Published by IRSA/Archive of Modern Conflict. By Andrei Nakov.
Kazimir Malewicz (Malevich; 1879–1935) is undoubtedly one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, famed for his Suprematist works such as the so-called “Black Square” and White on White. Incredibly, his art only received its due in the West in the late 1950s; three more decades passed before it could be accessible to the Russian public. In this critical study, Andrei Nakov dissembles some foundational myths about the artist’s ethnic background, such as his Polish origins (hence the rendering of the artist’s name here as “Malewicz”), his affinity for the religious iconography of Russia and his place in modern European art. The artist’s concept of Suprematist forms is central to Nakov’s study, which interrogates certain anti-modernist visual and cultural prejudices.
Andrei Nakov (born 1941) has published numerous theoretical studies, monographs and exhibition catalogs on the Russian avant-garde, Futurism, Dada, Constructivism, contemporary art and European abstract art.
Published by Lars Müller Publishers. Edited by Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy.
Kasimir Malevich (1879–1935) debuted his new creative theory of basic geometric shapes with the publication of his Suprematist manifesto in 1915. He later published a follow-up entitled The Non-Objective World in 1927, which further elucidated his vision of an art that emphasized the “primacy of pure feeling.” With Suprematism, Malevich strove to move his artistic focus away from representation, choosing instead to evoke emotion through a fundamental grammar system of squares, circles and other basic shapes. Though he was not an official member of the Bauhaus, Malevich’s emphasis on simplified forms provided an important link between the school of design and the Suprematist movement. As part of the publisher’s ongoing Bauhausbücher series, Lars Müller’s facsimile edition of Malevich’s text is translated into English with the original design and typography.
Published by Walther König, Köln. Edited with text by Friedemann Malsch. Text by Zelfira Tregulova, Irina Vakar.
In 2015, Irina Vakar, senior research scientist at Tretyakov Gallery, reexamined Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1915) through X-ray imaging and pigment samples. Reconsidering Malevich’s complete oeuvre, this book builds upon her work, particularly considering the connection between Black Square and Malevich’s theater experiments.
Featuring Selections from the Khardziev and Costakis Collections
Published by Walther König, Köln/Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Text by Linda S. Boersma, Bart Rutten, Aleksandra Shatskikh.
In 1915, Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) radically transformed the course of twentieth-century art with his "Black Square" painting and his manifesto "From Cubism to Suprematism." These works espoused a new art of pure geometricism, intended to be universally comprehensible regardless of cultural origin. Although he is famed for his rigorous pursuit of the "non-objective," Malevich in fact explored many strands of painting, embracing at various stages Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism and Cubism, as well as traditional Russian folk art. Drawing on the collections of Nikolai Khardzhiev and Georges Costakis--the two leading collectors of Russian avant-garde art, whose collections were largely assembled at a time when abstract art was banned in the Soviet Union--this catalogue traces the breadth of Malevich’s career through his oil paintings, gouaches, drawings, sculptures and designs for opera and film. All phases of his development are represented here, from his early Impressionist-style work to his iconic Suprematist pieces, as well as his lesser-known figurative paintings and works on paper. These are contextualized alongside work by Malevich’s contemporaries, such as Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova, Vera Pester, Ivan Puni and Mikhail Meno.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Simon Bayer, Britta Dümpelmann, Kazimir Malevich.
In 1927, Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935)--the creator of the modernist icon "Black Square on a White Ground"--published The World as Objectlessness, his vision of a "world of non-representation," through the Bauhaus publishing arm. For a long time this book was Malevich’s only publication in a Western language, and the title then, somewhat imprecisely translated, was Die gegenstandslose Welt (The Non-Objective World). Malevich described his theory as "the supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts," and emphasized the "feeling" of a work, rather than the depiction of objects, advancing a philosophy that was both anti-material and non-utilitarian, focusing on geometric forms--lines, squares and circles--within a limited chromatic range. This volume offers a new translation of the artist’s illustrated text, along with important research on the preliminary drawings made for the Bauhaus publication, which are now in the possession of the Kunstmuseum Basel. The intensive research on these works of art provides new insights into the history of this creation: when and where were the illustrations done, and what stage in Malevich’s artistic development do they reflect? Malevich’s The World as Objectlessness is a snapshot of a moment in a boundless artistic universe.
Published by Walther König, Köln. Foreword by Karola Kraus. Text by Fritz Emslander, Tatjana Gorjatschewa.
The influence of the artist Kazimir Malevich was colossal from the start. Following his "Black Square" painting of 1915 and his formulation of Suprematism (defined as "an altogether new and direct form of representation of the world of feeling"), Malevich transmitted his ideas through his roving advocate El Lissitzky, whose Proun works prompted Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, which itself fulfilled Malevich's aspiration for Suprematism that painterly forms be transferred "from the surface of canvas to space." This book assesses Suprematism and its immediate impact, both on the Supremus group and beyond. Artists include Vasily Kandinsky, Ivan Kliun, Gustav Klucis, El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Alexandr Rodchenko, Kurt Schwitters, Nikolai Suetin and Vladimir Tatlin.
Published by Guggenheim Museum Publications. Edited by Matthew Drutt. Essays by Jean-Claude Marcadé, Nina Gurianova, Vasilii Rakitin, Tatiana Mikhienko and Yevgenia Petrova.
In 1915, Kazimir Malevich changed the future of modern art when his experiments in painting led the Russian avant-garde into pure abstraction. He called his innovation Suprematism--an art of pure geometric form meant to be universally comprehensible regardless of cultural or ethnic origin. His Suprematist masterpiece, White Square on White (1920-27), continues to inspire artists throughout the world. Focused exclusively on this defining moment in Malevich's career, Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism features nearly 120 paintings, drawings and objects, among them several recently discovered masterworks. In addition, the book includes previously unpublished letters, essays and diaries, along with essays by international scholars, who shed new light on this popular figure and his devotion to the spiritual in art.
Kasimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World
Kazimir Malevich: The Black Square
Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde
Kazimir Malevich: The World as Objectlessness
From Surface To Space, Malevich & Early Modern Art
Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism