Kazimir Malevich in Avant-Garde Discussions in 1928–1930

Abstract

The article is devoted to the figure of Kazimir Malevich as an artist and art critic, who introduced new tendencies and approaches to the depiction of objects into traditional art; representation of the artist in avant-garde discussions in the period of his teaching at the Kyiv Art Institute in 1928–1930; searches and experiments of the artist, which were closely connected with the feeling of modernity and new impulses in culture. Malevich’s activity on creation of a unique history of art of Modernism is revealed. It is shown that the scientific controversy between artists over traditional approaches and pictorial methods acted as a catalyst for the development of a new direction in modern art. Discussions between Kazimir Malevich and Mykhailo Boichuk became fundamental for an artistic discussion which continues among contemporary artists and art critics. The artist based his work on objectlessness, which became a method of interpreting art. In this way, he shifted the emphasis from defining the content to defining the form, the very essence of art. Being a theorist, Kazimir Malevich discovered the patterns of development of art form, explaining the importance and sequence of emergence of each new direction: Suprematism, Cubism, Cubofuturism. Artistic discussions with contemporaries were of great importance. Malevich’s ideas continued to spread thanks to students and like-minded people who developed them and developed new approaches to painting techniques. The experience embodied by the artist at the Kyiv Art Institute showed the peculiarity of the artistic space that was formed in Kyiv in the late 1920s. Kazimir Malevich’s ideas are a promising scientific research for both historians and art historians as they show new facets of the avant-garde style.