Malevich, whom you did not know: little-known facts about the life and work of the artist. Malevich's White Square: features, history and interesting facts Interesting facts about Malevich's painting black square

On May 15, 1935, one of the most famous avant-garde artists in the world, Kazimir Malevich, died. We remember him and offer to find out 5 interesting facts about the artist's biography.

A brilliant artist, one of the most misunderstood (or misunderstood?), endlessly discussed (and condemned), but unconditionally recognized (especially abroad), innovators of Russian visual arts- Kazimir Malevich, was the first of 14 children of the gentry Severin Malevich, who lives with his wife Ludviga Galinovskaya in the Vinnitsa province.

And until the age of 26, he was no different from many people, combining work as a draftsman with a passion for painting in his spare time.

But the passion for creativity eventually prevailed and, having managed to get married by that time, Malevich left his family, went to Moscow in 1905 - to enter the school of painting (where he was not accepted!).

From here begins his path to the national Olympus of great names, which was interrupted on May 15, 1935 by the death of Kazimir Severinovich, a philosopher, teacher, theorist, famous Soviet artist, who left to his descendants a revolutionary legacy that had a huge impact on modern architecture and art; the founder of a whole trend in painting - Suprematism (the primacy of one primary color over the other components: for example, in some works by Malevich, figures of bright colors are immersed in the "white abyss" - a white background).

Today, remembering the brilliant giant artist who once blew up the world with his works and ideas, let's get acquainted with the most interesting facts from his difficult and vibrant life.

Most famous work Kazimir Malevich. Only four paintings created in different time. The very first, written in 1915, is in the Hermitage, where it was transferred by billionaire V. Potanin for indefinite storage (purchased for $ 1 million from Inkombank in 2002. It is surprising that such low price immortal, the most famous Russian painting in the world, which is difficult to compare with the prices of other works by Malevich, for example, "Suprematist composition" was sold on November 3, 2008 for $60 million).

Two more versions of the "Black Square" are in the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) and one in the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).
In addition to the Suprematist "Black Square" (first invented by Malevich as a scenery for M.V.

Matyushin "Victory over the Sun", 1913), "Black Circle" and "Black Cross" were created.

Career

Never enrolled in any educational institution great autodidact Kazimir Malevich, becomes the author of a number of scientific works, a propagandist of his own direction in art, the founder of a group of like-minded avant-garde artists "UNOVIS" and director of the Leningrad state institute artistic culture!

Wives

Having married at a young age (his wife had the same name as him - Kazimira Zgleits), Malevich, after moving to Moscow, was forced to dissolve the marriage. Having taken two children, his wife left for the village of Meshcherskoe, getting a job as a paramedic in mental asylum, and then, she fled, entangled with a local doctor, leaving the young children of one of her colleagues, Sofya Mikhailovna Rafalovich.

When Kazimir Malevich found out about this and came to pick up the children, he took Sofya Mikhailovna to Moscow, who after some time became his second wife.

Jail

In 1930, an exhibition of the artist's works was criticized, after which he was arrested and spent many months in an OGPU prison, accused of espionage.

grave

Malevich's body was cremated in a coffin made according to his sketch. An urn with ashes was lowered under an oak tree, near the village of Nemchinovka (Odintsovsky district of Moscow region), setting up a wooden monument above it: a cube with a black square (made by a student of Kazimir Malevich - Nikolai Suetin).

A few years later, the grave was lost - during the war, lightning struck the oak and cut it down, and a road for heavy military equipment passed along the artist's grave.

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1878 - 1935) - an artist famous in the genre of avant-garde, impressionism, futurism, cubism.

Biography of Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich was born in Kyiv on February 11 (February 23), 1879. His parents were of Polish origin. His father, Severin, worked as a manager in Kyiv at the factory of the then-famous sugar factory Tereshchenko. But according to other data, the father of Kazimir Malevich was the Belarusian folklorist and ethnographer Severin Antonovich Malevich. However, if the identity of the artist's father raises questions, then it is known for certain that Kazimir's mother, Ludwig Alexandrovna, was an ordinary housewife.

Fourteen souls of children were born in the family, but only nine survived to adulthood, and Casimir was the eldest among this noisy gang.

He started painting with light hand his mother, at the age of fifteen, after she gave her son a set of paints. When Malevich was seventeen, he worked for some time at the Kyiv art school N.I. Murashko.

The Malevichs decided to move the whole family to the city of Kursk in 1896. What this decision to move was connected with is unknown, but what is known is that Kazimir worked there for some time as some petty official, languishing from routine longing.

This could not go on for a long time, so he nevertheless gave up his career as a clerk for the sake of painting.

His first paintings were painted under the influence french impressionists and themselves, of course, were also created in the style of impressionism. After some time, he became passionately interested in futurism. He was almost the most active participant in all futuristic exhibitions, and even worked on costumes and scenery, in a word, designed a futuristic opera called "Victory over the Sun" in 1913. This performance, held in St. Petersburg, became one of the most milestones in the development of the entire Russian avant-garde.

It was the geometrization of forms and the maximum simplification in design that prompted Kazimir Malevich to think about creating a new direction - Suprematism.

Creativity Malevich

The artist made a revolution, took a step that no one in the world could decide before him. He completely abandoned figurativeness, even fragmented figurativeness, which had previously existed in Futurism and Cubism.

The artist showed his first forty-nine paintings to the world at an exhibition held in Petrograd in 1915 - "0.10". Under his works, the artist placed a sign: "Suprematism in painting." Among these canvases was the world-famous "Black Square", written in 1914 (?), which caused fierce attacks from critics. However, these attacks do not subside to this day.

Already in next year Kazimir Malevich published a pamphlet titled “From Cubism to Suprematism. New pictorial realism ”, in which he clearly justified his innovation.

As a result, Suprematism had such a huge impact not only on painting, but also on the architectural art of the West and Russia, that it brought its creator truly world fame.

Suprematism Musical instrument flower girl

Like all artists of a non-standard, "left" direction, Kazimir Malevich was very active during the revolution.

The artist was engaged in scenery for the first performance of Vladimir Mayakovsky "Mystery - buff" in 1918, he was in charge of the Art Department at the Moscow Council. When he moved to Petrograd, he was in charge and taught at the Free Art Workshops.

In the autumn of 1919, Kazimir went to the city of Vitebsk to teach at the People's Art School, which was organized by Marc Chagall, and which was soon transformed into the Artistic and Practical Institute. He left Vitebsk only in 1922 to return to Petrograd and work for porcelain factory, to invent more and more new forms of murals, studied the possibilities of applying Suprematism in architecture.

In 1932, Malevich achieved the position of head experimental laboratory at the Russian Museum, where he developed the theory of the "surplus element in painting", which he put forward earlier.

In the same 1932, Malevich suddenly turned again to traditional realism. Perhaps this was due to the trends of the new time, but, one way or another, but to finish this new period Kazimir Malevich could not do his own work. In 1933 he fell seriously ill, and two years later, in 1935, he died.

Almost 100 years have passed since Kazimir Malevich created the famous Black Square, and the hype around him has not subsided. Consensus how exactly famous painting was created, has not yet arrived. About the history of the origin of the masterpiece, on this moment, there are two versions: prosaic and mystical.

The prose version tells how Malevich was preparing for a very large exhibition. But the circumstances did not develop in his favor and the artist either did not have time to finish the work, or simply ruined it. And in a panic, not knowing what to do, he grabbed a dark paint and drew a black square on top of his work. As a result, the so-called “crackle” effect was formed on the canvas - this is when the paint cracks. So it turns out as a result of applying paint to another one that has not dried. It is in such a chaotic arrangement of a huge number of cracks that people find different images.

But the mystical version says that Kazimir worked on this work for more than one month. Through philosophical reflection world, when a certain deep understanding and insight was achieved, and the "Black Square" was created.

After the painting was finally finished, the creator could neither sleep nor eat. As the creator himself wrote, he was busy peering into the mysterious space of the black square. He claimed that he sees in this square what people once saw in the face of God.

Why is this picture known to the whole world? There are few people who do not know about it. Maybe the whole point is that no one did this before Malevich? Maybe it's about innovation?

But! The thing is that Kazimir Malevich was not the first artist who painted a black square on canvas.

In Paris, in 1882, there was an exhibition called "The Art of the Inconsistent" and the work of six artists took part in the exhibition. The most extraordinary picture was recognized by the work, which was called "Night Fight of Negroes in the Basement" by Paul Bilhod. Guess what was on it? A lot of artists fail just because they didn't get their work right.

Kazimir Malevich is not only Black Square. What is the meaning of Malevich's work? Why has he become so popular? It turns out that Malevich worked as a fabric designer and drew sketches of costumes for the play. And much more ... Little-known work of the artist is offered to your attention.

Malevich, is there any point?

I say "Malevich" - you represent a black square. But Malevich drew not only a square, but also many different colored figures. And not only figures. But now let's talk about them. When you look at Malevich's paintings, the question arises: "why did he paint this?" By the way, to the question "why" Malevich answers - very long and boring in his philosophical writings. To put it simply and briefly, it was a protest. Creativity as a protest. Trying to create something completely new. And here you can not argue - Malevich managed to surprise and shock. A hundred years have passed since the "Black Square" was created, and it still haunts people, and many consider it their duty to condescendingly quit "and I can do it." And you can do it, and Malevich could. Malevich was the first to think of this - and therefore became popular.

Even the artist draws inspiration from the paintings of the master!

Malevich was able to come up with a new direction. This direction of painting is called "Suprematism". From the word "supremus", which in translation means "the highest." At first, Malevich called color "high". After all, color is the main thing in painting. And then, with the advent of popularity, the artist already called his style “higher”. Could afford. Now Suprematism is the highest, the best, the only real style of painting.

Suprematist artists draw different geometric shapes, most often square, rectangle, circle and line. The colors are simple - black, white, red and yellow. But there may be exceptions - each artist draws as he wants.

If you want to get directions contemporary art, then we recommend reading a couple of books of the selection.

How did Malevich understand painting?

This can be summed up in one quote:

“When the habit of seeing in the pictures the image of corners of nature, Madonnas and shameless Venuses disappears, then only we will see a purely pictorial work.”

How does it differ from the work of "impure"? The fact that painting, according to Malevich, should create something that has never happened before. Create, not repeat. This is what distinguishes an artist from a craftsman. The craftsman “stamps” the goods. And the work of the artist is one such. Without repeating what has already been created. If we see a landscape on the canvas, this is a “repetition” of nature. If a drawn person is also a repetition, because people already exist in life.

Malevich coined the term non-objectivity. In the picture, we must see non-objectivity, and only in this case the picture is real. Because if we see an object, it means that this object exists in the world. If it exists, it means that the artist has not painted anything new. Then why did he paint at all? Such is the philosophy.

In addition to the famous Black Square, Malevich also painted white and red squares. But for some reason they did not become so popular.

So, the meaning of Malevich's paintings is that the artist comes up with something that has never been and never will be. This excites the public. The public likes to discuss, condemn, or vice versa - to admire. That is why popularity came to Malevich, and disputes about his work have not subsided to this day. But Malevich is not only Suprematism.

What else did Malevich draw?

All artists, before moving on to such experiments, first learned academic painting. The one that is according to the rules to which we are accustomed. Malevich is no exception. He painted both landscapes and portraits, and was engaged in fresco painting.

A sketch of a fresco painting called "The Triumph of Heaven":

Scenery. "Spring":

Portrait of a girl:

After that, Malevich turned to experiments. The artist tried to convey the movement of people with the help of geometric shapes. One of the most popular paintings in this style is called "Lumberjack". The effect of movement is achieved through smooth color transitions.

And these are paintings from the artist's "Peasant Cycle". "To harvest. Martha and Vanka. At first glance, the figures seem to be motionless, but a moment more - and we will see the movement.

Another "mobile" picture - "Harvesting":

And this picture is called "Athletes". Here the main thing is color and symmetry. This is an example of how the direction of Suprematism can be used not only in drawing squares and lines. Silhouettes consist of multi-colored figures. But at the same time we see people in the picture. And even notice the athletic form.

Fabrics from Malevich

Malevich created sketches of such fabrics. Their ornamentation was invented under the influence of the same Suprematism: on the fabric we see figures and typical colors - black, red, blue, green.

According to the sketches of Malevich and Alexandra Exter (artist and designer), craftswomen from the village of Verbovka made embroidery. They embroidered scarves, tablecloths and pillows, and then sold them at fairs. Such embroideries were especially popular at fairs in Berlin.

And Malevich also drew sketches of costumes for the play "Victory over the Sun". It was an experimental play that defied logic. the only musical instrument that accompanied the piece was an out-of-tune piano. From left to right: Attentive worker, Athlete, Bully.

What inspired Malevich?

How was Malevich able to come up with a new direction? An amazing fact, but the artist was inspired folk art. In his autobiography, he called ordinary peasant women his first art teachers. The future artist looked at their work and understood that he wanted to learn the same way. Take a closer look at the embroidery - here it is, the beginning of Suprematism. Here we see the same geometry that Malevich would later create. These are ornaments without beginning and end - multi-colored figures on a white background. Squares. In Malevich's Suprematist drawings, the background is white, because it means infinity. And the colors of the patterns are the same: red, black, blue are used.

1. At the porcelain factory in Petrograd, according to the sketches of Malevich and his students, they decorated table and tea sets.

2. Malevich was the designer of the Severny cologne bottle. The artist designed the bottle at the request of perfumer Alexandre Brocard. This is a transparent glass bottle, shaped like an ice mountain. And on top - a cap in the form of a bear.

3. It was Malevich who coined the familiar word “weightlessness”. The artist understood development (at least creative, at least technical) as an airplane that overcame its weight and took off into the sky. That is, weightlessness for Malevich meant an ideal. And weight is the framework, the heaviness that pulls people down. And over time, the word began to be used in the usual sense for us.

4. For a true artist, art is everywhere. Even at home. This is what Malevich's office looked like. We see a black square, a cross and a circle. In the middle is one of the Suprematist paintings, which the artist was painting at that time.

5. Malevich had wonderful feeling humor. He signed some paintings like this: "The meaning of the picture is unknown to the author." Funny, but honest.

6. There is still not a single Malevich museum in the world. But there are monuments.

Opening of the Black Square monument:

Monument to the work of Malevich:

7. Malevich is not only an artist and designer, but also a writer: he wrote poetry, articles and philosophical books.

8. Malevich was only once abroad, but his work was popular throughout Europe. And now most of his paintings are in museums in Europe and America.

9. All his life the artist thought he was born in 1878. And only after the celebration of his 125th birthday it turned out that the real date of birth is 1879. Therefore, the 125th anniversary of Malevich was celebrated twice.

10. Recently, programmers came up with the “Malevich font”. It is difficult to read, but it looks interesting.

7 facts about the "Black Square"

1. The first name of the "Black Square" is "Black quadrangle on a white background." And it's true: the "Black Square" is actually not a square. After all, neither side is equal to the other. It is almost imperceptible - but you can attach a ruler and measure.

2. In total, Malevich painted 4 Black Squares. All of them are different in size and are in museums in Russia. The artist himself called his square "the beginning of everything." But in fact, the first "Black Square" is a painted over picture. Which one, we don't know. There were many disputes - to remove the paint from the square and look, or to leave everything as it is. We decided to leave. After all, first of all - such was the will of the artist. And under the x-ray you can see what kind of drawing Malevich began to draw. Most likely, this is also something geometric:

3. Malevich himself explained "painting over" in a different way. He said that he drew a square quickly, that the idea arose like an insight. Therefore, there was no time to look for a clean canvas - and he took the one that lay at hand.

4. "Black Square" quickly became a symbol of the new art. It was used as a signature. Artists sewed a square piece of black fabric onto clothes. This meant that they were artists of a new generation. In the photo: Malevich's students flying a flag in the form of a black square.

5. What does "Black Square" mean? Everyone can understand the picture in their own way. Some people think that we see space in a square, because there is no up and down in space. Only weightlessness and infinity. Malevich said that a square is a feeling, and a white background is nothing. It turns out that this feeling is in emptiness. And yet - the square is not found in nature, unlike other figures. This means it is not related to the real world. This is the whole point of Suprematism.

6. At his first exhibition in St. Petersburg, Malevich defiantly hung the "Black Square" in the corner where the icons usually hung. The artist challenged the public. And the public was immediately divided into opponents of the new art and its admirers.

7. The main value of the "Black Square" is that every admirer of Malevich's work can hang a reproduction of the painting at home. Moreover, it is our own production.

Finally, I offer this quote from Malevich, which explains all his work:

“They always demand that art be understandable, but they never demand that they adjust their heads to understanding.”

The result of any drawing is a picture. This statement would be true if Kazimir Malevich did not prove the opposite. In 1915 he painted Black Square on a White Ground and made the shocking confession: "This is not a painting, this is something else."
A little later, the artist and art theorist El Lissitzky said that the "Black Square" is a complete opposition to everything that is meant by the concepts of "art", "painting" and "picture". And that Malevich reduced all forms and all painting to absolute zero.
More than 90 years have passed since the appearance of the "Black Square", but it still excites the minds and imagination, still causes heated debate. Absolutely black square image, painted in oil and framed by a white canvas. In Malevich's scandalous masterpiece there is none of the traditional hallmarks of a masterpiece.

However, as the artist himself predicted, this drawing, made unconsciously, or rather under the influence of "cosmic consciousness", became major event in world art history. He freed the concept of painting from all its traditional laws, reduced it to zero form, designated the square as a new, basic "first figure" of the new art, which Kazimir Malevich called Suprematism, which means superiority, domination.
He calls the "Black Square" "a naked icon without a frame", and he calls himself the Chairman of the Space. He openly declares his intention to "slaughter pictorial art, put it in a coffin and stamp it with a Black Square."

In 1882, young French writer and publisher Jules Levy founded the "Salon of the Inconsistent" group, which consisted of artists, writers, poets and other representatives of the Parisian bohemia of the late 19th century. This association did not pursue any political goals. The group's slogan was the phrase "Art is inconsistent", coined by Levy in defiance of the common phrase "les arts decoratifs". "The Salon of the Inconsistent" mocked official values ​​through satire, humor, and sometimes crude jokes. The paintings that were shown at the exhibitions of the Salon were not at all "paintings" in the traditional sense. They were funny caricatures, absurd nightmares, drawings as if drawn by children. October 1, 1882 The Salon of the Inconsistent opens an exhibition in Paris with the quaint title The Art of the Inconsistent. The exhibition presented the works of six authors who can be considered the forerunners of surrealism, which declared itself 40 years later. The most provocative among the paintings was a one-color, completely black image, drawn by the poet Paul Bilhaud (Paul Bilhaud), and it was called "Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night". Such a black rectangle.

No statements about the conceptual meaning of the painting. No suggestion to look and find hidden meaning a black rectangle framed by a playful vignette. Just a funny picture. And the joke is not even in the picture, but in its title. Indeed, when blacks fight in the basement at night, nothing is visible and everything is black!
Bilford's humorous idea was developed by the artist Alphonse Allais. At the Incoherent shows of 1883, he exhibits the painting Pale Young Girls Going to their First Communion in the Snow, which is a white rectangle.

At the exhibition of 1884, he shows another monochrome drawing - a red rectangle called Apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes by the Shores of the Red Sea.

Then Alphonse Allais expanded his collection with Blue, Green, Gray rectangles and published a book with these works, supplementing them with an empty musical score called "Funeral March for the Deaf". It must be admitted that Alle was a great dreamer and humorist.
In the monochrome works of French jokers, the concept of absence was belittled by a humorous title. In the monochrome works of Kazimir Malevich, the same concept was reinforced by a meaningless name. After all, "Black Square" is not a name, it's just a statement.
The most important thing is that the inconsistent Parisian humorists of the late 19th century did not tell the world anything about the sacred meaning of their work. Maybe because it wasn't there. Malevich was much more serious. He tirelessly sculpted the reputation of his masterpiece, using all possible means. As a result, the names of "inconsistent" today are known only to specialists, and the name of Malevich is known to the whole world. Currently, there are four "Black Squares" in Russia: in Moscow and St. Petersburg exactly two "Squares" each: two in the Tretyakov Gallery, one in the Russian Museum and one in the Hermitage. One of the canvases belongs to the Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, who bought it from Inkombank in 2002 for 1 million US dollars (32 million rubles) and transferred this very first, and therefore the most important of the existing options for canvas depicting "Black square" by the founder of Suprematism.

Here are some more of his works.

His most famous painting, Black Square, is now valued at more than $20 million. The author himself called this work the pinnacle of his work.

Square, circle, cross

In 1913 Kazimir Malevich Together with fellow Suprematists, he prepared a production of the opera Victory over the Sun. All the scenery for the performance was made by the artist himself. In these works, he first sketched the idea of ​​the picture - in the opera, a black square replaced the sun, thereby telling the audience that Suprematist creativity now illuminates the path for those who go forward.

That is why the year of the appearance of the Black Square itself is designated by the artist as 1913, although he painted his masterpiece in 1915.

Then all the Suprematists were preparing for the exhibition "0.10" in St. Petersburg. For them, in the “Art Bureau N.E. Dobychina” was allocated two whole halls, at least 30 works were required, but so many were not recruited. They say that before the exhibition, Malevich painted day and night. It was then in this race for the number of Suprematist paintings that the triptych appeared - "Black Square", "Black Circle" and "Black Cross".

It would seem that the artist worked for quantity. But no, as soon as the "Black Square" was completed, Malevich breathed a sigh of relief. He said that he created his main work - and at the exhibition he hoisted it into the "red corner" of the hall, the place where the viewer's eye immediately fell.

Black square in the "red corner" of the exhibition "0.10", 1915. Source: Public Domain

Battle of the Negroes

For more than 100 years, all people who are not indifferent to the "Black Square" have explored the length and breadth of the picture, trying to find secret meaning. Someone thought that Malevich just laughed at everyone. Someone saw the grand philosophical meaning, and someone - just a way to earn money and remembered the fabulous amount that you can get for this picture. But only in 2015, using X-rays, researchers discovered that two more drawings by Kazimir Malevich, cubo-futuristic and proto-suprematist, were hidden behind the black square. Also under the black paint museum workers found letters. From them they managed to put together the phrase: "Battle of the Negroes at night."

Malevich himself said this about his Black Square: “I could neither sleep nor eat. I tried to figure out what I did. But he couldn't."

Experts Tretyakov Gallery found under colorful layer paintings color image. Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Vyatkin

Four Masterpieces

The artist's "Black Square" is presented in four copies, but they all differ from each other in some way - in color, in texture, in drawing, in size. You can view and compare them by visiting Russian museums. The first "Square" lives in the Tretyakov Gallery. The second, which, according to many experts, was painted by the artist's associates under his guidance, is in the Russian Museum. The third Malevich depicted already in 1929 specifically for the Tretyakov Gallery, where he is kept together with the first "Square". But with the fourth incarnation of the main figure of Suprematism, a detective story came out. In the 1990s, this painting was left as collateral in a bank in Samara, but the owner never came to pick it up. Canvas redeemed Vladimir Potanin, paying for it, according to rumors, a million dollars, and gave the creation of Kazimir Malevich to the Hermitage.

A picture instead of an icon?

The funeral of Kazimir Malevich, oddly enough, is also associated with the black square. Malevich himself insisted that he be buried according to the Suprematist rite. Therefore, a special sarcophagus was made for the ceremony, on the lid of which a black square was painted. Those wishing to say goodbye to the creator could not only see Malevich in last time, but also look at the painting "Black Square", which stood next to the coffin. After the memorial service, the sarcophagus was hoisted onto a truck, on which a black square was also previously applied. Since Malevich died in Leningrad, and the body was to be buried in the Moscow region, the sarcophagus was transported by train to the capital. The second memorial service for Malevich was already held in the Donskoy Monastery. And there, near the sarcophagus, among the flowers, there was not a portrait of Malevich, but the Black Square. Needless to say, the monument on the artist's grave in Nemchinovka was the embodiment of a black square on a white cube. During the battles in the Great Patriotic War the monument disappeared, information about the exact burial place of Kazimir Malevich was gradually lost.