Page 32 - Studio International - June 1974

Apollinaire in his Defence of New Art (cubist) form of existence' advocated by Ouspenski. The Sun,', which is then replaced by the 'black gods
`which is not an art of imitation, but an art of analytical and radically formal determination of darkness', a new era begins, 'everything which
conception rising to the level of creation'. For characterizing Malevich's development during begins well and has no end is good, the world
their part, the English Vorticists, far more 1913-1915, does not for its part eliminate this will perish, but not us.' It is difficult to find, at
advanced on the theoretical level than in symbolist basis, which deeply colours the the beginning of the twentieth century, a more
pictorial practice, were to claim through the foundations of his philosophy of art. Led by a powerful and more explicit mythological
voice of David Bomberg that their object in desire to check Malevich's statement, placing metaphor describing the radical change in
painting was 'the construction of pure form' the beginnings of Suprematism in 1913, civilization so clearly felt by creators during
(1914).68 The comparison with music gave them Camilla Gray was the first to be able to this period. This awareness of the radical
a justification for conceiving (only on the precisely locate the existence of the idea of a change in civilization, a conviction showing
theoretical level) a pure painting, constructed Black Square in 1913 and thus to establish an through the writings of Kandinsky and the
with the help of 'planes of colour' (Ezra Pound, articulation essential for the establishment of declarations of Leger and Apollinaire, leaves no
1914). the history of suprematist painting. It concerns room for doubt where Malevich is concerned.
Involved in an attempt at theoretical plans for scenery for the futurist opera, Victory In his writings, he clearly formulates the
clarification far better structured than the over the Sun, a production composed during the awareness of his generation of a superior level of
isolated endeavours of Western artists, the summer of 1913 by Mikhail Matiouchine human thought, defining this new civilization
cubo-futurist group in Petersburg published an (music), Alexei Kroutchenykh (text), and of which he justifiably feels himself one of the
important article of principles in March 1913, Malevich (scenery) and performed in constructors. Besides, at this time, the end of
where the fundamental positions of the 'new December of that year in the Luna Park in 1913 and the beginning of 1914, the eclipse of
creation' are expressed.? The text, written by Petrograd,8 on only two very stormy occasions. the old civilization was felt with an exceptional
one of Malevich's friends, the painter Olga This production, in style more like a music hall acuteness all over Europe and even more so in
Rozanova, defined the three principal points of piece than an opera, was performed with the Russia. The pathetic note of the philosophical
this new creation: 1 intuitive beginning, 2 financial aid of the Petrograd Union of Youth analyses, very often leading to an eschatology
personal transformation of the visible, 3 and was to some extent the crowning of despair, indicate the moral climate of a
abstract creation. In the third publication of achievement of the activities of this group, of society aware, as only a hunted animal faced
the Union of Youth (dated March 1913) which Matiouchine and Malevich were active with the slaughterhouse can be, of the
Matiouchine reviewed the book 'Cubism' members at this time. The idea of this show was imminence of a cataclysm. The texts of the
(1912) by Gleizes and Metzinger, giving a worked out in an atmosphere of creative critics, hostile to modern art, express this
somewhat transcendental interpretation of euphoria,9 clearly shown in the photos taken at conviction in great detail. If Alexander Benois
Gleizes' text, that he surprisingly enough the time in Matiouchine's house in Ousikirko10 stated about the Black Square of 1915 that,
compared with the symbolist and mystic where the three authors stayed during the `Everything holy and sacred we had . . .
postulates of the treaty Tertium Organum summer of 1913. The overturned furniture and everything giving us a reason for living has
(St Petersburg, 1911) by P. D. Ouspenski. the theatrically artificial poses of the authors disappeared', the philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev
Following a train of thought not uninfatuated seen on the photographs taken at that time, all said, in a remarkably early text on Picasso
by a symbolist stratification of creative activities, indicate the Dionysian atmosphere in which the written at the beginning of 1914, that he was
Matiouchine directs his reading of 'Cubism' work — constructed in the satyric mode of plays `seized with fear' in front of this painter's
towards a sphere of thought governed by the of the Middle Ages — was composed. The pictures, shown in the rooms of the Chtchoukine
conviction of the advent of pure art. The appeal artistic charge against the old order of things, Collection in Moscow, for 'one feels that it is
to an artistic creation of a superior nature finds against the old logic and the art stemming from not only linked to painting and the fate of art,
its philosophical justification in Ouspenski's it, was worked out on the trans-rational mode but to the fate of the whole cosmic destiny."3
`fourth unity of psychic life' — 'superior (zaoum). The ideas expressed in Victory over the Another far more important testimony from
intuition'. In this image of a spiraloid Sun destine this work to be considered as a real our point of view also reflects this general
progression of the psychic life of man, art moves artistic manifesto, announcing to the creators of feeling of the period, expressed both in the
from extra-terrestrial and extra-material the period — his futurist companions — CI am sudden avalanche of astrological studies and the
reality to reach a new conceptual level and a new not speaking to my enemies, but to you, my theosophy of Madame Blavatzky, and in the
meaning. Matiouchine's ideas, stemming to a friends') — the end of an epoch and the very remarkable number of studies and
large extent from Ouspenski's mystic and beginning of a 'new endless century'. enquiries on suicide, considered by Russian
pantheistic metaphysics, certainly had a strong From the typological point of view, the doctors and psychologists as one of the
influence on Malevich in the summer of 1913, symbolic structure of the literary images shows phenomenon indicating this change in the moral
who was particularly sensitive to the symbolist an astonishing similarity to the iconographic basis of Russian society, at the beginning of the

emphasis on the superior powers of stereotype of the performances of the Upside twentieth century.14
subconscious forces — intuition — responsible for down world which show, sometimes naively, but 1913 also saw the zenith of the artistic
the artist's driving force. Speaking about the with an unusually direct symbolic force, the activity of the ego-futurist from St Petersburg,
`language of the future', Ouspenski (quoted by change in civilization which makes its Ivan Ignatiev (1882-1914), an activity coming to
Matiouchine) proposes a spiritualistic appearance in Europe during the a tragically untimely end with his suicide some
`Hierarchization' of life, similar to the futurist Renaissance." Describing such a change months later. In 1913 this poet and theorist of
desire to create a new artistic language, a in the sphere of cultural values, the chief Ego-Futurism' 5 published a preface to the
language totally independent of the real world, protagonist of Victory over the Sun arrives small collection of poems by his protégé, the
the latter being identified by them with the art at the abolition of the old world, having poet, Vassilisk Gnedov.16 Ignatiev's text called
of the classic tradition. On reading these texts travelled through 'all the centuries'. The Death to Art set the tone of this collection of
reproduced by Matiouchine, we can understand `corrupt heavens' once 'closed' (an image from fifteen very short poems.' 7 In a style not lacking
where Malevich's philosophical sources lie, for the old symbolic order) the sun is also the pathetic bombast of prophecy, compulsory
while showing a fervent desire for anti- vanquished. The earth is 'stopped' and 'the Sun at the time, Ignatiev calls on the 'ego' and
symbolist and anti-psychological modernism, is brought down'. The fighter (for this is the announces 'the death of present day art'. More
he did not separate it from a moral evaluation futurist image of the new David) can proclaim important than this declaration is his insistence
(spiritual) of the artistic creation, whose `the death of the century of metal' and cry on the limit that the arts have reached (`The
philosophical statute came near to the 'superior aloud 'We are free!' After this victory over the Word has reached its limit. It has been
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