Female portrait
Malevich Kazimir (1878-1935)
περ. 1910-1911 | 27.7 x 27.8 cm
Oil and gouache on paper
Museum of Modern Art | Costakis Collection
CC-0482/K.Malevich-/140.78-46
Greek State purchase by the heirs of the Costakis’ family
ARTWORK DETAILS
Type: Painting
Subject: Russian Avantgarde, Symbolism, Modern art
Art techniques: Oil painting
ARTWORK DESCRIPTION
This work is probably later than the Self-Portrait. The artist boldly uses color and techniques of generalizing nature by sharpening the morphological features. It probably depicts Malevich's second wife, Sophia Mihailovna Rafalovic, whom he met and married in 1909. At this time Malevich appears as a teacher seeking and creating his own style and method, based on his perception and interpretation of the latest trends in painting. Symbolism recedes and in its place the traits of luminescence proliferate. In these two works Malevich's phobism passes through the perception of nature, leaving the contours of the head and the figure completely real and without distortion. Within this contour, the artist juxtaposes islands of light and shadow, constructing an expressive contrast, and even light and shadow are indicated by colouring. The assimilation of luminescence contributed to Malevich's transition to the stages of neoprivism.
CREATOR
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born in 1878 in Kyiv. For a brief period, he attended the Kyiv School of Drawing and in 1896, he moved with his family to Kursk, where he lived until 1904. In 1904, he settled in Moscow and studied at Fedor Rerberg's workshop (1906-1910). He simultaneously participated in exhibitions by the "Union of Moscow Artists," which marked his initial documented contributions. In the 1910s he participated in a number of exhibitions, among them: "Valet de Carreau" (1910), exhibitions of the "Union of Youth" (1911-1914) and "Donkey's Tail" (1912), among others. In 1915, at the "Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings: 0.10" in Petrograd, he presented his Suprematist compositions for the first time, including the "Black Square." The following year, he published one of his most important theoretical essays titled "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism" and founded the "Supremus" group in Moscow. In 1918, he taught at the State Free Art Workshops (SVOMAS) and from 1919 to 1922, he taught at the Vitebsk School of Art and organized the "UNOVIS" group with the aim of promoting Suprematism in theory and practice. In 1922, he settled in Saint Petersburg, joined the annex of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKΗUK) created by Tatlin and became the director of the Formalist-Technical Department. His painting, which shifted towards a more realist direction during the 1920s and 1930s, characterized as post-Suprematist, was exhibited in solo exhibitions in Warsaw (1927), Moscow (1929) and Kyiv (1930). He passed away in 1935 in Leningrad.