Malevich's works by years: description, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Malevich's works are one of the most striking manifestations of modern abstract art. The founder of Suprematism, the Russian and Soviet artist entered the history of world art with the painting "Black Square", but his work was by no means limited to this work. Any cultured person should be familiar with the most famous works of the artist.

Theorist and practitioner of contemporary art

Malevich's works clearly reflect the state of affairs in society at the beginning of the 20th century. The artist himself was born in Kyiv in 1879.

According to his own stories in his autobiography, the artist's public exhibitions began in Kursk in 1898, although no documentary evidence of this was found.

In 1905 he tried to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. However, he was not accepted. At that time, Malevich had a family in Kursk - his wife Kazimir Zgleits and children. There was a split in their personal lives, therefore, without even enrolling, Malevich did not want to return to Kursk. The artist settled in Lefortovo in an artistic commune. About 300 masters of painting lived in the huge house of the artist Kurdyumov. Malevich lived in the commune for six months, but despite the extremely low rent,six months later the money ran out, he still had to return to Kursk.

Malevich finally moved to Moscow only in 1907. Attended the classes of the artist Fyodor 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 worldwide fame and recognition.

Suprematist composition

In 1916, Malevich's work is already quite well known in the capital. At that time, the "Suprematist Composition" appeared. It is painted in oil on canvas. In 2008, it was sold at Sotheby's for $60 million.

It was put up for auction by the artist's heirs. In 1927, she exhibited at an exhibition in Berlin.

At the opening of the gallery, it was represented by Malevich himself, but soon he had to return, as the Soviet authorities did not extend his foreign visa. He had to leave all work. There were about 70 of them. The German architect Hugo Hering was appointed responsible. Malevich expected to return for paintings in the very near future, but he was never released abroad.

Before his death, Hering transferred all the works of Malevich, which he had kept for many years, to the Amsterdam City Museum (also known as the Steleleik Museum). Hering entered into an agreement, according to which every year for 12 years the museum had to pay him a certain amount. Ultimately, immediately after the death of the architect, his relatives, who designedinheritance, received the entire amount at a time. Thus, the "Suprematist Composition" ended up in the funds of the Amsterdam City Museum.

Malevich's heirs have been trying to return these paintings since 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 USA. Malevich's heirs, some of whom are American citizens, have filed a lawsuit against the Dutch museum. The management of the gallery agreed to a pre-trial agreement. According to its results, 5 out of 36 paintings by the artist were returned to his descendants. In return, the heirs waived further claims.

This painting is still the most expensive painting by a Russian artist ever sold at auction.

Black Square

"Black Square" by Malevich is one of his most discussed works. It is part of the artist's cycle of works dedicated to Suprematism. In it, he explored the basic possibilities of composition and light. In addition to the square, this triptych contains the paintings "Black Cross" and "Black Circle".

Malevich painted the picture in 1915. The work was made for the final exhibition of the futurists. Malevich's works at the exhibition "0, 10" in 1915 were hung out, as they say, in the "red corner". In the place where the icon traditionally hung in Russian huts, the Black Square was located. The most mysterious and the most terriblepainting 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 that new Suprematist forms are already born in the future.

Many researchers of the artist's work have repeatedly tried to find the original version of the painting, which would be located under the top layer of paint. So, in 2015, an x-ray was performed. As a result, it was possible to isolate two more color images, which were located on the same canvas. Initially, a cubo-futuristic composition was drawn, and above it also a proto-Suprematist one. Only then did the black square fill everything.

Also, scientists managed to decipher the inscription that the artist left on the canvas. These are the words "Battle of the Negroes in a dark cave", which refer art connoisseurs to the famous monochrome work of Alphonse Allais, which he created in 1882.

It is no coincidence that the name of the exhibition, which showed the work of Malevich. Photos from the vernissage can still be found in old archives and magazines of that 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's intention, is going to reduce everything to zero.

Three squares

Besides the "Black Square" in the works of Malevich there were several more of these geometric shapes. And the "Black Square" itself was at firstsimple triangle. He did not have strict right angles. Therefore, from the point of view of exclusively geometry, it was a quadrangle, and not a square. Art historians note that the whole point is not the negligence of the author, but a principled position. Malevich sought to create an ideal form that would be quite dynamic and mobile.

There are also two more works by Malevich - squares. These are "Red Square" and "White Square". The painting "Red Square" was shown at the exhibition of avant-garde artists "0, 10". White Square appeared in 1918. At that time, Malevich's works, photos of which can be found in any art textbook today, were going 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 a 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 canvas repeats the fate of the "Suprematist construction", which has already been told. It also ended up in the collections of the Amsterdam Museum, and only after the appeal of Malevich's heirs to the court, they managed to regain at least part of the paintings.

Suprematism. 18 design

Malevich's works, photos with names of which can be found in anytextbook on the history of art, fascinate and attract close attention.

Another interesting canvas is the painting "Suprematism. 18 design", painted in 1915. At Sotheby's, it was sold in 2015 for nearly $34 million. It also ended up in the hands of the artist's heirs after a lawsuit with the Amsterdam City Museum.

Another painting that the Dutch parted ways with was "Suprematism: Painterly Realism of a Football Player. Colorful Masses in the Fourth Dimension". She found her owner in 2011. It was purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago for a sum that it did not wish to disclose to the public. But the work of 1913 - "Desk and Room" could be seen at a major exhibition of Malevich in the Tate Gallery in Madrid. Moreover, the picture was exhibited anonymously. What the organizers had in mind is unclear. Indeed, in cases where the true owner of the canvas wishes to remain incognito, they announce that the painting is in a private collection. Here, a fundamentally different wording 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, it was sold at a Phillips auction for $17 million.

This picture, unlike the previous ones, after Malevich left Berlin for the Soviet Union, remained inGermany. Alfred Barr, director of the New York Museum of Modern Art, brought it to the United States in 1935. For 20 years she exhibited in the United States as part of the Cubism and Abstract Art exhibition. The fact is that the picture had to be urgently taken out - in Germany by that time the Nazis came to power, Malevich's work fell out of favor. His Nazi superiors referred to the samples of "degenerate art". At first, the director of the Hannover Museum hid the painting in his basement, and then secretly handed it over to Barr, who took the priceless work to the USA.

In 1999, the New York Museum returned this painting and several of his graphic works to Malevich's heirs.

The artist's self-portrait

In 1910, Malevich painted his self-portrait. This is one of three of his self-portraits painted during this period. It is well known that the other two are kept in domestic museums. You can see these works by Malevich in the Tretyakov Gallery.

The third self-portrait was sold at auction. Initially, it was in the private collection of George Costakis. In 2004, at a Christie's auction in London, a self-portrait found its owner for just £162,000. In total, because over the next 35 years its value has increased by about 35 times. Already in 2015, the painting was sold at Sotheby's for almost $9 million. Indeed, a profitable investment.

Head of a peasant

If you analyzeMalevich's work over the years, it is possible to establish a certain trend with which to trace how his work developed.

A good example of this is the painting "Head of a Peasant", painted in 1911. In 2014, at Sotheby's in London, she went under the hammer for $3.5 million.

For the first time, the public saw this painting by Malevich in 1912 at the Donkey's Tail exhibition, 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 passed by inheritance to 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 presented very widely. Here, perhaps, is the richest collection of his works. The work of this reformer and teacher is treated with reverence, his canvases are given the most honorable places.

In total, the funds of the Russian Museum today contain about 100 paintings, plus at least 40 graphic works. Many of them with new dates. More accurate. The uniqueness of the collection presented in the Russian Museum lies in the fact that there are not just a lot of works, they also cover the widest possible range of his work. Both early works, practically the first experiments in painting, and late realistic portraits are presented, on which one cannot at all recognize the brush of the artist who painted the Black Square.

Death of an 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 outstretched arms, and cremated.