Suprematist Composition with Blue Square

“Lazar Markovich Khidekel: The Rediscovered Suprematist,” a two part exhibition at Zurich’s Haus Konstruktiv and Leuenhof in 2010 – 2012, featured a more expansive treatment of his career, both stylistically and thematically. It included his architectural and coloristic experiments, landscapes, and personal creative explorations of the 1950s and 1960s, including designs for fashion, shoes, and hairstyles. Most notably, Dorothea Strauss, the curator and then director of the Haus Konstruktiv, used Khidekel’s art to reveal Suprematism’s relevance in the context of “refreshingly diverse forms of a new Minimalism, indicative of a widespread renewal of interest in the themes of the classical avant-garde.”

The initial solo exhibition at Haus Konstruktiv was designed to coincide with “Complete Concrete,” a survey of one hundred years of Constructivist, concrete, and conceptual art and its impact on the present. According to Strauss, the juxtaposition made clear “the extent to which Suprematist works remain topical, even today… many young and international contemporary artists refer to the traditional themes of the founding generation with new self-confidence and can be seen to handle this heritage in a respectful, yet playful manner.” Significantly, the exhibition timeline identified “AERO: Articles and Projects” (Vitebsk, 1920), a journal produced by Khidekel in collaboration with Chashnik, as “the first multifaceted manifesto through which Artist expresses his philosophical views on Art as an emerging conceptual framework, new futuristic vision and pioneering views on looming ecological impact of modern civilization.” The “Complete Concrete” catalog includes an excerpt from “AERO” in which Khidekel “at the tender age of sixteen …advocates an urbanism that develops in harmony with nature. AERO is thus in all likelihood the earliest document to advocate the notion of a “green city.”” It is for the first time, Lazar Khidekel (16-year-old student of Vitebsk Art School and the UNOVIS founding member) defines his artworks not as art per se but as conceptual project supported by literary statements that would truly change reality by introducing new forms and even semantics through which we should comprehend new approaches to art. It is in “AERO” where Lazar Khidekel first proposes his views on ecology as crucial element for any new architectural expression that would not just conquer nature by forcing it into workable shape and matter but through new futuristic solutions that could allow humanity to harmoniously coexist with nature.