Suprematism | Tate (2024)

FAQs

What is the point of Suprematism? ›

Suprematism was an abstract art movement founded in Russia during the First World War. Interested in pure abstraction, the Suprematists searched for the 'zero degree' of painting, the point beyond which the medium could not go without ceasing to be art.

This was much like Picasso's cubist movement and the style of art that Malevich and Picasso used were both very similar. Malevich tried to follow the rules of suprematism. This meant that all that a painting was allowed, was black and white shades, with simple geometric shapes.

The Suprematist movement was kickstarted in 1915 when Kazimir Malevich debuted his painting Black Square. It later ended in 1924 when Stalin rose to power in the USSR and sanctioned Socialist Realism as the only legitimate style.

Suprematism (Russian: супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors.

Another artwork done by the old master, Zaha Hadid verifies the four characterized principles of suprematism: abstraction, distortion, fragmentation and the absence of gravity. Her illustrated career was backed by such creative underpinnings.

Notable suprematist examples

The most famous examples of suprematist art all come from the founder of the movement himself, Kazimir Malevich. His two most well known pieces are the aforementioned White Square on White, described in the video above, and Black Square described in the video below.

The red triangle is symbolising Russia and the red army as a whole penetrating the infidels (the white circle) and winning. There is also present negative and positive space in this artwork which was a principle the suprematists had used in their artworks as well creating this balance between the geometric shapes.

Suprematism was one of the key movements of modernist art. After the rise of Stalin from 1924 and the imposition of socialist realism, Malevich's career languished.

However, there were also fundamental differences between the two movements. Suprematism was primarily concerned with the creation of a new visual language that transcended the physical world, while Constructivism sought to use art as a means to transform society.

Kazimir Malevich (born February 23 [February 11, Old Style], 1878, near Kyiv, Russian Empire [now in Ukraine]—died May 15, 1935, Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R. [now St. Petersburg, Russia]) was an avant-garde painter who was the founder of the Suprematist school of abstract painting.

Is Kandinsky Suprematism? ›

Suprematism's influence can be clearly seen in the works of Kandinsky and many others, while its geometric abstraction had a major influence on the Constructivist movement, despite the two movements having opposing ideologies.

The movement sought to create a new visual language that transcended reality, allowing artists to express pure emotion and spirituality. Suprematism was heavily influenced by the ideas of Russian mysticism and the spiritual, with Malevich believing that art should be a means of accessing a higher plane of existence.

Malevich described his aesthetic theory, known as Suprematism, as "the supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts." He viewed the Russian Revolution as having paved the way for a new society in which materialism would eventually lead to spiritual freedom.

Personal Expression

While Abstract Expressionist artists wanted viewers to be free to experience and understand their artwork on their own terms, their artwork often touched on big ideas they thought were important—like life and death, spirituality, power, struggle, and a range of human emotions.

It originated in 1915 in Russia and was established by Kazimir Malevich. The movement also expressed an interest in concepts that related to non-euclidean geometry, which imagined forms moving through space.