Kazimir Malevich was a Russian avant-garde artist from the late 19th century

Kazimir Malevich was a Russian avant-garde artist from the late 19th century, to the early 20th century. Kazimir was born on February 26th, 1879 in a small governorate near Kiev, Ukraine. He was born to a large family of 16, him being the eldest sibling. Without any previous desire in art, Malevich began to draw at the age of 12. His early love for drawing later developed into a lifelong obsession of art and paintings. He attended the Kiev School of Art in 1895, and studied the practice of drawing. After his father had passed away in 1904, Kazimir Malevich moved to Moscow. There, he attended the Stroganov School of Art. He also began taking private classes taught by the famous art instructor, Ivan Rerberg. He then further continued his education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. Here, he was influenced by famous artists such as Konstantin Korovin and Leonid Pasternak, and began to learn the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles of painting. However, these were not the only styles of painting that had influenced the artist that he became. Symbolism and Art Nouveau also played a big role in his future artistic success. His new and profound love for art was enough for him to further pursue a career in art.
Malevich began to acquaint with new artists in the early 1900s. They include Wassily Kandinsky, Mikhail Larionov, and David Burliuk. This lead to a shift towards more of an avant-garde painting style than before. At the time, Primitivism, Cubism, and Futurism were some of the more common art movements going on. However, as Malevich began to lead his own Futurist art group, the Soyuz Molodezhi (Youth Union), he began to experiment and work with new artistic styles and techniques. He mostly began to work with a Cubo-Futurist style of painting. In this style, he mixed both Synthetic Cubism and Italian Futurism. In 1915, Kazimir Malevich had began to introduce what would become his most famous achievement, the Suprematism Art Movement. Suprematism is an art form made by using geometric shapes such as squares, circles, triangles, etc. All shapes must be painted with a low range of color. Malevich had written a booklet named ‘From Cubism to Suprematism: The new realism in painting’. The manifesto compared the new art system to the previous one, highlighting the different aspects and techniques used in both art forms. Many artists began to follow the Suprematist art movement. They include, but are not limited to, El Lissitzky, Lyubov Popova, Olga Rosanova, Aleksandra Ekster, and Ilya Chashnik.
Kazimir Malevich’s new art form had set him out from the other Russian artists at the time. They had not been accustomed to seeing paintings of regular shapes and lines, as they had always seen forms of life and nature in artistic images. The geometrical shapes are one of the most profound characteristic found in Suprematism. Another very noticeable trait in Suprematism are the use of lines. Most lines tend to be straight and diagonal, showing precision and discipline in the artwork. However, some lines curve and bend giving a playful and natural design to the work of art. I wanted to use the geometrical shapes and lines in my drawing to best resemble the work of Kazimir Malevich. I also used a slight range in color, as that is another key characteristic in Suprematism art.
Kazimir Malevich had many famous works of art and literature, however there were few that had set him apart from the other crowd of artists. His most famous painting being Black Square (1915). By diminishing the painting to just one shape and color, Kazimir Malevich had changed the way art could be represented. He brought out the fact that paintings and drawings didn’t need lively or natural images in order to be considered art. This allowed for anyone to look at art in an entirely new perspective. This idea was so new, that many people had considered it to be radical. This led to the painting being displayed after months of confidentiality. It was even hidden again for nearly fifty years after being on display once again.
Another famous work of art by Kazimir Malevich is the Suprematist Composition (1916). This painting had been kept with Malevich for nearly twelve years before he exhibited it at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. After many years of relocation, the painting had finally been sold to a staggering sixty million dollars to an anonymous buyer in 2008. The hefty price tag created a new record as it made this painting the most expensive Russian work of art ever to be sold.
I also used the Suprematist Composition (1916) as the basis for which I would create my own work of art. I was intrigued by the similarity of all the shapes and their sizes, as well as the wide range of hues not typically seen in Suprematism Art. I knew the randomness of hues and similarity of shapes would balance out the two different elements in this painting. The history of the painting also urged me to make my own version as it’s record breaking sale showed that this work of art is greatly appreciated in today’s culture.