Page 33 - Studio International - March April 1975

`Airplane Poesas'; the poet Kamensky different phases of Suprematism that formulating a compromise that
was doubly revered for his prowess as an Malevich came to distinguish." synthesizes the two : 'for two different
aviator; and one of the heroes of 'Victory The first of these was black, and and to our perception different groups of
Over the Sun' was also an aviator. In his corresponds, Malevich tells us, to ideas have been reduced to one'. He goes
tantalizingly brief fragments of economy. Malevich's use of the word is on to say, 'A system (of ideas) through its
autobiography Malevich tells how as a baffling until one realizes that it is real or assumed completeness is useful in
child he had sacrificed to flight, tethering derived from the German nineteenth- giving us calm in the face of every possible
the poultry in the farmyards so as to century philosopher Richard Avenarius, special problem and, through its real or
watch at closer range the arcs described whose 'Philosophy as a reflection on the assumed inner consistency, preserves the
by the wings of hawks as they closed in on world, according to the minimal waste of advantage of a feeling of security in
their prey. Perhaps, too, flight was a energies', was first published in 1876 which every consequence arising from the
motif that allowed him unconsciously to but not translated into Russian until 1913. basic central idea serves the purpose of
fuse his love of nature with the most Avenarius rejected all processes of confirming it retrospectively; everything
daring products of a new, mechanized deductive reasoning and claimed that is connected with everything else,
world. And if I am right in believing truth could be apprehended through everything supports and reinforces
that at one of many different levels the direct perception. He also believed that everything else'.18 Certainly the concept
Square can be viewed as the collision of when ideas or thoughts apprehended of shapes as representing ideas coming
planes in space to fuse into a new entity, through immediate perception seemed together to form new ones seems to be
the idea of the journey through space is contradictory or unconnected 'economy' central to Malevich's art.
the theme which unifies the three of thought could be produced by The second phase of Suprematism
(which seems to have been initiated
almost immediately after the black) was
the red or coloured phase, corresponding
to revolution. The titles later ascribed by
Malevich to the forms of earlier phases
are relatively straightforward and
formalistically descriptive :19 Composition
of Suprematist Elements, or
Composition of Suprematist Elements
Expressing the Sensation of Flight for
example. It is hard to establish a sequence
for the works, but stylistically the
movement seems to have been from
relatively simple compositions with a few
bold elements towards works of greater
complexity, where the shapes are more
varied and deliberately contrasted. Next
perhaps are works where the smaller
shapes tend to drift off towards the edges
of the canvas as if an attempt to wing their
way out into the space outside the
pictorial arena. These were succeeded by
a number of paler paintings where the
centre of the canvas tends to empty out
and the larger forms now also brush the
edges of the canvas or are cut off by them.
Related titles of these become symbolic —
Composition of Suprematist Elements,
Expressing the Sensation of Metallic
Sounds-dynamic (Pale, Metallic Colours).
There then occurs a sharp break with
the 'fading away' painting, which appears
to be an attempt to release form from the
flat, two-dimensional picture plane. The
yellow quadrilateral in The Guardsman of
1913 seems to sweep in from the side of the
painting and to cross the painting as if to
devour the complex of planes (the
Guardsman to the side of it, although it
can be read conversely, as seeming to pull
or tug the figure off to the side and out of
the painting (an effect strengthened by
the arrow embedded in the paint). The
comparable yellow shape in the
Suprematist Painting generally dated
1917-18, but almost certainly a work of
1917, recedes into a space with
suggestions of infinity."
The final phase of Suprematism is the
white which corresponds to 'pure action'.
Now the beam, diagram for the path of
matter and light into space replaces the
plane, and later the terminology is
frankly mystical: Suprematist Composition
Conveying the feeling of a mystic 'wave'
from Outer Space and so on. The
series reaches a climax in the White
Square on White. And it would be nice
to think that the Black Square had split
apart, forming new configurations that
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