Suprematist Diagonal Construction 79

summer – autumn 1915

The first “Black Square” and a hurried brochure

In the summer of 1915 Malevich produced his first abstract composition, a black quadrilateral on a white ground. When Ivan Puni visited his studio in September and saw the new work, the artist, afraid that the idea would be copied, composed with Matyushin’s help his first text on Suprematism — the basis of the manifesto “From Cubism to Suprematism”.

19 December 1915

“0,10”: the “Black Square” in the icon corner

On 19 December 1915 (1 January 1916 in the new style), at the “Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10” in Nadezhda Dobychina’s Art Bureau in Petrograd, Malevich showed 39 abstract works under the general title “Suprematism of Painting”; he hung the “Black Square” in the upper corner of the room — where an icon hangs in a Russian home. His brochure “From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism” accompanied the show; in the next room Tatlin exhibited his corner reliefs, and the exhibition was seen by more than six thousand people.

1916

Founds the “Supremus” society

In 1916 Malevich organised the “Supremus” society, which included Olga Rozanova, Lyubov Popova, Aleksandra Exter, Ivan Klyun, Vasily Pestel, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Mstislav Yurkevich and others, and prepared a journal of the same name for publication.

1916

Sixty Suprematist canvases and a lecture with Puni

In 1916 Malevich gave the paper “Cubism — Futurism — Suprematism” at the “Public Popular-Science Lecture of the Suprematists”, organised with Ivan Puni, took part in the “Shop” exhibition and showed 60 Suprematist canvases at the “Knave of Diamonds” exhibition.

1919

Moving to Vitebsk, to Chagall

In November 1919 Malevich moved to Vitebsk and began to run a workshop in the People’s Art School of a “new revolutionary model”, headed by Marc Chagall.

1919

The first retrospective: from Impressionism to Suprematism

In December 1919 Malevich’s first retrospective, “His Path from Impressionism to Suprematism”, opened in Moscow: the works ran from Impressionism and neo-primitivism through Cubo-Futurism to Suprematism, which was divided into black, coloured and white periods and ended with a display of blank canvases on stretchers — a manifesto of the complete renunciation of painting.