Malewicz: Beyond Censorship

A leading scholar of the Russian avant-garde reevaluates its most iconic artist. Kazimir Malewicz (Malevich; 1879-1935) is undoubtedly one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, famed for his Suprematist works such as the so-called “Black Square” and White on White. Incredibly, his art only received its due in the West in the late 1950s; three more decades passed before it could be accessible to the Russian public. In this critical study, Andrei Nakov dissembles some foundational myths about the artist’s ethnic background, such as his Polish origins (hence the rendering of the artist’s name here as “Malewicz”), his affinity for the religious iconography of Russia and his place in modern European art. The artist’s concept of Suprematist forms is central to Nakov’s study, which interrogates certain anti-modernist visual and cultural prejudices. Andrei Nakov (born 1941) has published numerous theoretical studies, monographs and exhibition catalogs on the Russian avant-garde, Futurism, Dada, Constructivism, contemporary art and European abstract art.