Art Movement of Suprematism - Assignment Example

Suprematism Introduction Suprematism, a Russian art movement associated with avant-garde art that originated in the early twentieth century is an outstanding one in that its concern was purely on [elementary] geometric shapes such as circles, triangles, rectangles and squares. It was founded by one Kazimir Malevich, a Russian painter born in Kiev, and who lived between eighteen seventy-eight and nineteen fifteen. The Suprematism art movement has several unique aspects that made it unique above other movements such as Constructivism, Rayonism, and futurism, of which the key one, according to Malevich, is that it a revolution from art norms aimed at finding new freedom of expressing art mainly through abstract forms. This meant that this art movement would use less of what the natural world offered and instead concentrate on pure elementary forms that worked on a limited range of colors. The following text will highlight and evaluate this art movement by comparing two pieces of the period, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge by Lazar Markovich and Kazimir Malevich’s White on White art piece. The evaluation will focus on Suprematism’s characteristics, background and origin, the techniques applied, the concepts underlying and the evolution plus its development. Kazimir Malevich, White on White Malevich was a Russian painter and theoretician in art as well, and he is the recognized founder of Suprematist art movement. One of his most popular works is the White on White painting which is Oil on Canvas square piece measuring 79.4 centimeters. It dates back to the year 19355, and remains an outstanding piece that pioneered this art movement. In description, the piece is a simple square frame that has a smaller inner square tilted slightly clockwise so that it seems to be standing on its bottom-right edge. The inner white square, placed off-center in that it leans to the right more than it does to the left rests on a bigger outer square that seems warmer. Both squares have rich texture on their surfaces. The resulting effect is creation of an illusion of volume and depth by the use of a single color. Lazar Markovich, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge Born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, this man was born in Smolensk, Russia in eighteen-ninety and died in Moscow in nineteen-forty one. He is famous as an influential twentieth century typographer, designer, and painter. According to Sarabianov (n.p.), he met Malevich at Vitebsk in 1919 at the Revolutionary People’s Art School where he was teaching graphics and architecture. Their meeting influenced him to quit figurative art and join Malevich’s Suprematism movement, from which he came up with famous pieces that include paintings and propaganda posters. Of key popularity is his 1920 poster, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge which is on a rectangular paper surface. The rectangle, lying on its wider length has a background portioned into two; with a white left side and dark right. At the juncture of the two colors is a white circle whose larger part in on the dark [right] side. The circle itself seems to be penetrated by a large red wedge to its centre. Smaller wedges and other geometric forms dot the remaining surfaces, and there are typographies to the left, and in the circle’s bottom-right side. Evaluation Since both pieces are derived from the same period under the Suprematist movement, they have similar features that distinguish them from other movements as elements of that particular movement. A key attribute of both pieces is that their timeline lies during the Russian Revolution, and like what most artists would do in capturing current issues, most of Suprematist art captured the Russian Revolution. This is evident in Wilder (314) as he states that Malevich’s art captured much of the events of the Revolution, and both have similarities. First of all, the revolution marked a shift of lifestyle for the world, of which a new phase of affairs had to be instated to break the common norms of life. Similar to the revolution, his art marked a shift from Cubism, then Futurism, and finally landed on Suprematism. Wilder quotes Malevich, “Suprematism is the beginning of a new civilization”. Similarly, Markovich’s poster was a representation of the events occurring during the Russian Civil war that involved the white elements of Old Russia and the Red army of radical Bolshevik government. The Whites were struggling to regain power overtaken by the Red Army. Evaluating Markovich’s poster, there are direct and indirect representations of this occurrence. One, the white and dark sides of the background represents a split or division of society as is between the two rivalry sides. Second, there is the big circle in which a red wedge is cutting through, together with other smaller reds. This according to Lewis (427) was a call by Markovich to the Reds to attack and overcome the whites. He further adds that artists of the Suprematist Movement believed that art that is nonobjective was perfectly understandable universally, and would target all people across society including the illiterate peasants of Russia. An additional outstanding attribute of Suprematist art is the simplicity when it came to choice of color, style, working surface, imitating nature and the use of shapes. It was the idea of the movement’s pioneers to reduce the norm of having art capturing and representing exact nature on canvas or in writing. This is the reason most of the definitions towards this movement refer to it as “Zeroing in on simplicity in art, going down to the very last level before an art medium ceases to be art”, that is the idea of Suprematism. This call for minimization of art representation methods led to the use of basic shapes that include circles and squares for several reasons. One of them is that they would make it possible and easy to work on their flat 2D surfaces, as they were easy to arrange. On the note of color, they employed rather contrasting colors to highlight their issues on the surfaces. They would use a different color to represent different aspects or situations. Looking at White on White, there is a white square resting on top of a larger and warmer white square. The colors are similar but again, one deeper in tone, thus warmer. The effect that results is a creation of volume and space. A possible representation for this would be the warmer square standing for a new wave of civilization, cushioning the older lifestyle (smaller square) in it. The result between the two variations (volume and depth) is a better society, with intense development or cohesion. The Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge piece better highlights the contrast and use of shapes as per the Suprematist way. Markovich uses reds to directly represent the Red army, and white to represent the Old Russian whites. In addition, he contrasts black and white to depict the split in the society due to the civil war. In his notion of reds attacking the whites, he tactfully uses a wedge shape with the pointed end piercing through a circle with smooth ends. It makes sense that the sharp end is what goes into the circle, and works perfectly to denote “pain”. Conclusion All of these are evidences that in place of using real natural representations in passing on messages to the masses, the art of abstraction is just as good, or better in doing the same. The difference in interpretation lies with the viewers, as each person will have a different understanding of the illustration. The discussion highlights the main attributes that define or make Suprematism a unique art movement. From it, one can tell that the application of abstract shapes, contrasting colors, and simple, indirect representation of occurrences are the key identifiers of the movement. This can assist one in understanding thus differentiating between different art movements. Works Cited Lewis, Richard. Power of Art. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2014. Print. Sarabianov, Andrei. “El Lissitzky”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013. Web. 25 February, 2014. Wilder, Jesse B. Art History for Dummies. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2007. Print. Read More