Kazimir Malevich is the greatest artist who is honored not only in our country, but throughout the world. During his creative life, he created about 300 avant-garde masterpieces that have not lost their relevance to this day.
The genius of the Russian avant-garde
Being the brightest representative of abstractionism in art, the great Kazimir Severinovich Malevich at the beginning of the twentieth century became the founder of one of his directions - Suprematism.
A new and such an unfamiliar word meant perfection, superiority, domination over everything earthly and tangible. Malevichās paintings became a breath of fresh air in art, and their whole essence was a contrast to naturalism in painting.
The essence of Suprematism
The fundamental elements of the paintings were geometric shapes of bright colors, depicted in various combinations and directions. Geometry in the paintings of supremists is not just an image. It carries a deep meaning, understood by each viewer in their own way. Some will see the originality and innovation of the author, others will realize that ordinary things are actually not as simple as they seem.
Most fully this direction has revealed itself within the framework of the Russian avant-garde.
So much of the innovation in the world of painting came to the place and time that it was reflected not only in painting, but also in the architecture and everyday life of contemporaries. For example, the facades of houses and household utensils were decorated with symbols of Suprematism. It corresponded to the spirit of that time and became popular.
Probably the most vivid and exciting imagination was Malevichās painting āSuprematist compositionā (a blue rectangle over a red ray), which to this day is the rarest creation of 20th-century fine art in Russia and the most expensive painting by a Russian artist in the world.
Painting - a masterpiece of new art
The painting "Suprematist composition" is a collection of the main symbols of a new direction in painting, geometric figures with a strip in diagonal projection. Rectangles of different dimensions and colors seem to hover in a snow-white space, refuting all the laws of statics. This creates the impression of something unknown, something beyond the traditional understanding of the world. It is quite an earthly tangible objects that suddenly appear in the role of symbols of some new fantastic knowledge.
The canvas represents the middle stage between the previously written "Black Square" and the works included in the cycle of white Suprematism. The figures of geometry are like a microcosm soaring in the macrocosm of the white abyss.
The center of the picture is a large bright blue rectangle, close in its parameters to a square, depicted on top of a red ray penetrating the canvas and as if indicating the direction to all other figures.
According to the laws of Suprematism, the colors of geometric shapes come to the background, the essence of the rectangles and rays, their texture, is of paramount importance.
The fate of a masterpiece in the first half of the twentieth century
The path of this picture to this day is not easy, but very interesting.
He wrote "Suprematist composition" Malevich in 1916. In 1927, the great artist in need in his homeland had a great opportunity to show himself to the world and organize an exhibition in Warsaw, and then in Berlin. Malevichās paintings exhibited in the hall of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition made a splash in the world of art, and the audience enthusiastically accepted them. Among them was the āSuprematist compositionā with a strip in the projection.
When Malevich managed to gain about 2000 rubles for one of his works, he rejoiced. But dreams of a bright future were not destined to come true - shortly after the start of the exhibition, Malevich was called by telegram to Leningrad.
Separated from the canvases
The great master expected to return to Berlin and continue to popularize the ideology of Suprematism. But he never managed to get abroad again. He was, like many of his other compatriots, a hostage to the existing political system in his own country. Malevich died in 1935. At home, he remained a disgraced artist without a livelihood.
In Germany there were about 100 works of the unsurpassed artist. Their guardian was the eminent architect Hugo Haring, who soon passed them into the hands of the director of the museum in Hanover, Alexander Dorner. Dorner sold part of the paintings to the curator of the New York Museum of Modern Art Alfred Barr. Among them was also a āSuprematist compositionā with a strip.
It is impossible to blame Alexander Dorner for self-interest and money-loving. The fact is that he struggled to break out of Germany, in which the nationalist ideology was more and more established every year in rights. At that time, storing works of "degenerative art" of Jewish-Bolshevik origin, which were considered the paintings of Malevich in Nazi Germany, was like death. Thanks to the connection with MoMA, Dorner managed to get an American visa and go overseas. So the masterpieces of Suprematism practically saved the life of an art critic.
Traveling paintings overseas
The modern world of art owes the salvation of part of the imperishable canvases to the American Alfred Barr, who, risking his life, brought works of fine art to the USA in the umbrella. It is easy to imagine what would happen to him if a cache were discovered ...
The remaining paintings, ironically, were again protected by Hugo Hering, who, ignoring the great risk to his life, began to keep them in his possession until his death in 1958.
Amsterdam period and litigation
Truly, the fate of the avant-garde masterpiece would be worth making a film with an exciting plot.
After the death of Hugo Haring, paintings, including "Suprematist composition," were sold to the Stedelake Museum in Amsterdam. For some time, the canvas found peace in the walls of this museum, but not for long ...
Since the 1970s, the heirs of the great avant-garde began to claim their rights to priceless paintings. Since that time, legal proceedings have been conducted on the issue of inheritance law. Only in 2002, due to one circumstance, the descendants of the artist were able to get what they wanted.
It was in 2002 that 14 paintings of a huge collection from Studelyovka were sent to the USA to the Guggenheim Museum for the grandiose exhibition āKazimir Malevich. Suprematismā. This fact served as a decisive factor in the resolution of many years of litigation. In the United States, lawyers have found loopholes that simply did not exist in the laws of the Netherlands. Thanks to this, the Dutch transferred to the possession of the heirs of Kazimir Malevich 5 of his brightest paintings, among which was the āSuprematist compositionā with a rectangle and a red beam.
The end of ordeals
Malevichās long odyssey of work ended in 2008, when it was sold at Sotheby's for an incredibly huge amount of money, namely, for $ 60 million. This amount was offered by an anonymous painting lover even before the start of bidding.
The popularity of the paintings of the great master is only growing. This is evidenced by the fact of the purchase in May 2017 (as part of the same auction) of the painting "Suprematist composition" with a strip in the projection. It was sold for a smaller, but still huge amount - $ 21.2 million.
The greatest avant-garde would know how much his work is valued these days ... After all, at one time he turned out to be incomprehensible and disgraced, especially after his triumph in the West.
So the āSuprematist compositionā by Kazimir Malevich, having undergone so many tests in the difficult 20th century, turned out to be the most expensive painting by a Russian author at a foreign auction. And who knows whether this point in this amazing story is set ...