Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (
Russian:
Казимир Северинович Малевич,
Belarusian:
Казімір Малевіч,
Polish:
Kazimierz Malewicz,
Ukrainian Казимір Северинович Малевич,
German:
Kasimir Malewitsch), (
February 23,
1878 –
May 15,
1935) was a
Ukrainian and
Russian painter and
art theoretician of
Polish descendance, pioneer of
geometric abstract art and one of the most important members of the
Russian avant-garde and
Suprematist movement.
Biography
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Kazimir was born in
Kiev on February 23, 1878 (old-style February 23) to Seweryn and Ludwika Malewicz. According to his memoirs, his father was a specialist in sugar-beet processing machinery, and since sugar-beet processing plants were usually built away from large cities, the family moved often while Malevich was a child. In about 1890, the father was transferred to the plant in the village of Parhomivka (now
Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine) and Malevich was sent to the village’s 5-year school, which he finished in 1894. He later wrote: “The villagers […] were making art (I did not know the word for this yet) […] I was very excited to watch the peasants paint; I helped them cover the floors of their houses with clay and paint motifs onto the stoves.”
In 1896, the family moved to
Kursk, where his father began to work in a railroad management office as a clerk. Among his father’s colleagues, there were a few people who admired art and a couple of amateur painters. Malevich made friends with them quickly and they organized a small art circle, with two professional artists joining in eventually. Malevich began to paint in an Impressionist style. To earn money for a Moscow education, he began working in the same office as his father as a draftsman.
Education and Early Works
In the autumn of 1904, Kazimir visited Moscow for the first time. His aim was to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He attempted to enroll several times but was never admitted. In spring, he returned to Kursk, where he continued to work. His paintings from this period are executed in a Neo-Impressionist manner. Next autumn, he returned to Moscow, where he studied religious icons with great interest. He wrote: "Moscow icons turned over all my theories and brought me to my third stage of development. Through icon painting, I began to understand the emotional art of peasants, which I had loved before, but the meaning of which I could not grasp until I studied the icons."
Trivia
The possible smuggling of surviving Malevich paintings out of Russia is a key to the plot line of
Martin Cruz Smith's thriller "
Red Square". Noah Charney's novel, "The Art Thief" (published by Atria) tells the story of two stolen Malevich White on White paintings, and discusses the implications of Malevich's radical Suprematist compositions on the art world.
Selected works

Landscape with a Yellow House, 1906 | 
Black Circle, signed 1913, painted 1915 | 
Suprematism Muzeul de Artă, 1916 | 
Suprematism, 1921-1927 |

| 
Summer Landscape, 1929 |
- 1912 Morning in the Country after Snowstorm
- 1912 The Woodcutter
- 1912-13 Reaper on Red Background
- 1914 The Aviator
- 1914 An Englishman in Moscow
- 1914 Soldier of the First Division
- 1915 Black Square and Red Square
- 1915 Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions
- 1915 Suprematist Composition
- 1915 Suprematism (1915)
- 1915 Suprematist Painting: Aeroplane Flying
- 1915 Suprematism: Self-Portrait in Two Dimensions
- 1915-16 Suprematist Painting (Ludwigshafen)
- 1916 Suprematist Painting (1916)
- 1916 Supremus No. 56
- 1916-17 Suprematism (1916-17)
- 1917 Suprematist Painting (1917)
- 1928-32 Complex Presentiment: Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt
- 1932-34 Running Man
See also
References
- The Non-objective World, Kasimir Malevich, trans. Howard Dearstyne, Paul Theobald, 1959. ISBN 0486429741
- Kazimir Malevich and Suprematism 1878-1935, Gilles Néret, Taschen, 2003. ISBN 0874141192
- Dreikausen, Margret, "Aerial Perception: The Earth as Seen from Aircraft and Spacecraft and Its Influence on Contemporary Art" (Associated University Presses: Cranbury, NJ; London, England; Mississauga, Ontario: 1985). ISBN 0-87982-040-3
External links and references
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Events
..... Click the link for more information. 18th century - 19th century - 20th century
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:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
May 15 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
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- 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda
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Ukrainian can mean:
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Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of simple geometric forms placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective compositions. Throughout 20th century art historical discourse, critics and artists working within the reductive or pure
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Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modern art that flourished in Russia from approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960.
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Suprematism is an art movement focused on fundamental geometric forms (squares and circles) which formed in Russia in 1915-1916.
When Kasimir Malevich originated Suprematism in 1915 he was an established painter having exhibited in the Donkey's Tail and the
..... Click the link for more information.
KIEV was a Los Angeles radio station that first took to the air February, 1933 at 870 kHz.
The station had various formats, including top 40, big bands/standards, and talk. In 1996, KIEV became a talk station permanently, and was eventually sold to Salem Communications.
..... Click the link for more information.