From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism, 1915

K A Z I M I R M A L E V I C H
From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism, 1915
B o m n e a r K i e v , 1 8 7 8 ; d i e d L e n i n g r a d , 1 9 3 5 . 1 9 0 3 : e n t e r e d t h e M o s c o w I n s t i t u t e o f
P a i n t i n g , S c u l p t u r e , a n d A r c h i t e c t u r e ; c a . 1 9 1 0 : i n f l u e n c e d b y n e o p r i m i t i v i s m ; 1 9 1 3 :
t o o k p a r t i n a f u t u r i s t c o n f e r e n c e i n U u s i k i r k k o , F i n l a n d [ s e e b i b l . R 3 0 6 ] ; d e s i g n e d
d e c o r f o r t h e A l e k s e i K r u c h e n y k h - M i k h a i l M a t y u s h i n o p e r a Victory over the Sun, p r o d u c e d i n D e c e m b e r ; i l l u s t r a t e d f u t u r i s t b o o k l e t s ; 9 4 : m e t F i l i p p o M a r i n e t t i o n
t h e l e t t e r ' s a r r i v a l i n R u s s i a ; 1 9 1 5 - 1 6 : first s h o w i n g o f s u p r e m a t i s t w o r k s a t " o . 1 0 " ;
1 9 1 1 - 1 7 : c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e " U n i o n o f Y o u t h , " " D o n k e y ' s T a i l , " " T a r g e t , "
" T r a m w a y V , " " S h o p , " " K n a v e o f D i a m o n d s , " a n d o t h e r e x h i b i t i o n s ; 1 9 1 8 : a c -
t i v e o n v a r i o u s l e v e l s w i t h i n N a r k o m p r o s ; 1 9 9 - - 2 1 : a t t h e V i t e b s k A r t S c h o o l ,
w h e r e h e r e p l a c e d M a r c C h a g a l l a s h e a d ; o r g a n i z e d U n o v i s [ U n i y a n o v o g o i s k u s s t -
v a / U t v e r d i t e l i n o v o g o i s k u s s t v a — U n i o n o f t h e N e w A r t / A f f i r m e r s o f t h e N e w A r t ] ;
1 9 2 0 t o l a t e 1 9 2 0 s : w o r k e d o n h i s e x p e r i m e n t a l c o n s t r u c t i o n s — t h e s o - c a l l e d arkhi- tektony a n d planity: 1 9 2 2 : j o i n e d I K h K ; 1 9 2 7 : v i s i t e d W a r s a w a n d B e r l i n w i t h
a o n e - m a n e x h i b i t i o n ; c o n t a c t w i t h t h e B a u h a u s ; c a . 1 9 3 0 : r e t u r n e d t o a m o r e
r e p r e s e n t a t i o n a l k i n d o f p a i n t i n g .
The translation is of Malevich's Ot kubizma i futurizma suprematizmu. Novyi zhivopisnyi realizm ( M o s c o w , 1 9 1 6 ) . T h i s text, w r i t t e n i n i t s o r i g i n a l f o r m i n 1 9 1 5 ,
s a w t h r e e e d i t i o n s : t h e f i r s t a p p e a r e d i n D e c e m b e r 1 9 1 5 i n P e t r o g r a d u n d e r t h e t i t l e
Ot kubizma suprematizmu. Novyi zhivopisnyi realizm [ F r o m C u b i s m t o S u p r e m a -
t i s m . T h e N e w P a i n t e r l y R e a l i s m ] a n d c o i n c i d e d w i t h t h e e x h i b i t i o n " 0 . 1 0 " ; t h e
s e c o n d f o l l o w e d i n J a n u a r y 1 9 1 6 , a l s o i n P e t r o g r a d ; t h e t h i r d , f r o m w h i c h t h i s
t r a n s l a t i o n i s m a d e , w a s p u b l i s h e d i n N o v e m b e r 1 9 1 6 , b u t i n M o s c o w , a n d i s s i g n e d
a n d d a t e d 1 9 1 5 . T h e t e x t h a s a l r e a d y b e e n t r a n s l a t e d i n t o E n g l i s h b u t w i t h s o m e
i n a c c u r a c i e s [ b i b l . 1 5 9 , v o l . 1 , 1 9 - 4 0 ] a n d i n t o F r e n c h [ b i b l . 1 6 3 , p p . 4 5 - 7 3 ] . T h e
first e i g h t p a r a g r a p h s o f t h e t e x t a r e s i m i l a r t o M a l e v i c h ' s s t a t e m e n t i s s u e d a t " o . t o "
( s e e p . i r o f f . ) . T h e s t y l e i s t y p i c a l o f M a l e v i c h ' s w r i t i n g s , a n d t h e g r a m m a t i c a l e c -
c e n t r i c i t i e s a n d s o m e w h a t a r b i t r a r y i t a l i c i z i n g c r e a t e o c c a s i o n a l a m b i g u i t i e s . C e r t a i n
i d e a s a n d e x p r e s s i o n s u s e d i n t h e t e x t r e c a l l t h e w r i t i n g s o f N i k o l a i K u l b i n , V l a d i m i r
M a r k o v , a n d O l g a R o z a n o v a , w h i c h M a l e v i c h u n d o u b t e d l y k n e w .
Only when the conscious habit of seeing nature's little nooks. Madonnas, and Venuses in pictures disappears will we witness a purely painterly work of art.
I have transformed myself in the zero of form and have fished myself out of the rubbishy slough of academic art.
I have destroyed the ring of the horizon and got out of the circle of ob- jects, the horizon ring that has imprisoned the artist and the forms of nature.
This accursed ring, by continually revealing novelty after novelty, leads the artist away from the aim of destruction.
And only cowardly consciousness and insolvency of creative power in an artist yield to this deception and establish their art on the forms of nature, afraid of losing the foundation on which the savage and the academy have based their art.
To produce favorite objects and little nooks of nature is just like a thief being enraptured by his shackled legs.
Only dull and impotent artists veil their work with sincerity. Art requires truth, not sincerity.
Objects have vanished like smoke; to attain the new artistic culture, art advances toward creation as an end in itself and toward domination over the forms of nature.
The Art of the Savage and Its Principles The savage was the first to establish the principle of naturalism: in drawing a dot and five little sticks, he attempted to transmit his own image.
This first attempt laid the basis for the conscious imitation of nature's forms.
Hence arose the aim of approaching the face of nature as closely as possible.
And all the artist's efforts were directed toward the transmission of her creative forms.
The first inscription of the savage's primitive depiction gave birth to col- lective art, or the art of repetition.
Collective, because the real man with his subtle range of feelings, psy- chology, and anatomy had not been discovered.
The savage saw neither his outward image nor his inward state. His consciousness could see only the outline of a man, a beast, etc. And as his consciousness developed, so the outline of his depiction of na-
ture grew more involved. The more his consciousness embraced nature, the more involved his work
became, and the more his experience and skill increased. His consciousness developed in only one direction, toward nature's cre-
ation and not toward new forms of art. Therefore his primitive depictions cannot be considered creative work. The distortion of reality in his depictions is the result of weak technique. Both technique and consciousness were only at the beginning of their
development. And his pictures must not be considered art. Because unskillfulness is not art. He merely pointed the way to art.
Consequently, his original outline was a framework on which the genera- tions hung new discovery after new discovery made in nature.
And the outline became more and more involved and achieved its flower- ing in antiquity and the Renaissance.
The masters of these two epochs depicted man in his complete form, both outward and inward.
Man was assembled, and his inward state was expressed. But despite their enormous skill, they did not, however, perfect the sav-
age's idea: The reflection of nature on canvas, as in a mirror. And it is a mistake to suppose that their age was the most brilliant flower-
ing of art and that the younger generation should at all costs aspire toward this ideal.
This idea is false. It diverts young forces from the contemporary current of life and thereby
deforms them. Their bodies fly in airplanes, but they cover art and life with the old robes
of Neros and Titians. Hence they are unable to observe the new beauty of our modern life. Because they live by the beauty of past ages.
That is why the realists, impressionists, cubism, futurism, and suprema- tism were not understood.
The latter artists cast aside the robes of the past, came out into modern life, and found new beauty.
And I say: That no torture chambers of the academies will withstand the days to
come. Forms move and are born, and we are forever making new discoveries. And what we discover must not be concealed. And it is absurd to force our age into the old forms of a bygone age.
The hollow of the past cannot contain the gigantic constructions and movement of our life.
As in our life of technology: We cannot use the ships in which the Saracens sailed, and so in art we
should seek forms that correspond to modern life.
The technological side of our age advances further and further ahead, but people try to push art further and further back.
This is why all those people who follow their age are superior, greater, and worthier.
And the realism of the nineteenth century is much greater than the ideal forms found in the aesthetic experience of the ages of the Renaissance and Greece.
The masters of Rome and Greece, after they had attained a knowledge of human anatomy and produced a depiction that was to a certain extent realistic:
were overrun by aesthetic taste, and their realism was pomaded and pow- dered with the taste of aestheticism.
Hence their perfect line and nice colors. Aesthetic taste diverted them from the realism of the earth, and they
reached the impasse of idealism. Their painting is a means of decorating a picture. Their knowledge was taken away from nature into closed studios, where
pictures were manufactured for many centuries. That is why their art stopped short. They closed the doors behind them, thereby destroying their contact with
nature.
And that moment when they were gripped by the idealization of form should be considered the collapse of real art.
Because art should not advance toward abbreviation or simplification, but toward complexity.
The Venus de Milo is a graphic example of decline. It is not a real woman, but a parody.
Angelo's David is a deformation: His head and torso are modeled, as it were, from two incongruent forms. A fantastic head and a real torso.
All the masters of the Renaissance achieved great results in anatomy. But they did not achieve veracity in their impression of the body. Their painting does not transmit the body, and their landscapes do not
transmit living light, despite the fact that bluish veins can be seen in the bodies of their people.
The art of naturalism is the savage's idea, the aspiration to transmit what is seen, but not to create a new form.
His creative will was in an embryonic state, but his impressions were more developed, which was the reason for his reproduction of reality.
Similarly it should not be assumed that his gift of creative will was devel- oped in the classical painters.
Because we see in their pictures only repetitions of the real forms of life in settings richer than those of their ancestor, the savage.
Similarly their composition should not be considered creation, for in most cases the arrangement of figures depends on the subject: a king's procession, a court, etc.
The king and the judge already determine the places on the canvas for the persons of secondary importance.
Furthermore, the composition rests on the purely aesthetic basis of nice- ness of arrangement.
Hence arranging furniture in a room is still not a creative process.
In repeating or tracing the forms of nature, we have nurtured our con- sciousness with a false conception of art.
The work of the primitives was taken for creation. The classics also. If you put the same glass down twenty times, that's also creation. Art, as the ability to transmit what we see onto a canvas, was considered
creation. Is placing a samovar on a table also really creation? I think quite differently. The transmission of real objects onto a canvas is the art of skillful repro-
duction, that's all. And between the art of creating and the art of repeating there is a great
difference.
To create means to live fp r ft YFT n t newer and newer things. And however much we ^feqlg eTijniiti^^bout rooms, we will not extend
or create a new form for t h e m J ^ r r ^ ^ And however many moonlit landscapes the artist paints, however many
grazing cows and pretty sunsets, they will remain the same dear little cows and sunsets. Only in a much worse form.
And in fact, whether an artist is a genius or not is determined by the number of cows he paints.
The .artist can ^ creator on ly jvhentbe^orrf^ - m - e e ^ J
For art is the ability to create a construction that derives not from the in- terrelation of form and color and not on the basis of…