Malevich

by Gilles Néret

After flirtations with Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism, Kiev-born Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) found his métier in dissolving literal, representational figures and landscapes into pure emotionally-charged abstraction. In 1915, he created what is widely lauded as the first and ultimate abstract Black Square, a black rectangle on a white background, hailed as the “zero point of painting,” a seminal moment for modern and abstract practice. In this book, we follow Malevich’s key innovations and ideas and place his groundbreaking achievements within the context of both the Russian and global avant-garde. Through rich illustrations of his work, we explore the artist’s theory of Suprematism, based on severe geometric abstraction and “the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art”; his leading role in the development of Constructivism; as well as his interests in philosophy, literature, Russian folk art, and the fourth dimension.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art Design, Biography, Art History

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Gilles Néret (1933 - August 3, 2005) was a French art critic and historian, journalist and curator. He wrote extensively on the history of erotica.

He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L’Oeil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. Since 1992, Néret was an editor for Taschen, for which he has written catalogues raisonnés of the works of Klimt and others, as well as the author of Erotica Universalis.

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snel gelezen (in het Frans for no reason) omdat ik The Non-Objective World: The Manifesto of Suprematism binnenkort wil aanschaffen. Hint!

“Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion, it no longer wishes to illustrate the history of manners, it wants to have nothing further to do with the object, as such, and believes that it can exist, in and for itself, without "things" (that is, the "time-tested well-spring of life").”

[no · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine overview. Effective comparison between Malevich and Dostoevsky, who also found the divine in the peasantry and took to his medium in a way that eschewed mere representation for a mystical monologic.

Takeaway:
"'When the habit and consciousness of seeing in pictures representations of little corners of nature, of Madonnas and lubricious Venuses has vanished, then and only then shall we see the pictoral work...'"

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

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black square! AWESOME!!!!1

[Piet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Néret gebruikt veel moeilijke woorden om het werk van Malevitsj uit te leggen: Kubofuturisme, transmentalisme en Suprematisme. Het zal wel nodig zijn om de man van het zwarte vierkant in perspectief te plaatsen. Evenals Mondriaan kreeg Malevitsj er op een geven moment genoeg van om portretten of de natuur te schilderen en zocht hij naar een eigen vorm. Gelukkig ging hij na een tijdje weer over op normale schilderijen en daar zie je wel dat de man een goed kleurgevoel had. Zijn leven ging niet over rozen in het Stalintijdperk. Hij trouwde driemaal en stierf op 57-jarige leeftijd aan kanker.

[Artù · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rivedere ed a leggere l’opera di alcuni artisti, si capisce come la pittura ed in generale l’arte siano pensiero in azione.
Malevic è il creatore del Suprematismo, il cui manifesto pittorico è il celebre quadrato nero su sfondo bianco.
Cosa spinge un pittore a raffigurare per la prima volta un quadrato nero su fondo bianco? Quali sono i suoi intenti sia razionali che estetici?
In questo libro trovate le risposte a questi quesiti.

[Marc Masurovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Badly translated. beautiful reproductions of Malevich's works. It might have been better to read it in French.