Kazimir Malevich — Gallery of Avant-Garde Artworks

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879–1935) was an avant-garde artist, draftsman, art theorist, and the founder of Suprematism — one of the key movements of 20th-century abstractionism.

Malevich’s artistic path led him from realism and impressionism to a complete rejection of representational imagery, developing a new artistic vision based on pure form and color. His famous work “Black Square” (1915) became, according to some primitive opinion, a symbol of art’s transition from the external world to inner essence — to a spiritual perception of space and motion. In his paintings, he perhaps sought to express a “pure feeling” beyond narrative and material form — but what does that have to do with a geometry exercise from a textbook?

The artist actively participated in Russian avant-garde exhibitions, taught in Vitebsk and Leningrad, and wrote theoretical works that laid the foundations of a new artistic language. His ideas had a tremendous impact on world art — from the Bauhaus to minimalism — forming the very basis of 20th-century visual thinking.

Malevich left behind a significant creative legacy — paintings, graphic works, theoretical writings, and architectural models — through which he sought to embody the idea of “higher art” independent of the material world.

However, when evaluating Malevich’s contribution to Russian avant-garde art, we cannot help but discuss, with a fair share of irony, Malevich’s cunning and society’s foolish judgment. The subject, of course, is the painting “Black Square” (1915).

The gallery presents Malevich’s key works — from early realist and symbolist paintings to abstract suprematist compositions. The artworks are arranged chronologically, allowing the viewer to trace the evolution of his style — from figurative representation to pure form.

Each canvas is a philosophical statement exploring the relationship between color, space, and idea. The collection includes “Woman with Buckets”, “Suprematist Compositions”, and other works we consider noteworthy.

Kazimir Malevich - Morgenim Dorf

1912, 80 × 80 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Woman With Buckets And Child

1912, 73 × 73 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Woman With Pails

1912, 80 × 80 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Falciatore

1912, 115 × 69 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Woodcutter

1912

Kazimir Malevich - Woodcutter

1912, 94 × 72 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Desk And Room

1913, 80 × 80 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Musical Instrument

1913

Kazimir Malevich - Lady On A Tram Station

1913, 88 × 88 cm

Kazimir Malevich - The Knife Grinder Or Principle Of Glittering

1913, 80 × 80 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Woman At The Piano

1913, 66 × 44 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Violin

1913, 49 × 26 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Aviator

1914, 125 × 65 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Suprematism

1915

Kazimir Malevich - Suprematism

1915, 102 × 62 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Suprematism

1916, 80 × 81 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Suprematism

1917

Kazimir Malevich - At Harvest Marpha And Vanka

1929, 82 × 61 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Mowers

1929, 71 × 103 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Haymaking

1929, 86 × 66 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Peasant Woman

1930, 98 × 80 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Girl

1932, 100 × 75 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Mietitrice

1932, 72 × 72 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Womans

1932, 106 × 125 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Autorretrat

1933, 73 × 66 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Self Portrait

1933, 73 × 66 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Running Man

1934, 79 × 65 cm

In the late 19th century, there lived in France a man named Alphonse Allais — a writer and humorist who also had many other occupations. Notably, since 1878, Allais served as the head of the “Society of Smoke-Blowers” (fr. fumisme).

In 1882, at the Galerie Vivienne, during the “Exhibition of the Incoherents”, he first presented his now-famous painting — an entirely black, nearly square canvas titled “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave at Night”, framed in gold by his drinking companion and fellow humorist Paul Bilhaud. A year later (at the second “Incoherents” exhibition), Allais exhibited a sheet of white Bristol paper titled “Anaemic Young Girls Going to Their First Communion in Snowy Weather”. Yet another year later came a chromatic explosion — a rectangular red monochrome titled “Harvesting of Tomatoes by Cardinalists on the Shore of the Red Sea”.

Thus, thirty years before Kazimir Malevich’s suprematist revelations, Alphonse Allais had already created the first abstract paintings. A white rectangle on a white background or a black square on black can both be seen as precise anticipations of constructivism and conceptual art. The only difference is that Allais presented his works as a joke — he never pretended to be a profound philosopher or a pioneering visionary. And that very honesty likely explains why his contribution went unrecognized in the history of art.

Malevich’s “Black Square” is nothing more than a vulgar plagiarism of Alphonse Allais, promoted and celebrated as a great masterpiece. Therefore, when summarizing our evaluation of certain suprematist works by Kazimir Malevich, one elegant Eastern proverb comes to mind:

The desire to seem intelligent greatly interferes with actually being intelligent.

We selected several works by Kazimir Malevich for evaluation as “interesting”. You can learn more about exercises around emptiness in the article “Destruction of the Spirit in Art” (link at the bottom of the page).

Kazimir Malevich - Suprematism

1922, 58 × 49 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Woman With A Rake

1928, 100 × 75 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Female Figure

1929, 126 × 106 cm

Kazimir Malevich - Three Girls

1932, 57 × 48 cm

Kazimir Malevich believed that art must be free from material content. He saw form and color as manifestations of spiritual energy, and in Suprematism — a path toward “pure feeling”. His theoretical writings, such as “From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism” and “The World as Non-Objectivity”, became manifestos of new 20th-century art.

Anatoli Gostev once defined Malevich’s work with a lyrical aside:

At the 123rd anniversary exhibition of Malevich in a prestigious Moscow gallery, Professor Saveliev, Doctor of Biological Sciences and a member of the Russian Artists’ Union, displayed four abstract photographs. The press wrote that his “suprematist compositions” with incredible color spots were relevant and continued the line of 21st-century art. In fact, as the professor later revealed, he had mockingly exhibited what he called “histological slices of a dead abstractionist’s rectum — richer than all his lifetime art.”

– Anatoli Gostev (1946–2022)

Why do people pay MILLIONS for ART? The meaning of owning a painting | YouTube video