Suprematist Study of Color and Form

The first abstract experiments of Kliun date back to 1916-17 and testify that the artist was carefully studying the new system of Suprematism: like Malevich, Kliun was concerned with the search for the plastic possibilities of geometric shapes placed on a white background. The cycle of works, made with a quite unusual painting technique, oil on paper, consisted of these compositions of one shape such as the black trapezoid.
This work is reminiscent of Kazimir Malevich's Yellow Supremacy of 1917. At first glance, Kliun's Suprematist studies differ from each other only in the form and color of the geometric shapes. Closer examination, however, reveals differences in the structure of the surfaces of the seven paintings. The textures vary from very glossy to matte. An analysis of the black trapezoidal work shows us that the white background was used by Kliun as a surface, alongside which the strictly geometric shapes were sliding. Often the depiction slightly escaped the frame or was tangential to it, revealing the artist's desire to imbue the composition with a certain dynamic acceleration. Kliun's interest in the quality of the painting's surface must be seen in the context of a general turn of the avant-garde towards materiality.