Suprematism

As one of the representative artists of the Russian avant-garde, Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) showed 40 paintings in the "Last Futurist Exhibition of Pictures:0-10" in St. Petersburg in 1915. These paintings consisted of geometric forms including rectangles, circles and crosses painted in black on white canvases in a style that Malevich called "Suprematism." Completely negating the depiction of objects and phenomenon of the natural world visible to the eye, Malevich and his disciples put forth a theory of painting that dealt with non-visual abstract subjects such as mass, movement and the energy and forces of the universe. This Suprematist movement became very influential in Russia following the 1917 revolution. The work Suprematism in the collection of the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art was painted in the year of the Russian Revolution. It has a simple and dynamic composition with a vanishing point at the top of the painting and marvelous overall balance that continues to exert its mysterious appeal on viewers to this day. With the rise to power of Joseph Stalin, Suprematism would soon come under criticism from Russia’s Communist Party, resulting in an abrupt end to the movement. However, Malevich’s abstract painting theory would continue to have a strong influence of 20th-century art.