Page 36 - Studio International - March April 1975

subsequently in Petrograd he executed a were produced, one of which was placed 16 In The Non-Objective World Malevich
large number of architectural designs and above his body for the wake and the states: 'One could also refer to Suprematism
models in plaster of paris. And yet he second attached to the lorry that carried as "Aeronautical"'.
continued to cling to the conviction that the coffin to the station from whence it 17 Preface to Suprematism. 34 Drawings,
probably prepared at the time of the big
art was not utilitarian (a position that was transported to Moscow for Moscow retrospective 192o. Essays on Art,
brought him into sharp conflicts with the cremation. His ashes were buried in the Vol. I.
Constructivists and the Productivists) countryside at Nemchinovka, where he 18 Richard Avenarius, Philosophie als
and that the aims and pursuits of art and had formulated many of the tenets of Denken der Welt gemäss dem Princip des
science were very different. The Suprematism, and over them was placed kleinsten Kraftmasses, Leipzig 1876, p. 6.
architectural constructions (with one or a monument on which was inscribed a 19 In The Non-Objective World Malevich
two possible later exceptions) were never final square. incorporates photographs and diagrams of
practical or functional; and once again earlier paintings with descriptive titles.
20 It seems inconceivable to this writer, on
they may best be seen as messages, stylistic grounds, that the yellow 'bleeding
designs, blueprints for the builders of the 1 From Cubism to Suprematism The New away' canvas in the Stedelijk should have
future. He called his constructions 'blind Realism in Painting, subsequently reissued as preceded the Suprematist 'whites'.
From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism.
architecture' and refers to them at times The New Realism in Painting. For an analysis 21 Non-Objective Creation and Suprematism,
as 'planets'. And even in these solid of the difference between the first and third from the catalogue to the loth State
three-dimensional structures there edition see Malevich: Essays on Art (footnote Exhibition, Moscow, 1919.
persists the obsession with the white 4 below, pp. 239-240). 22 Suprematism. 34 Drawings.
purity of flight. A note attached to one of 2 Suprematism in World Reconstruction, 192o. 23 For an examination of the philosophical
the drawings touchingly reads : 'Thanks Republished in El Lissitzky by Sophie background to Malevich's writings see
to its construction the planet is easy to Kueppers — Lissitzky, London 1968. Simon Pugh, Towards a Minimal Art,
Both the Tretyakov in Moscow and the
clean. It can be washed daily .. . the Russian Museum in Leningrad claim to have Studio International, London, Jan., and
March 1972, to which this section of the
material is matte white glass . . . the the original. It is possible that neither is the lecture is much indebted.
planet will be accessible from all sides for first version of 1915. 24 Malevich's overall interpretation of the
the earth dweller who will be able to be in 4 Susan Compton's article, Malevich and history of art emerges from a study of all the
it and on top of it'." `the fourth dimension', Studio, April 1974, texts succeeding the initial manifesto. But
When Malevich resumed activities as a throws new and considerable light on to the in the manifesto he already distinguishes
painter in the 1930's it was without his origins of the Black Square. It appeared three general phases.
former revolutionary ardour. The after this lecture had been written and 25 `. .. if the masters of the Renaissance had
portraits of his friends and family are delivered. See footnote 14 below. discovered the surface of painting, it would
Essays on Art 1915-35, 2 Vols., edited by
based squarely on early renaissance Troels Andersen, with translations by Zenia have been much more exalted and valuable
than any Madonna or Giaconda.' (From the
prototypes, and the peasant and figure Glowacki-Prus and Arnold McMillin. initial manifesto.)
pieces are attempts to recapture some of London 1968. All quotes are from this 26 Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 56.
the spirit of his own early work. He edition, unless otherwise stated. 27 It seems very likely that Malevich saw the
believed passionately in painting as an 6 Les Origins de la Peinture et sa Valeur flat white backgrounds of the first
activity, but with the White Square on Representative, Montjoie, May-June 1913. suprematist paintings as having
White he had accepted that a chapter in Les Realisations Picturales Actuelles, Les implications or suggestions of infinite space
the history of art had come to an end. It Soirees de Paris, June 1914. Malevich appears or depth. But the movement of the coloured
may be that he felt he could begin again to have been indebted to Léger for many of forms superimposed onto it tends to read
only by returning to a period that had his ideas about Cubism and other very much as across a flat surface rather than
into depth. In the first manifesto Malevich
contemporary painting.
marked the rebirth of Western painting Camilla Gray in her preface to the Malevich writes as a criticism of Futurism. `... we
and to the works that had initiated his exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, shall not find an independent, individual
own career as a revolutionary artist. But London, Oct.-Nov. 1959. Ronald Hunt in painting surface'; and again, 'any painted
although there is a sense in which his The Constructivist Ethos: Russia 1913-32, surface, being turned into a prominent
career as a painter truly ended in 1919, he Art Forum, New York, Sept.-Oct. 1967, also painting relief, and turned again into a
did in 1923 make a visual gesture which makes reference to a Paris trip. Gray does surface, is a painting'.
would not have seemed out of place not follow up the point in The Great " Suprematism. 34 Drawings.
within the context of the 1960's. At a Experiment, Russian Art 1863-1922, London 29 On Poetry, 1919. Essays on Art, Vol. I.
30 Reprinted in Sophie Kueppers-Lissitzky,
1962.
Unovis exhibition he showed two 8 Camilla Gray, in The Great Experiment, op. cit.
completely virgin white canvases hung states that the Femme en Bleu was shown in 31 Suprematism. 34 Drawings.
suspended below the ceiling, so that the Russia in 1912, but there appears to be no 32 Jean-Claude & Valentine Marcadé,
bare untouched canvas now stood proxy evidence to substantiate this claim, and it is preface to an exhibition of Malevich
for the painted square or plane, while the possible that she is confusing the painting drawings, Galerie Jean Chauvelin, Paris
white expanse around it symbolized the with the Essai pour Trois Portraits. 1970.
infinite space through which the symbolic 9 On New Systems of Art, 1919. Malevich's " The translation is the one used by Ronald
gesture might travel. And subsequently at misunderstanding of Cubism is underlined Hunt, op. cit.
least he came to view the Black Square in in the first manifesto when he writes: 'The 34 This translation is also taken from Hunt's
the same light when he wrote: 'This was very object itself, together with its essence, article.
purpose, sense or the fullness of its
35 The Non-Objective World.
no "empty square" which I had presentation, the Cubists thought were also
exhibited but rather the feeling of unnecessary'.
non-objectivity . . . The black square on 19 God is Not Cast Down, 192o. Essays on
the white field was the first form in Art, Vol. I.
which non-objective feeling came to be " To my knowledge there were no original
expressed. The square= feeling, the white Cubist papiers collés to be seen in Russia at
field—the void beyond this feeling'." this time.
12 See Troels Andersen's Malevich catalogue,
As the 1920's progressed it became
increasingly difficult for progressive Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 1970,
note to no. 53.
artists in Russia to obtain a hearing, and " Foreword to Puppet Portfolio (F. Mappe),
in 1930 Malevich was arrested as being Hanover 1923.
politically unreliable, possibly because of " See Susan Compton, op. cit. This sentence
his contacts with the West, where his is the only significant amendment to the
influence had already been strongly felt original text of the lecture.
during the past decade. In 1933 he was " It is possible that the work now known as
savagely attacked because of the Football Match (Stedelijk, catalogue
`formalism' of his art. But with his death no. 51), on stylistic grounds certainly a
work of 1915, is the painting shown at the
in 1935 Suprematism enjoyed a brief first Suprematist exhibition as Realism of a
revival. He was placed in a suprematist Football Player. The upper part of the
coffin designed and executed by his composition can be read as an advancing
followers and two new black squares figure (head, shoulders, arms and trunk).
106