Kazimir Malevich

Cupola at St. Petersburg, pencil and watercolour.


Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born on February 26, 1878, near Kiev.
Russian painter, designer, and writer, with Mondrian the most important pioneer of geometric abstract art.

During the early years of his career, he experimented with various Modernist styles and participated in avant-garde exhibitions, such as those of the Moscow Artists’ Association together with Vasily Kandinsky and Mikhail Larionov.
He held Exhibition of Watercolour in December 1910 at the Society of Moscow Painters.Malevich was the founder of Suprematism, a Russian modern art style developed from Constructivism, Futurism and Cubism.
Because of his connections with German artists, he was arrested in 1930 and many of his manuscripts were destroyed.
The Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow gave Malevich a solo exhibition in 1929. In his final period, he painted in a representational style. Malevich died on May 15, 1935.


"The principal element of Suprematism in painting, as in architecture, is its liberation from all social or materialist tendencies. Through Suprematism, art comes into its pure and unpolluted form. It has acknowledged the decisive fact of the non-objective character of sensibility. It is no longer concerned with illusion."
Kazimir Malevich.

Literature:

E. Martineau, Malevitch et la philosophie. La question de la peinture abstraite.
Malévitch, Malévitch : artiste et théoricien.
Jean-Claude Marcade, Malevitch.

Source: Guggenheim org. online