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By Dmytro Horbachov, Ukrainian Art Critic
Welcome to Ukraine magazine
Kyiv, Ukraine, 1998, Issue One
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"The representation of an object in itself (the objectivity as the aim of
expression), is something that has nothing to do with art, although the use
of representation in a work of art does not rule out the possibility of
being of a high artistic order. For the suprematist, therefore, the proper
means is the one that provides the fullest expression of pure feeling and
ignores the habitually accepted object. The object in itself is meaningless
to him; and the idea of the conscious mind is worthless. Feeling is the
decisive factor...and thus art arrives at non-objective representation - at
suprematism." Kasimir Malevich
Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935), one of the daring pioneers of the
twentieth-century art, founded a new movement which he called Suprematism.
Malevich had clear insight and a logical mind, and he went straight to the
point which other artists reached by cautious evolution. Basing himself on
current aesthetic theories, he asserted that the reality in art was the
sensational effect of colour itself. As an illustration he exhibited,
already in 1915, a picture of a black square on a white ground, and claimed
that the feeling this contrast evoked was the basis of all art.
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PEASANT BETWEEN A CROSS AND A SWORD. 1932-1933. Oil, canvas
George Pompidou Art Centre, Paris
A peasant, his hands and feet black, as though badly scorched,
is running through deserted land; at the horizon loom a cross and
a sword covered with blood. The painting echoed the horrors of
the famine that struck Ukraine in 1932-1933 when millions of peasants
died in this man-made disaster
(Click on image to enlarge it)
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PEASANTS AGAINST YELLOW-BLUE BACKGROUND
1929-1930. Oil, canvas.
Russian Museum. St. Petersburg
Massive repressions launched by Stalin, the Soviet dictator, against
Ukrainian peasantry were taken by Malevich as a personal tragedy. In his
paintings of the late period one does not see hefty figures any more;
peasants in them look like puppets; the colours remind one of the Ukrainian
national flag
HARVEST
1912. Oil, canvas. 72x75.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Malevich must have regarded peasants as possessing great inner strength and
stamina; probably that is why human figures in his painting look as though
made of metal
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Kasimir Malevich was born 120 years ago in Kyiv. His childhood and youth
were spent in Ukraine. His parents and he moved from place to place, living
for stretches of time in villages and small towns of the areas of Podillya,
Chernihyvshchina and Kharkivshchina. It was during his life in the
countryside that he developed an interest towards peasants' ornamental art.
In 1896 Malevich went to study at Mykola Murashko School of Painting where
he was trained by Mykola Pymonenko who was a painter of the naturalistic
line. Early in the 20th century Malevich found himself in Moscow and in his
artistic development went successively through the stages of Impressionism,
Symbolism, Primitivism and Cubism.
A new trend in art of Geometric Abstractionism which he founded and
called Suprematism was to exercise a profound influence upon painting,
architecture and design of the 20th century.
In a certain way Suprematism and Ukrainian folk ornamental and
decorative painting have something in common - non-representational
composition, elementary shapes, bright primal colours, cosmic symbolism.
Later Malevich worked in art schools of Moscow, Petrograd (now St.
Petersburg) and Vitebsk.
At the end of the twenties he returned to Ukraine and taught art at Kyiv Art
Institute, published articles in Kyiv magazines on theory of art, created
designs for a small embroidery co-operative in the village of Verbivka (in
the vicinity of Kyiv).
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His series of paintings and drawings Peasant between a Cross and a Sword,
created in 1932-1933, echoed the horrors of forced collectivisation of
Ukrainian farmers and wide-spread famine of the early thirties that took a
very heavy toll in human lives.
Ethnically Malevich was of Polish descent but spiritually he was Ukrainian.
He insisted he was Ukrainian, and derived his artistic inspiration from many
sources, Ukrainian in particular. [Dmytro HORBACHOV, art critic]
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A PEASANT'S HEAD
1928. Oil, wooden board. 72x54.
Russian Museum. St. Petersburg
Malevich was glad to be back in Ukraine from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)
where he was constantly under attack from art critics and authorities
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PEASANT WOMEN IN CHURCH
1911. Oil, canvas. 75x98
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Malevich must have been impressed by the depth of religious feelings
of peasants whose faces in the picture resemble somewhat those in the
icons
BLACK CROSS ON RED OVAL
Suprematism, 1920s. Stedelejk Museum,
Amsterdam
Malevich was one of the pioneers of geometric abstract art. In this
painting he might have been inspired by the Pysanka, painted Easter egg;
the Egg could be treated as a symbol of life,and the Cross as a symbol
of death and resurrection
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MARFA AND IVANKO, Taking a Crop in
1928-1929. Oil, canvas. 82x62.
Russian Museum. St. Petersburg
After his return to Ukraine Malevich began painting peasants again, as in
earlier years, and made them look hefty; he used bright colours which in his
opinion suited best the depiction of the 'brightly-coloured people' as he
called Ukrainians
SELF-PORTRAIT
1933. Oil, canvas. 70x66.
Russian Museum. St. Petersburg
In the early thirties Malevich was put into prison though he had committed
no crime and there was no evidence against him. This imprisonment did not
break his spirit and in the self-portrait Malevich represented himself as a
man of great dignity and indomitableness
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THE FULLEST EXPRESSION OF PURE FEELING, MALEVICH
By Dmytro Horbachov, Ukrainian Art Critic
Welcome to Ukraine magazine, Kyiv, Ukraine, 1998, Issue One
FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
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