Suprematism was a Russian avant-garde movement founded by Kazimir Malevich from plastic investigations begun around 1913. Along with Rayonism and Constructivism, Suprematism was part of the abstractionist currents that proposed to eliminate the representation of any element from the work of art of reality .

Suprematism became known in 1915 , when the first exhibition of abstract artists was held in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg, Russia) . Works by Vladimir Tatlin , creator of Constructivism, and Malevich , creator of Suprematism, were presented there.

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Characteristics of Suprematism

The main characteristics of Suprematism are:

• Kazimir Malevich enunciated the principles of Suprematism in two documents:
  • Manifesto of Suprematism , written together with Vladimir Mayakovski in 1915.
  • Suprematism, that is, the world of non-representation , from 1920 in which he develops his theory of art.
• He argued that the modern artist should work detached from practical purposes and only guided by plastic sensitivity .
• The word “suprematism” refers to the absolute supremacy of plastic freedom over other components of the work of art. To achieve this, the artist had to free himself from reality:
  • In Black Square on a White Background, for example, Malevich sought the absolute elimination of the representation of objects in art. The objective is to represent the whole (black circle) contained in nothingness (white background). That is, the unrepresentable.
• He took the means developed by Cubism to the extreme . He limited the plastic manifestation to the use of elementary geometric figures : the rectangle, the triangle, the circle and the line. He also restricted the color palette, which was limited to red, yellow, green, blue, black and white, and also grays.
• The movement had three periods : black, color and white, around 1918, when it presented white forms on white canvas. Consider that these works conclude the suprematist quest.
• It had an enormous influence on later movements such as Neoplasticism, Constructivism and the Bauhaus , among others.

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Main artists of Suprematism art movement

The main artists of Suprematism were:

• Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) : founding painter of Suprematism.
• El Lissitzky (Lázar Márkovich Lissitzky) (1890-1941) : painter, photographer, typographer, architect and designer. He adhered to Suprematism and Constructivism and contributed to its spread in Western Europe.
• Liubov Popova (1889-1924) : Russian painter. He adhered to Suprematism, Constructivism and Cubofuturism.

We hope that you have understood the Suprematism art movement.