MILAN – Kazimir (or Kasimir) Severinovic Malevich (Kiev, February 23, 1878 – Leningrad, May 15, 1935) was a Russian painter of the twentieth century, a pioneer of geometric abstractionism and the Russian avant-gardes. He is studying at the Rerberg Private Academy in Moscow. In 1913 he founded the artistic avant-garde called Suprematism which advocated the absolute supremacy of plastic sensitivity. Multi-faceted artist, after a symbolist and neo-impressionist debut, Malevichhe embraced the development of Cubofuturism, a movement that synthesized the achievements of the French Cubism of Braque and Picasso and of the Italian Futurism of Balla and Boccioni. His was an initial path common to other Russian artists of his age, such as Kandinskij, with whom I participate in the first avant-garde collectives. THE SUPREMATISM – Malevich is internationally considered part of the pioneering triad that opened the new avenues of twentieth century art: if Picasso contributed more to the renewal of the figurative tradition and Duchamp than the conceptual one, Malevich is the one who gave birth to hegemony of the tradition of abstract art, still decisive today.His was, and continues to be, a key personality for the last century, thanks to a complex production, which goes beyond just abstract work and the birth of Suprematism, an artistic current fundamental for the development of 20th century art. Malevich explains it clearly: “By suprematism I mean the supremacy of pure sensitivity in art. From the point of view of the supremacists, the outward appearances of nature offer no interest; only sensitivity is essential. The object itself means nothing. With supremacism, art reaches pure expression without representation ” . THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO – In 1913 – Malevic drew up, together with other artists, the Manifesto of the First Futurist Congress .
The show Vittoria sul Sole dates back to this period , the first total work of music, art, poetry and theater, created by Malevich with Michail Matjusin and Aleksej Krucenych, in which the distinctive features of Suprematism are visible, with a first mention of the Black Square. This work, performed only once in 1913, has been philologically recomposed on Malevich ‘s original drawings – present in the exhibition – on the music and texts found in the archives, where they had been buried during the years of the regime, and on the few existing photographic images. To this period belong the famous paintings, all exhibited, such as Cow and violin (1913), Improved portrait of Ivan Kljun (1913),Composition with the Mona Lisa (1914) and some drawings of the same years compared with the canvases Piccoli Russi (Ucraini) (1912) by David Burlyuk , Ciclista (1913) by Natalija Goncarova and others. This was followed by the years in which, on the occasion of the Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10 in 1915, Malevic launched Suprematism , with the intention of affirming the predominance of the pure sensitivity of art that would find application not only in painting, but also in architecture and design. , especially at the level of experimentation and modeling. THE TWENTIES –The 1920s represented a period of maximum theoretical expansion for Malevich, who abandoned “the disheveled brush for the sharp pen” and devoted himself to writings, notes, drawings. It is in this decade that the supremacist nucleus is concentrated, revealing a much more advanced research than that which transpires from the works of other colleagues. In 1927 Malevich went to Warsaw to present an exhibition of his paintings; later and in Berlin, where his works are exhibited at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung. During his stay in Germany he meets Jean Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Naum Gabo and Le Corbusier, and visits the Bauhaus. In 1929 a solo exhibition by Malevich was held at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Due to his relations with German artists, Malevich is arrested in 1930 and much of his notes are destroyed. In recent years he has painted figuratively. Malevich died in Leningrad on May 15, 1935.
