CHANGING MY FEELINGS

janvier 20, 2014

In 2010 I specifically went to Amsterdam to see « Matisse to Malevich, Pioneers of Modern Art at the Hermitage ». It was an amazing exhibition with Matisse, Picasso and Derain who received special attention, as did the Fauvists such as Van Dongen and De Vlaminck. The works go back to the Moscow collectors Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin. Two other artists featuring in the exhibition were Kandinsky and Malevich. As nearly all of the artists in question are meaningful for me and I follow around Europe, I was somewhat stunned when I came to the last room and fell upon this…. »The Black Square » Kazimir Malevich - 1932. There was nothing else.....

The last version of the Black Square - 1932

It’s not often that I turn my back on a painting but this one made me fume. Since I have read a lot about this period in Malevich’s life. The Black Square was painted four times at different periods and in different sizes. Supposedly it is his most famous and emblematic work. I am not going to go into his reasoning as I still find it a little absurd even if considered to be the first non-objective trend in the Russian avant-garde.

We have often seen this work and others of his geometric period in exhibitions and let’s face it, they do not touch me. I really can’t relate to them. This was a period called Suprematism representing « art for art’s sake » (1919). The word came from the Latin supremus which means « the most perfect ». Aieee. However, looking at what I wanted to see in 2014, I fell on the Stedelijk Museum. An exhibition called Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde caught my eye. I was amazed to see how much his earlier work was fascinating. I didn’t have to look at all those Supremist paintings if I went….so I decided to go.

I was very pleased to have done so. It is the largest event in many years of Kazimir Malevich’s work (1879-1935) and gives a complete picture of the artist and the Russian avant-garde. What is also fascinating is that the exhibition includes a lot of his work on paper, for him « the true home of his ideas ».

Self portrait 1910

On the Boulevard 1910

The Province 1910

Man with sack 1910-11

Windmills 1909

Picking of fruit 1909

Portrait 1910

Same period

Bathers seen from behinbd 1910

I must say though the his early work between 1903-1910 which turns around impressionism, symbolism and fauvism is quite delightful, full of energy, movement and not at all as I had « seen » the artist to date.

His work evolved under the influence of the Russian folk art and modern art movements emanating from Paris. This was the period that interested me. The Neo-Primitivism and Cubo-Furturism (1911-1913.)

peasant woman with child 1911

The Woodcutter 1912

The mower 1912

Peasant woman with buckets 1912

Taking in the rye 1912

Study of a peasant 1911

Maternity 1910

There was a group of artists in the Cubo-Futurism and A-Logism, (an artistic style he created which was an associative collage like way of painting).His work was also very influenced by the French movement. You'll see that below. Of course there were many painters who were unknown to me (Ivan Klyun (whom I naturally did not know along with others although of course I did know Popova.)

Boris Ender - extended space 1922

Michail Matyushin - landscape 1920

Michail Matyushin space 1920

Michail Matyushin - painterly musical construction 1918

Popova - Spacial Force construction 1920

Popova - Painterly architectonics 1918

I am now going to skip his suprematism, shapes and monochrome and geometric designs. I can’t cope with them. You can judge for yourself. They are static in my eyes and don’t have the movement and energy I look for in abstract painting.

Ivan Puni 1915

Malevich


Malevich

Malevich

The famous Black square and others

The Black Square again and gallery for Suprematism

Then we come to his last years. In 1928, Stalin’s regime officially banned abstract art. Malevich was captured and spent two months in prison under pretty tough interrogation. There he began to paint figurative scenes although this return to figuration no means signaled the end of the geometric era. All the paintings I saw possessed an unmistakeable Suprematist abstraction but one which I had no difficulty in going along with.

Head of a peasant 1930

Man and horse 1933

Running man 1930

Woman with rake 1932

Girl with a comb in her hair 1932

Girl with red pole 1932-33

Considered to be the best of his "impressionist" paintings

self portrait 1933

Back in Paris it took me a full day to go through the paintings and then again last night with Nicky we spent another hour together. She was enthralled and pointed out many images in the paintings that I hadn’t seen. However, it also get’s back to my idea on titles. Many of the titles didn't have anything as far as we could see with the paintings and yet before I let her look at the title, we both fantasized on what the painting was all about. Frankly our « stories » were richer than the given titles. Or we thought so anyway. However, below are his titles.