Kazimir Malevich

The current book aims to reveal under a different perspective how Malevich transmutes the basic principles of religious painting and creates certain pre-Suprematist and Suprematist artworks. Even though the significance of icons in the formation of Suprematism has oftentimes been highlighted by experts meaningful discussions on the seminal effect of Eastern Christianity on modern and contemporary art have failed to penetrate museums and have only recently started to emerge in academic studies. This book therefore stands out by offering an alternative interpretation of the legendary Black Square through the aesthetic of icons. A new light is shed on how Malevich reshapes the spiritual principles and the fundamental qualities of the icon in order to create a kind of “secular hagiography”. Furthermore by focusing on a series of artworks created between 1928 and 1932 a more nuanced and coherent explanation is suggested concerning Malevich’s problematic abandonment of abstract Suprematism towards the end of the 1920’s. This monograph aspires to be addressed to both an international expert audience (post-graduates researchers academics etc.) as well as the art enthusiasts.