Page 68 - Studio International - November 1968

cylindrical form in art-the symbol of the machine with mathematically exact industrial symbolic designs.
Square root age, this was soon to be developed by the French­ At first the Revolution in Russia of 1917 favoured
man Ferdinand Leger. He visualized this form as a his highly original abstract art, but with the consoli­
transition from a mechanized figure to a mechanical dation of the Soviet regime and the frowning on all
man. At that time his art is strongly under the influ­ experimentation his art came into conflict with the
Malevich-Essays on Art 1915-1933 edited by Troels ence of Picasso. Braque. and his style shows a great authorities. He more or less gave up painting alto­
Andersen, translated by Arnold McMillin and Xenia mastery ·with a restlessness in search of the basic gether and devoted himself to expounding his ideas.
Glowaclai-Prus. 2 vols. I: 260 pp. with 16 plates and meaning of art. as part of the universe. He was a prolific writer. and published a large body
37 text-figures; II: 180 pp. with 48 plates and 2 Late in 1913 he developed his abstract concept of of work in which he elaborated his didactic sym­
text-figures. Notes, bibliography and index. Borgens art which he termed Suprematism. He defined it in bolist ideas on the history and nature of modern art.
Forlag, Copenhagen. $14.95. (English text.) mystic terms. but the meaning is quite clear. They are of great interest not only to the historian of
'The plane. forming a square. was the source of art, but also to the student of symbolism and mystic­
Kasimir Malevich, the abstract artist par excellence, Suprematism. new colour realism. as non-objective ism. Malevich is a very perceptive analyst of paintings
was born in Kiev in 1878, of mixed Russian-Polish creation. by Cezanne, Braque. Picasso and others, but his
parentage, that is of a fusion of the Catholic and 'The system is constructed in time and space. inde­ originality is in his mystic writings.
Russian Orthodox church. The symbolist movement pendently of all aesthetic beauties, experiences and In a remarkable piece 'God is not cast down·. which
which flourished in Russia and affected deeply moods: it is more a philosophical colour system for he published in Vitebsk in 1922. and which he num­
poetry and philosophy, also had a profound effect on realizing the latest achievement of my ideas. as bered in thirty-three paragraphs. he outlined his philo­
Malevich. knowledge. sophy of the unive\se and art. It is a deeply religious
He entered the Kiev School of Art in 1897, and after 'At the present time man's path lies through space, piece influenced also by Spinoza. Space does not
spending a few years there he left it dissatisfied in and Suprematism is a colour semaphore in its infinite permit to deal with it at length. A few short examples
1900. It seems he became largely self-taught. and we abyss: (Non-Objective Creation and Suprematism, will suffice:
can detect the auto-didact in the manner he wrote, written 1919). 'The basis and reason for what in society we call
often ungrammatical. but flowing in a torrential His first suprematist work was a design for the opera life I consider to be a stimulus which reveals itself in
manner. He read voraciously and followed the of Kruchenikh, Victory over the sun, the same opera all possible forms-pure. unconscious. inexplicable;
artistic styles of Europe with passion and enthusi­ which later attracted El Lissitzky in issuing his its existence has never been proved ; it is without
asm. literally reading everything that he could lay famous lithographs of 1921-3. number, precision. time. space and absolute or
his hands on on the new innovations in modern Malevich, like Lissitzky, became fascinated by relative condition.
French art. He began to form a synthesis between the black, white and red squares, symbols of infinity. 'Stimulus is a cosmic flame and lives on what is
symbolic poetry of Andrey Bely and the latest Later on he was to add other colour schemes-brown. non-objective.
eruptions in Cubism. pink and mauve-and began experimenting with 'The greatest product of all, arisen by itself. is God's
In 1905 he arrived in Moscow. where he was influ­ more complex shapes, reminiscent of architects' and triumph at being liberated from creation. was thrown
enced by the Revolution which broke out in that engineers' drawings. But mechanical shapes and into infinity.'
year. and even took part in distributing illegal designs drew him to a greater understanding of the To write this in the Soviet Union required courage.
literature. universe as a whole. This understanding Malevich It is not surprising that from 1928 till he died in 1935
He remained there till 1910. In Moscow he had the called sensation. in the same way as the mystics Malevich lived in dire poverty, neglected by the
opportunity of studying the later works of Cezanne. experienced infinity. He called some of his paintings authorities and shunned by the galleries. His influ­
Van Gogh, Gauguin, Bonnard, Vuillard, Derain and Sensation of infinity; Sensation of a mystical wave ence has grown in the West since the end of the
Larionov. The latter recognized his great talents and coming from the earth; Sensation of the space of the Second World War. when exhibitions of his work
gave him encouragement to have a joint exhibition. universe; and finally White on white (all done in the were held in Amsterdam and London.
In 1 911 he exhibited together with Larionov and tumultuous years of 1916-17). He literally removed It was a wonderful idea to collect his various essays
Goncharova in St Petersburg, and later in December colour, and left a pure form, abstract. non-objective and publish them in two beautiful volumes, excel­
1912, also in Moscow. in the shape of a square. and left a faint, hardly lently edited by Troels Andersen, who supplied very
He rapidly absorbed the late impressionist style of visible other square on top of it. It has the magic of valuable footnotes, and the translation is flawless.
Cezanne, the early cubist works ·of Braque and the stillness that the prophet Isaiah experienced. The essays are fundamental for all students of
Picasso. and was moving to a kind of style which Malevich became more and more absorbed in Russian Experimental art. which died with Malevich.
can be termed Cube-Futurism. He pioneered the idealized architectural drawings. which he combined Chimen Abramsky

coloured' (p. 219). Its forms are derived from three­ the former a scholarly approach to the artist's work.
More Moore dimensional objects and bear no reference whatso­ the latter an intimate glimpse into the artist's world.
Russell's admiration for Moore is apparent. At the
ever to animal. vegetable or mineral. In fact they
allude to nothing but themselves. The new sculpture same time the text is a critical analysis of Moore's
is primary structure. This school is represented by such sculpture; Russell never hesitates to express his
Henry Moore by John Russell, with photographs by artists as Donald Judd. Robert Morris, Larry Bell.· reservations about certain works. For example. in
Henry Moore. 233 pp. Illustrated throughout. Allen Ronald Bladen and Tony Smith. When their work describing the Family Group (1948), Russell says that:
Lane, The Penguin Press. 84s. was seen next to that of Caro and Smith in the There was about the commission, if not about the
Henry Moore by John Hedgecoe. 525 pp. Illustrated Guggenheim show the challenge to Moore's was finished group, something of the generalized uplift
throughout in colour and black and white. Thomas readily apparent. For one thing the work of the of electioneering. Moore is a man with a highly
Nelson. 10 gns. primary structuralists ( or the object-makers as developed sense of social duty, but I myself find the
Henry Moore by David Sylvester (Catalogue of an Michael Fried chooses to call them) is not modelled Family Group less successful than the Northampton
exhibition at the Tate Gallery, July 17 to September or carved by the sculptor�The artist rarely touches the Madonna and Child in negotiating the dangerous
22. 1968). 179 pp. Illustrated throughout. The Arts final piece. He submits his idea to an industrial fabri­ ground between simplicity and flatness. More pre­
Council of Great Britain. 15s. cator and it is the latter who realizes it. The primary cisely, I feel that so large and elaborate a piece
structurists are satisfied with having had an original needs a little more of the tough side of Moore's
Moore and Picasso are the most powerful exponents idea and drawing up the plans. Such a thing would nature. The Northampton Madonna is tender to the
of the tradition of anthropomorphic sculpture. Works have been inconceivable to an artist like Henry point of sweetness; but this quality is offset by an
like Anthony Caro's Midday (1964). David Smith's Moore. Moore explains 'It's up to me as man-to-man implied ferocity in the radical treatment of the lower
VB XXIII (1963). Voltri VIII (1962). and Cubi XXV/1 with the sculpture' (p. 4Q8 Hedgecoe). limbs . . ..
(1965), exhibited in the 1968 Guggenheim Inter­ All this is not to say that the approaches are mutually Moore's basic gift, as it seems to me, is more for
national, indicate that this tradition persists in spite exclusive. It is merely to indicate that the alternative the telling analogy and the multiple reference than
of the emergence of a school of sculpture in New does exist. This year's exhibition at the Tate reaffirms for the identifiable human situation (p. 11 5).
York which. as John Russell points out, denies every­ the enduring pertinence of Moore's achievement at Moore himself states:
thing this kind of sculpture stands for. It is. in his this moment in the sixties. So does John Russell's I'd known since 1921, from what I'd seen in the
words, 'spare, non-allusive, metallic. often brightly Henry Moore. and so does John Hedgecoe's book; British Museum, thatthe whole repertory of forming
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