Kazimir Malevich

Head of a Peasant

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The Knife Grinder

The Knifegrinder or Principle of Glittering (Russian: Точильщик, romanized: Tochil'schik Printsip Mel'kaniia), also called The Knifegrinder (The Glittering Edge), and sometimes shortened to simply The Knifegrinder, is a 1912–1913 cubo-futurist painting by the artist Kazimir Malevich, hence the fragmentation of form associated with futurism as well as the abstract geometry related to cubism. As of 2014, it is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.

Very little documentation of the work exists, but it is known that it was painted circa 1912–1913, during the artist's Cubo-Futurist phase. In 1941, it was given to the Yale University Art Gallery by the Collection Société Anonyme. History →

The artwork is typical of Malevich's other paintings, in that the subject matter is of a person generally overlooked by society. The painting depicts a moustached man in a suit and hat manually grinding a knife on a knife sharpener, or a grinding wheel. Description →

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The Woodcutter

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Black Square (1915)

Black Square is a 1915 oil on linen canvas painting by the Russian avant-garde artist and theorist Kazimir Malevich. There are four painted versions, the first of which was completed in 1915 and described by the artist as his breakthrough work and the inception of his Suprematist art movement (1915–1919).

Black Square is widely regarded by art historians as foundational in the development of both modern and abstract art. Malevich said the paintings began the Suprematism movement, which emphasised colour and shape. Interpretation →

The painting is in poor condition, in part because, under Stalin, it had been hidden and neglected in the Soviet archives. According to the American art critic Peter Schjeldahl, "the painting looks terrible: crackled, scuffed, and discoloured, as if it had spent the past eighty-eight years patching a broken window". Condition →

A self-taught artist, Kazimir Malevich's early works, created while still a teenager, incorporate the style and motifs of Ukrainian and Russian folk art and Eastern Orthodox icons. In the early 1900s, when he was heavily influenced by late 19th-century Impressionism. Conception →

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Suprematist Composition

Suprematist Composition (blue rectangle over the red beam) is a 1916 painting by Kazimir Malevich, Russian painter of geometric abstraction.

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Suprematist Composition: White on White

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. The white square is one of the Malevich's three suprematist squares, the other two being black and red.

Malevich took the work to Berlin in 1927, where it was displayed at the Große Berliner Austellung. History →

A critic from the rival Constructivist movement quipped that it was the only good canvas in an exhibition by Malevich's UNOVIS group: "an absolutely pure, white canvas with a very good prime coating. Something could be done on it." Reception →

Part of a series of "white on white" works begun by Malevich in 1916, the work depicts a white square, portrayed off-centre and at an angle on a ground which is also a white square of a slightly warmer tone. The work measures 79.5 by 79.5 centimetres (31.3 in × 31.3 in). Description →

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

To the Field II (Marthe and Jeannot)

Sailko · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Sensation of danger

Gsimonov · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Red Cavalry Riding

Red Cavalry Riding is an oil on canvas painting around 1932 by the Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich. It is held in the Russian Museum, in Saint Petersburg.

Kazimir Malevich · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons