in 2002, 14 works from the Amsterdam Museum were presented at the exhibition "Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism". It was held at the Guggenheim Museum in the United States. Malevich’s heirs, some of whom are American citizens, have filed a lawsuit against the Dutch museum. The management of the gallery went to a pre-trial agreement. According to its results, 5 of 36 paintings by the artist were returned to his descendants. In return, the heirs refused further claims.
This painting is still the most expensive painting by a Russian artist ever sold at auction.
"Black square"
Malevich's “Black Square” is one of his most discussed works. It is part of the artist’s series of works devoted to Suprematism. In it, he explored the basic possibilities of composition and light. In addition to the square, in this triptych there are paintings "Black Cross" and "Black Circle".
Malevich painted the picture in 1915. The work was done for the final exhibition of futurists. Malevich's works at the exhibition "0.10" 1915 were posted, as they say, in the "red corner". In the place where the icon was traditionally hung in the Russian huts, the "Black Square" was located. The most mysterious and most creepy picture in the history of Russian painting.
Three key suprematist forms - a square, a cross, and a circle - in the theory of art were considered standards that stimulate further complication of the entire Suprematist system. It is from them in the future that new Suprematist forms are born.
Many researchers of the artist’s creativity have repeatedly tried to find the original version of the picture, which would be located under the top layer of paint. So, in 2015, fluoroscopy was performed. As a result, we managed to isolate two more color images that were located on the same canvas. Initially, a cubofuturistic composition was drawn, and above it also a protosuprematist one. Only then everything was flooded with a black quarter.
Scientists also managed to decipher the inscription, which the artist left on the canvas. These are the words “The Battle of the Blacks in a Dark Cave”, which refer art connoisseurs to the famous monochrome work of Alfons Alla, which he created in 1882.
It is no coincidence that the name of the exhibition, to which Malevich's works were demonstrated. Photos from the vernissage can still be found in the old archives and magazines of the time. The presence of the number 10 indicated the number of participants expected by the organizers. But zero said that the "Black Square" would be exhibited, which, according to the author, was going to reduce everything to zero.
Three squares
In addition to the "Black Square" in the work of Malevich there were several more of these geometric figures. Yes, and the "Black Square" at first was a simple triangle. He did not have strict right angles. Therefore, from the point of view of exclusively geometry, it was a quadrangle, not a square. Art historians note that the whole point is not in the negligence of the author, but in a principled position. Malevich strove to create an ideal form that would be quite dynamic and agile.
There are also two more works of Malevich - squares. These are Red Square and White Square. The painting "Red Square" was shown at the exhibition of avant-garde artists "0.10". The white square appeared in 1918. At that time, Malevich’s works, photos of which are in any art textbook today, went through the stage of the “white” period of Suprematism.
"Mystical Suprematism"
From 1920 to 1922, Malevich worked on the painting "Mystical Suprematism". It is also known as the "Black Cross on the Red Oval." The canvas is painted in oil on canvas. It was also sold at Sotheby's for nearly $ 37,000.
By and large, this painting repeats the fate of the "Suprematist construction", which has already been told. She also ended up in the collections of the Amsterdam Museum, and only after Malevich’s heirs went to court did they manage to regain at least some of the paintings.
"Suprematism. 18 construction"
Malevich’s works, photos with the names of which can be found in any textbook on the history of art, fascinate and attract close attention.
Another interesting painting is the painting "Suprematism. 18 construction", painted in 1915. At the Sotheby's auction, it was sold in 2015 for almost $ 34 million. She also fell into the hands of the artist’s heirs after a trial with the Amsterdam City Museum.
Another picture that the Dutch parted with was Suprematism: the football player’s picturesque realism. Colorful masses in the fourth dimension. She found her owner in 2011. It was acquired by the Art Institute in Chicago for an amount that it did not want to divulge to the public. But the work of 1913 - "Desk and Room" could be seen at Malevich's major exhibition in the Tate Gallery in Madrid. Moreover, the picture was exposed anonymously. What the organizers had in mind is unclear. Indeed, in those cases when the true owner of the canvas wants to remain incognito, they declare that the painting is in a private collection. Here, a fundamentally different formulation is used.
"Suprematist composition"
Malevich's works, the description of which you will find in this article, will give you a fairly complete and clear idea of ​​his work. For example, the painting "Suprematist composition" was created in 1919-1920. In 2000, at the Phillips auction, it was sold for $ 17 million.
This picture, unlike the previous ones, after Malevich’s departure from Berlin to the Soviet Union, remained in Germany. In 1935, Alfred Barr, director of the New York Museum of Modern Art, took her to the United States. She has been exhibited in the USA for 20 years as part of the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art. The fact is that the picture had to be taken out urgently - in Germany by that time the Nazis had come to power, Malevich’s work fell out of favor. His Nazi authorities attributed to the samples of "degenerative art." First, the director of the Hanover Museum hid the canvas in his basement, and then secretly handed it to Barr, who brought the priceless work to the United States.
In 1999, the New York Museum returned this painting and several of his graphic works to the heirs of Malevich.
Self portrait
In 1910, Malevich painted his self-portrait. This is one of his three self-portraits painted during this period. It is well known that the other two are kept in domestic museums. These works of Malevich in the Tretyakov Gallery can be seen.
The third self-portrait was sold at auction. Initially, he was in the private collection of George Costaki. In 2004, at a Christie auction in London, a self-portrait found its owner for just 162 thousand pounds. In total, because over the next 35 years its value has grown by about 35 times. Already in 2015, the canvas was sold at the Sotheby's auction for almost $ 9 million. Indeed, a profitable investment.
"The head of the peasant"
If we analyze the work of Malevich over the years, then we can establish a certain tendency, with the help of which we can trace how his work developed.
A good example for this is the painting "The Head of a Peasant", painted in 1911. In 2014, at the Sotheby's auction in London, she went under the hammer for $ 3.5 million.
For the first time, the public saw this picture of Malevich in 1912 at the exhibition "Donkey's Tail", which was organized by Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. After that, she participated in the Berlin exhibition of 1927. Then Malevich himself presented it to Hugo Hering. Already from him, she was inherited by his wife and daughter. Hering's heirs sold the painting only in 1975, after his death.
In the Russian Museum
Malevich's works in the Russian Museum are represented very widely. Here, perhaps, is the richest collection of his works. The creativity of this reformer and teacher is held in high esteem, and his canvases are given the most honorable places.
In total, there are about 100 paintings in the collections of the Russian Museum today, plus at least 40 graphic works. Many of them with new dating. More accurate. The uniqueness of the collection presented in the Russian Museum lies in the fact that not only a lot of works, they also cover the widest possible range of his work. Presented are both early works, almost the first experiments in painting, and late realistic portraits, which do not recognize the brush of the artist who painted the "Black Square".
The death of the artist
Kazimir Malevich died in Leningrad in 1935. According to his will, the body was placed in a Suprematist coffin, which is a cross with arms outstretched, and cremated.