Red Square (painting)

Last updated
Red Square
Red Square. Visual Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions.jpg
Artist Kazimir Malevich
Year1915 (1915)
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions53 by 53 centimetres (21 in × 21 in)
Location Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg

Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions, also known as Red Square, [1] is a 1915 painting by Kazimir Malevich. [2] Red Square was part of Malevich's Suprematist art movement (1915-1919), which aimed to create artworks that were universally understood.

Contents

A non-representational work, the painting shows a red quadrilateral on a white field.

Red Square is currently in the collection of the Russian Museum. [3]

Background

Malevich first began exploring the artistic potential of the square in stage curtains for the 1913 Russian Futurist/Cubo-Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun. The design reflected the synthesis of Russian and Western European art on the eve of World War I. [4]

The Red Square was displayed at The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 in Petrograd alongside other notable works by Malevich including Black Square and White on White. [5]

Unlike Black Square and Black Circle, Red Square was not included in First Russian Art Exhibition held in Berlin in 1922 because the painting was considered less important by UNOVIS. [6]

Stage design for Victory over the Sun, Act 1, Scene 1. 1913. Graphite pencil on paper, 25.9 x 20.2 cm. Victory over the Sun 24.jpg
Stage design for Victory over the Sun, Act 1, Scene 1. 1913. Graphite pencil on paper, 25.9 x 20.2 cm.

Like many of Malevich's paintings from the time, Red Square does not have a clear orientation. Even in exhibitions where Malevich helped mount the works, it may have hung in various positions. [7]

Suprematism

Emphasizing pure abstraction and geometric shape, Red Square is an example of Suprematism. Concerned only with form and the purity of shape, particularly that of the square, Malevich primarily considered Suprematism as an exploration of visual language as well as a step in the evolution of religious understanding. [8] The rejection of form was a fundamental premise of Suprematism. [9] For Malevich, Suprematism was purely aesthetic, divorced from political or social meaning. [4]

Suprematist works by Malevich at the 0,10 Exhibition in Petrograd. 0.10 Exhibition.jpg
Suprematist works by Malevich at the 0,10 Exhibition in Petrograd.

On the back canvas of Red Square, there is an inscription that reads "Peasant Woman (Suprematism)," making this one of the first times Malevich used term "Suprematism". [4]

Restoration

Red Square and two other works by Malevich were restored shortly before the artist's death because the paint had begun flaking. [10] The flaking likely occurred due to Malevich repainting a section of Red Square that had previously been painted. His paintings have been continually restored, with the most extensive restorations taking place in 1976 and 1988. [10]

Description

In December 1920, Malevich looked back at the period of Suprematism, concluding that is marked by three evolutionary phases that corresponded with a square: a black, a red, and a white phase. [11] Red Square therefore corresponds with the second evolutionary phase of the Suprematism. Describing his Suprematist works as nonobjective, but never abstract, Malevich intended to liberate painting from the burden of recognizable images. [12]

When creating Red Square Malevich began by drawing a line at the top of the form in the proportion of 2:8:2. [13] He then lowered one corner of the quadrilateral, stretching the shape into a distorted configuration. While the red quadrilateral may appear asymmetrical, it maintains its symmetry along one diagonal axis. This depiction of the quadrilateral demonstrates how Malevich was beginning to manipulate basic forms, with his compositions determined by the cohesion of space. [14] On the canvas the quadrilateral was not intended to be an "image" but rather a "living form" with Malevich describing the square in a letter to Alexander Benous as the "single bare and frameless icon of our time". [15]

Intimate in scale and densely painted, Red Square contains intense brushwork with the flat application of the red pigment creating an ambiguous effect on the surface of the painting. The ruby red pigment used by Malevich gives a depth and glow to the surface of the painting. [16] The appearance of the color is uniform, without shadow or tone, yet the actual application of the color is not meticulous. [7] Malevich's fragmentary use of varnish can be seen with only the form of the red quadrilateral being varnished. [17] However, this is a departure from some of Malevich's other paintings where the white background, rather than the form, would be varnished. [17] Malevich did not attach any symbolic relevance to color as Suprematist practices emphasized that the colors and shapes speak their own language. This is an expression of Malevich's belief that everything is in motion. In this way Malevich asserted that the dynamic of color is timeless. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazimir Malevich</span> Russian artist and painter (1879–1935)

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist, whose pioneering work and writing influenced the development of abstract art in the 20th century. He was born in Kiev, modern-day Ukraine, to an ethnic Polish family. His concept of Suprematism sought to develop a form of expression that moved as far as possible from the world of natural forms (objectivity) and subject matter in order to access "the supremacy of pure feeling" and spirituality. Active primarily in Russia, Malevich was a founder of the artists collective UNOVIS and his work has been variously associated with the Russian avant-garde and the Ukrainian avant-garde, and he was a central figure in the history of modern art in Central and Eastern Europe more broadly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suprematism</span> Early-20th-century Russian art movement

Suprematism is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry, painted in a limited range of colors. The term suprematism refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of pure artistic feeling" rather than on visual depiction of objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyubov Popova</span> Russian artist (1889–1924)

Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova was a Russian-Soviet avant-garde artist, painter and designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNOVIS</span> Group of artists led by Kazimir Malevich

UNOVIS was a short-lived but influential group of artists, founded and led by Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Genke-Meller</span> Ukrainian artist (1893–1954)

Nina Henrichovna Genke [Hɛŋkə] or Nina Henrichovna Genke-Meller, or Nina Henrichovna Henke-Meller was a Ukrainian-Russian avant-garde artist,, designer, graphic artist and scenographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olga Rozanova</span> Russian painter

Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova was a Russian avant-garde artist painting in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primitivism, and Cubo-Futurism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadezhda Udaltsova</span> Russian artist (1886–1961)

Nadezhda Andreevna Udaltsova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter and teacher.

Supremus was a group of Russian avant-garde artists led by the "father" of Suprematism, Kazimir Malevich. It has been described as the first attempt to found the Russian avant-garde movement as an artistic entity within its own historical development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Productivism (art)</span>

Productivism is an early twentieth-century art movement that is characterized by its spare geometry, limited color palette, and Cubist and Futurist influences. Aesthetically, it also looks similar to work by Kazimir Malevich and the Suprematists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Lissitzky</span> Soviet artist and architect (1890–1941)

Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, better known as El Lissitzky, was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design.

<i>Suprematist Composition</i> Painting by Kazimir Malevich

Suprematist Composition (blue rectangle over the red beam) is a 1916 painting by Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter of Polish origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian avant-garde</span> Avant-garde movements in 20th-century Ukraine

Ukrainian avant-garde is the avant-garde movement in Ukrainian art from the end of 1890s to the middle of the 1930s along with associated artists in sculpture, painting, literature, cinema, theater, stage design, graphics, music, and architecture. Some well-known Ukrainian avant-garde artists include: Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Archipenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Sonia Delaunay, Vasyl Yermylov, Alexander Bogomazov, Aleksandra Ekster, David Burliuk, Vadym Meller, and Anatol Petrytsky. All were closely connected to the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Odesa by either birth, education, language, national traditions or identity. Since it originated when Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, Ukrainian avant-garde has been commonly lumped by critics into the Russian avant-garde movement.

<i>Black Circle</i> Painting by Kazimir Malevich

Black Circle is a 1924 oil-on-canvas painting by the Kiev-born Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, founder of the Russian Suprematism movement. From the mid-1910s, Malevich abandoned any trace of figurature or representation from his paintings in favour of pure abstraction.

<i>White on White</i> Painting by Kazimir Malevich

Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">0,10 Exhibition</span> 1915-16 Russian exhibition

The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 was an exhibition presented by the Dobychina Art Bureau at Marsovo Pole, Petrograd, from 19 December 1915 to 17 January 1916. The exhibition was important in inaugurating a form of non-objective art called Suprematism, introducing a daring visual vernacular composed of geometric forms of varying colour, and in signifying the end of Russia's previous leading art movement, Cubo-Futurism, hence the exhibition's full name. The sort of geometric abstraction relating to Suprematism was distinct in the apparent kinetic motion and angular shapes of its elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Drutt</span> American curator and writer (born 1962)

Matthew Joseph Williams Drutt is an American curator and writer who specializes in modern and contemporary art and design. Based in New York, he has owned and operated his independent consulting practice Drutt Creative Arts Management (DCAM) since 2013l. He is currently working with the Lee Ufan Foundation in Arles on an exhibition of non-objective art foor Fall 2024. More recently, he worked with the Nationalmuseum Stockholm on an exhibition and publication of modern and contemporary American crafts gifted from artists and collectors in the United States to the museum, originally organized by his mother, Helen Drutt. He has worked more recently with the Eckbo Foundation in Oslo on the first major monograph of Thorwald Hellesen published in English and Norwegian in by Arnoldsche Art Publishers. He is currently also developing several other titles with the publisher. Formerly, he worked with the Beyeler Foundation in Switzerland (2013–2016) and the State Hermitage Museum in Russia (2013–2014), consulting on exhibitions, publications, and collections. He continues to serve as an Advisory Curator to the Hermitage Museum Foundation Israel. In 2006, the French Government awarded him the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2003, his exhibition Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism won Best Monographic Exhibition Organized Nationally from the International Association of Art Critics.

<i>Black Square</i> Painting by Kazimir Malevich

Black Square is a 1915 oil on linen canvas painting by the Kyiv-born artist Kazimir Malevich. The first version was completed in 1915 and was described by the artist as his breakthrough work and the inception for the launch of his Suprematist art movement (1915–1919). In his manifesto for the Suprematist movement, Malevich said the works were intended as "desperate struggle to free art from the ballast of the objective world" by focusing only on pure form. He sought to create paintings that could be understood by all, that would have an emotional impact comparable to religious works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lazar Khidekel</span> Belarusian artist and architect (1904–1986)

Lazar Markovich Khidekel was an artist, designer, architect and theoretician, who is noted for realizing the abstract, avant-garde Suprematist movement through architecture.

<i>An Englishman in Moscow</i> 1914 painting by Kazimir Malevich

An Englishman in Moscow, is a 1914 oil on canvas painting by Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist Kazimir Malevich.

<i>Black Cross</i> (painting) Art by Kazimir Malevich

Black Cross is an iconic oil painting by Kazimir Malevich. The first version was done in 1915. From the mid-1910s, Malevich abandoned any trace of figurature or representation from his paintings in favour of pure abstraction.

References

  1. ↑ Laura Cumming (27 January 2008). "Heroes of the Russian revelation - French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg". The Observer . Guardian Media Group . Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Richard Kostelanetz and H. R. Brittain (2001). A Dictionary of the Avant-gardes. Taylor & Francis. p. 389. ISBN   0415937647.
  3. ↑ "The Viewing of Six New Works 2012". Art Canada Institute . University of Toronto. 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Kiblitsky, Joesph (2000). Kazimir Malevich in the Russian Museum. State Russian Museum. p. 19. ISBN   5-93332-009-9.
  5. ↑ Milner, John (1946). Kazimir Malevich and the Art of Geometry. Yale University Press. p. 121. ISBN   0-300-06417-9.
  6. ↑ Drutt, Matthew (2003). Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism. Guggenheim Museum Publications. p. 71. ISBN   0-89207-265-2.
  7. 1 2 Fauchereau, Serge (1992). Malevich. Rizzoli International Publications. p. 25. ISBN   0-8478-1738-5.
  8. ↑ Douglas, Charlotte (1994). Kazimir Malevich. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. p. 24. ISBN   0-8109-3645-3.
  9. ↑ Douglas, Charlotte (1976). Swans of Other Worlds; Kazimir Malevich and the Origins of Abstraction in Russia. UMI Research Press. p. 57. ISBN   0-8357-1058-0.
  10. 1 2 Kiblitsky, Joseph (2000). Kazimir Malevich in the Russian Museum. State Russian Museum. p. 32. ISBN   5-93332-009-9.
  11. 1 2 S. Boersma, Linda (2013). Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. p. 100. ISBN   978-3-86335-420-6.
  12. ↑ S. Boersma, Linda (2013). Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. p. 99. ISBN   978-3-86335-420-6.
  13. ↑ Milner, John (1946). Kazimir Malevich and the Art of Geometry. Yale University Press. p. 129. ISBN   0-300-06417-9.
  14. ↑ A.Zhadova, Larissa (1982). Malevich; Suprematism and Revolution in Russian Art 1910-1930. Thames and Hudson. p. 51.
  15. ↑ Douglas, Charlotte (1976). Swans of Other Worlds; Kazimir Malevich and the Origins of Abstraction in Russia. UMI Research Press. p. 59. ISBN   0-8357-1058-0.
  16. ↑ Drutt, Matthew (2003). Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism. Guggenheim Museum Press. p. 27. ISBN   0-89207-265-2.
  17. 1 2 Kiblitsky, Joseph (2000). Kazimir Malevich in the Russian Museum. State Russian Mueseum. p. 33. ISBN   5-93332-009-9.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.