Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism

Kazimir Malevich - To Harvest (Martha and Vanka) - 1928-32 - Oil on canvas - The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (click photo for larger image)Ukranian Cubist and Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) was a key figure in the Russian abstract art movement. The Supremetism he developed is characterized by simple geometric shapes and associated with ideas of spiritual purity. The term itself implied the supremacy of a new art in relation to the past. Malevich saw it as purely aesthetic and concerned only with form, free from any political or social meaning. He stressed the purity of shape, particularly of the square, and he regarded Suprematism as primarily an exploration of visual language comparable to contemporary developments in writing.