Modern Attempt Kasmir Malevich

Artist - Kazimir Malevich

Born: 1878 in Kiev Moscow

Death: 1935

Early Life: Malevich was the first of fourteen children (5 died before becoming adults). His family moved often in search of work, particularly in sugar factories and railway construction.

Art Styles: Malevich began painting at the age of 12, and attended the Kiev School of Art from 1895. In 1902, Malevich moved to Moscow, and in 1903, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. While first working with Post-Impressionist landscapes, Malevich began to paint peasants in 1909, eventually moving to a style similar to cubism in 1912. He continued to paint figures and still lifes in a Cubo-Futurist style from 1913 - 1914 before finally developing Suprematism in 1915. The new style made use of pure geometrical elements positioned to suggest floating, falling, and other motions. He later reverted back to painting very stylized figures before his death.

"Architectural Suprematism" - The ultimate form of Suprematism.

Work

I selected The Reaper (1912-13). The work was done in oil on a canvas. In terms of style, this work represents Post-Impressionism with the vibrant and flat reds and background, and Cubism with the simple geometric body shapes of the peasant. Malevich's childhood experiences also influenced a peasant theme prevalent in many of his works. Overall, the hues and simple, geometric shapes in the the work depict Malevich's transition from Post-Impressionism to Cubism and even Suprematism. Interestingly, the use of black creates an aura of death, yet the use of yellow also humanizes the peasant.

Response

I was attracted to the themes of peasant and death in the work. The first aspect I noticed was the deathly tone created by the vibrant yet flat reds with the black that covers much of the peasant's body. The contrast between the yellow hues and the black gradients also humanize the peasant, as the placement of yellow is not always where light would fall. The face with both red and black down the center also pops out. Covering the mouth also hides any emotions the peasant may be feeling, creating a rather cold and distant tone.

Product

I used a Wacom Intuos pro pen and touch medium tablet with a software called PaintTool SAI in order to create the recreation.

Malevich would do his underdrawings with freehand pencil, and sometimes leave them partially visible. Due to the time constraint of 1 hour, I drew a freehand sketch and kept those lines instead of tracing over them, which would take up too much time.

For his impressionist paintings, Malevich typically used a painting technique called "alla prima,” which is the application of thick paint and building of form and volume through color. The thick paint would be allowed to dribble and form ridges along the edges of the brushstrokes. Later on, he would apply thinner, transparent layers of paint in order to create new colors. As the former style is obviously impossible to do when using a digital medium, I opted for the latter, even though he did not use that style when he painted the work. I applied a bottom layer of red at the beginning in hopes of adding darker layers over to create the pattern in the original work, but unfortunately I did not have enough time.

Reflection

Malevich uses numerous artistic styles throughout his artistic career that play into his works in a way such that recreating a similar style can be fairly difficult. Using a digital medium is also challenging because it is difficult to get a similar texture and effect that can be more easily produced by oil on canvas. For example, I spent a lot of time in the beginning trying to get the black fade to white the same way it does on his, but in the end I just gave up.

In capturing the themes, I think I captured the physical form of the work better than the actual essence of it. There is a huge difference when I look into the face of the original peasant versus the face of the peasant I drew. When I look at mine, it just looks unaligned, but when I look at the original, I can feel a sense of determination.

As I noticed that I was almost out of time, I spent a lot more time focusing on getting color down rather than developing the themes in the piece. In general, since I typically opt to use watercolor on physical paper, having more practice with digital art would be very beneficial, as it would then be easier to choose colors from the wheel and put color down with certain effects. Instead of focusing on getting color down, I could then focus on capturing the themes of death and the peasant.

Resources

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kazimir-malevich-1561

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-malevich-kasimir.htm

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/inventingabstraction/?artist=54

http://chsopensource.org/2014/02/03/kazimir-malevich-1878-1935-technical-art-examination/