Tate Modern reveals the multi-faceted works of Kazimir Malevich in a forthcoming show to open in July. This exhibition journeys retrospectively into the almost 25-year long career of the Russian artist from his multi-theme paintings, sculptures and design objects to his contributions to architecture and theatre.
The ingenious artist was a painter, art theoretician, printmaker, writer and pioneer of geometric abstract art, although he embarked his career on paintings depicting Russian landscapes, agricultural workers and religious scenes.
Having experienced the most tumultuous periods in Russian history, from the First World War through the October Revolution to the rise of Stanilism, Malevich (1878-1935) withdrew from the norms of the old-traditions of paintings and established the Suprematist movement, epitomised by an overflow of masterpieces and his 0.10 exhibition, highlight of which was the Black Square. This “bold language” art genre is based on pure geometrical elements, “the supremacy of pure artistic feeling”, as Malevich had noted, rather than on visual depiction of objects.
Malevich, Suprematist Painting (with Black Trapezium and Red Square) 1915
Malevich’s multi-dimensional artistic essence led him to new artistic territories; Having studied at the the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, he got successfully involved with theatre and architecture design. Tate attempts to shed new light on those aspects of the artist including his designs for the avant-garde opera Victory over the Sun. The exhibition will also scrutinise his temporary abandonment of painting in favour of teaching and writing, and his much-debated return to figurative painting in later life.
Malevich, Girl With a Red Pole 1932-33
Malevich perceived art as a tool towards building a new society in which letting go materialism would eventually lead to spiritual freedom. He changed radically the motifs of the, by that time, austere art and eventually inspired subsequent art movements such as Constructivism. His work was suppressed in Soviet Russia in the 1930s and remained little known during the following two decades.
Malevich, An Englishman in Moscow 1914
Malevich is curated at Tate Modern by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Head of Exhibitions and Iria Candela, Curator, International Art, with Fiontan Moran, Assistant Curator. The exhibition is made possible by a unique collaboration between the StedelijkMuseum and Khardzhiev Foundation in Amsterdam and the Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki, enriched with key loans from public and private collections around the world, including the State Russian Museum, St Petersburg; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; MoMA, New York; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Malevich, Adam and Eve 1908
This exhibition is a breathtaking journey through Malevich’s well-known masterpieces as well as also earlier and later work of sculptures, rarely-seen prints and drawings, which tell a story about the dream of a new social order, the successes and pitfalls of revolutionary ideals, and the power of art itself.
by Xenia Founta
Malevich opens at Tate Modern on July, 16 – October, 26, 2014
Images courtesy of Tate Modern