Absolute, conceptual, non-objective
abstraction applies; the subject is unrecognizable beyond the elemental idea of
“rectangle”; the simplicity is difficult to untangle. One thing for certain is
that the blocks are the subject and the field of white is the background. “Randomness”
is not at work here; the moments of tension, orientation of movement and formal
arrangements create dynamic, unbalanced energy which is also deliberate.
The figures relate in severity, rectilinear shape, color, decorativeness and general orientation. These qualities provide this work with its rigid sense of order. The figures differ in relative size, proportion to length and width and carry minor adjustments in how they’re oriented. Diminution is at work, infusing what is initially a planar composition with depth. Gestalt between the larger forms and between them and the smaller is what implies this depth, as opposed to dramatic differences in size, which would result in shallow depth.
Tension is at work between the two largest blocks; the slightly more dramatic rotation of the larger implies its dominance. It also places this composition’s first focal point. This dominant form is also in conflict with the largest block of all, which is the canvas. The only possible reference to the observer is in how the forms are viewed at a perfectly perpendicular angle to one of their planes.
One of the primary paths objective art took towards abstraction was Cubism, which achieved its greatest degree of abstraction in 1912 with works such as Picasso’s Ma Jolie. The group of artists that comprised the core of the Cubist movement bent the direction of their work back towards realism in the years after, but the Russian Suprematist artists achieved the non-objective abstraction many consider what would have been the continuation of the Cubists. In his Suprematist Painting, Malevich is attempting to use color and shape to reveal the inherent potential these elements have for expressing order and energy.
The figures relate in severity, rectilinear shape, color, decorativeness and general orientation. These qualities provide this work with its rigid sense of order. The figures differ in relative size, proportion to length and width and carry minor adjustments in how they’re oriented. Diminution is at work, infusing what is initially a planar composition with depth. Gestalt between the larger forms and between them and the smaller is what implies this depth, as opposed to dramatic differences in size, which would result in shallow depth.
Tension is at work between the two largest blocks; the slightly more dramatic rotation of the larger implies its dominance. It also places this composition’s first focal point. This dominant form is also in conflict with the largest block of all, which is the canvas. The only possible reference to the observer is in how the forms are viewed at a perfectly perpendicular angle to one of their planes.
One of the primary paths objective art took towards abstraction was Cubism, which achieved its greatest degree of abstraction in 1912 with works such as Picasso’s Ma Jolie. The group of artists that comprised the core of the Cubist movement bent the direction of their work back towards realism in the years after, but the Russian Suprematist artists achieved the non-objective abstraction many consider what would have been the continuation of the Cubists. In his Suprematist Painting, Malevich is attempting to use color and shape to reveal the inherent potential these elements have for expressing order and energy.
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