Suprematism

SUPREMATISM

HISTORY OF THE SUPREMATISM ART MOVEMENT

CONTENTS

9-15

Key Players

Kazimir Malevich 1-8

Introduction History

23-25

Influences

How It Ended 16-23

Art Work

Mixed Media

ART WORK OF SUPREMATISM

Going into the artwork of Suprematism, Malevich was strongly influenced by cubism and primitive art. The arrangements of geometric forms in various colours are arranged against a flat white background in such ways to express movement, rhythm and speed. This style allowed his work to not have any reference to reality and create completely abstract art. He believed that the “aspiration to transmit what is seen” was a “false conception of art,” stating that this false conception was created by the savage. (Tatlin. V). The first important piece of work created by Malevich was ‘The Black Square’, Malevich declared that ‘the square is not a subconscious form. It is a creation of intuitive reason.

It is the face of new art. The square is living, royal infant.

It is the first step of pure creation in art’ (J. Milner).

This black square became a centerpiece for the new movement.

Left: 1:. Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Painting 1916

In 1915, the Russian artists Kseniya Boguslavskaya, Ivan

Below 2: . Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism: 1916

Klyun, Mikhail Menkov, Ivan Puni and Olga Rozanova joined with Kazimir Malevich to form the Suprematist group. Together, they unveiled their new work to the public at 0.10, The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings (1915). (TheArtStory) The work that featured had a wide variety of geometric shapes on white or light backgrounds and the compositions were supposed to reflect moving in space. The Suprematist art movement happened in three stages, ‘black’ ‘coloured’ and ‘white’.

After Malevich initially started with the Black Square and black phase other artists developed the coloured stage. This phase focused on using more colour and shapes that created the sensation of movement in space. The final stage was another important stage where Malevich produced ‘White on White’. With this piece he pushed the limits of abstraction to an unprecedented degree. The square on top is differentiated from a slightly warmer white ground and given the illusion of movement by its skewed and off-center position. Malevich wanted to free art from the constraints of objectivity claiming, “Forms must be given life and the right to individual existence” (Abrams. H). This links with the manifesto that Malevich went on to write called ‘The Non-Objective World’, all of the art tried to change peoples opinions on what art was. The Supre-

matist artists all had obsessions with the latest technology and speed, such as cars and aero planes. This is shown in their work and they create the elusion that the work is weightless and limitless on the page.