Kasimir Malevich and the Non-Objective World

Author(s): L. Hilbersheimer
Source: Art Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Winter, 1960-1961), pp. 82-83
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/774352 .
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been completed it will be possible to arrive at a full under- at only one locationeach so that it is impossibleat this time to
standing of the use and purpose of the Pecos drawings.Our generalizeabout them. In one of these, the Red Figure Type,
present evidence would seem to suggest that these paintings the human figuresand animalsare still somewhatstylized,but
probablyserved a wide varietyof religious,social, and psycho- are more naturalisticthan Pecos drawings and are more ob-
logical needs within their society.Their very sophisticationof viously concernedwith hunting magic. The last two types are
design indicates a certain element of pure art for art's sake, crudely conceived and are quite characteristicof late Historic
which is alwayspresentto one degreeor anothereven in prim- pictographsand petroglyphsfound throughoutthe plains area
itive art. An overt functional use of these drawings was un- of North America.
doubtedlythat of magic: to control nature,to punish enemies, Within the broaderframeworkof primitive painting in
to obtain powers, and to insure and to increasethe available North America, this relative chronologyof the Diablo picto-
supplies of animalsand plants. The drawingsof atlatls, darts, graphsseemsto fall into the generalpattern,in which an earlier
throwing sticks, staffs or spears,and perhapsmany of the un- sophisticatedand conventionalizedstyle of painting is followed
identifiedgeometricforms illustratethe desireof these primitive by more naturalisticforns and finally by drawingswhich are
artiststo asserttheir controland at the same time their rapport at best technicallypoor in quality.Suchchangesin patternshave
with their environment. been noted for other sequencesof primitivepaintingsin North
These Pecos drawingsare the most aestheticallysophisti- America,and it may well be that this patternreoccursthrough-
cated of the types in the area.Two of the other types are found out the whole of our continent.

L. Hilbersheimer

KASIMIRMALEVICHAND THE NON-OBJECTIVEWORLD

A very importantexhibition of Russian art was held in "Tower of the Third International." Tatlin was not an engineer
Berlin in 1922. In it were shown the worksof all the different but an artist. His tower was a synthesis of the technical and the
groups of artists who influencedthe developmentof Russian artistic. It opened up the conventional body of the building
art. Of specialinterest,quite naturally,were the worksof those and sought to combine the inside with the outside. It consisted
artists who came to the fore after the revolution.Along with of two cylinders and a pyramid of steel and glass. The cylinders
artists alreadyworld-renowned,like Wassily Kandinsky,Marc contained assembly halls which rotated at different speeds in
Chagalland AlexanderArchipenko,new and hithertounknown opposite directions. A huge spiral surrounded them. The tri-
artists appeared.The most importantof these were the Con- angle, Tatlin said, expressed the static concept of the Renais-
structivist,VladimirTatlin and the Suprematist,KasimirMale- sance, while the spiral expressed the dynamic concept charac-
vich. Their works attractedwidespread attention and gained teristic of our age. In a way, Tatlin brought to realization the
more and more influence. futurist dream of a dynamic architecture.
The Constructivistssaw the world throughthe mediumof The Suprematism of Malevich was in greatest contrast to
technology. They resolutely pursued a new course-that of the utilitarian aims of Constructivism. Malevich was opposed
reality.The determinationto take possessionof realityis clearly not only to any combination of art with utility but also to all
perceptiblein their non-utilitarianconstructions.They did not imitations of nature. His aim was pure art and his own non-
seek to create an illusion by the use of colors on canvas but objective art is most radical. He insisted that art and the feelings
workeddirectlyin materialssuch as wood, iron and glass. They which generate it are more basic and meaningful than religious
worked directly toward the solution of new problemsof ma- beliefs and political conceptions. Religion and the state, in the
terialsand form. Theirworksrepresenta transitionto utilitarian past, employed art as a means of propaganda to further their
architectonicstructures. aims. The usefulness of works of technology is short-lived but
The most importantwork of Constructivismwas Tatlin's art endures forever. If humanity is to achieve a real and abso-
lute order this must be founded on eternal values, that is, on
Reprinted from the Introduction to the first English translation of Die Gegen-
art. A Doric temple is not beautiful today because it once
standslose Welt by Kasimir Malevich, by the kind permission of the publisher served a religious purpose. This purpose no longer exists. Its
Paul Theobald and Company, Chicago. The book appeared in December, 1959. form originated from a pure feeling of plastic proportions and

ART JOURNAL XX 2 82
it retainsits vitality and validityfor all time. We are no longer understandingtheir meaning-Mies van der Rohe's simplicity
aware of the original purpose of the temple but we admire it also seems so easy to imitate.This work of his, however,which
as a workof art. seems so effortlessis, in actuality,the result of unremittingand
When Malevich createdSuprematismin 1913 he was al- painstakinglabor.Mies' imitators,however,failing to graspthe
ready an establishedpainter in Russia. He turnedhis back on essence of his work, turn it into a fashion but then soon tire of
all of his earlieraccomplishments.His Suprematismcompressed it and try to escapefrom it into a world of ever-changingfancy.
the whole of painting into a black squareon a white canvas. In 1927 Kasimir Malevich came to Berlin and I got to
"I felt only night within me and it was then that I conceived know him personally.I recall taking long walks with him at
the new art, which I called Suprematism."This was expressed that time, and engaging with him in profound and stimulating
by a black square on a white square. "The squareof the Su- conversations.These were possible only with the aid of an
prematists. . . can be compared,"he said, "to the symbolsof interpreter,becausehe spoke no Germanand I no Russian.
primitivemen. It was not their intent to produceornamentsbut Malevich came to Berlin for two reasons.He wanted to
to expressthe feeling of rhythm." show his work, presuprematistand suprematist,as well. The
In 1918 Malevichcreatedhis painting, "Whiteon White." exhibition,which took place at the Grosse BerlinerKunstauss-
There again two squares,but what a difference!The painting, tellung, was made possibleby the Novembergruppe.Malevich's
"BlackSquareon White" may be called staticbecausethe sides second reasonwas to get his book, The Non-ObjectiveWorld,
of both squaresareparallelto eachother.The painting, "White translatedand published. The translationfrom Russian into
on White," in which the inner squareis placedat an angle, has Germanwas madeby A. von Riesenand the bookwas published
a dynamiccharacterand this becameone of the characteristics by Albert Langen,Munich, in 1927 as volume 11 of the series
of Malevich's subsequentworks, which were richer and more of Bauhausbooks underthe title of Die GegenstandsloseWelt.
differentiatedin form. The picture, "White on White" has a An English translationof the second part, Suprematism,was
minimum of contrastin color and it was Malevich'sopinion made by F. Van Loon in 1950 but never printed. The present
that this would be characteristicof the painting of the future. translation,the first English versionto be published,was made
Malevich's color concept was static but his concept of form, from the Germantext (the Russianmanuscriptbeing unavail-
on the other hand, was dynamic.This stands in sharpcontrast able) by HowardDearstyne.Dr. SamuelK. Workmanhas read
to the Neo-Plasticismof Piet Mondrain, in which the forms the translationand made many valuablesuggestions.
are staticwhile the colorsconstitutethe dyanimicelement.
What was the reaction to Malevich's work? The critics
and the public sighed, "Everythingwe have loved in art is lost. Destruction of the Seated Man
We are in a desert.... Before us is nothing but a blacksquare Afterde Kooning's"Seated Man"Ca. 1938, now destroyed
on a white ground!" Malevichhimself felt, as he said, "a kind
1. bloodless hands glowing
of timidity borderingon fear when I was called upon to leave
staring at each other's emptiness
'the world of will and idea' in which I had lived and worked postured as if expecting
and in the reality of which I had believed. But the blissful something to hold
feeling of liberating non-objectivitydrew me into the 'desert' wistful apprehension
the lines of the face
where nothing is real but feeling and feeling becamethe con-
could be disbelief fascination?
tent of my life. This was no 'empty square'which I had ex- suspended fear maybe anxiety
hibited but ratherthe sensationof non-objectivity." of impending whirlwinds
With his Suprematism,Malevich, in much the same way the boiling shadows
as Plato,brokethroughthe barrierof senseperceptionof reality. eat at the flesh
and shining hands too weak
They both held that the world as reportedby our senses is an to grasp eternity
illusion. Malevich's simplicity and essentialitystrongly influ- wait for it to fall into their
enced abstractpainting not only in Russiabut also in the West. upturned palms
A storyis told of El Lissitzkywhich is to the point. Lissitzkywas
2. perhaps those eyes are
originally a pupil of Marc Chagall. He became so fascinated, watching some color splashed smeared
however,with Malevich'sSuprematismthathe desertedChagall abstraction of the Landing
and becamea follower of Malevich.Sinceeverythingmusthave or the silent cool night-beauty-
a name he coined for his paintings a new "ism"-Proun and sky lit with a distant neon rainbow
he consideredhis picturesa link betweenpainting and architec- watching the vermillion montage of morning
rape the trembling nightness
ture.
Malevich'sgreat influencebrought about a kind of infla- 3. the penetrating darts
tion, a cheapeningof his establishedvalues. Suprematismwas through the shoulders
later tore off the shadow-bitten
so simple that everybodycould imitate it and a trend toward
head sent it spinning thru the
mechanicalpaintingdeveloped.People cameto think it possible electrified landscapes of Death
to ordera paintingby telephonefrom a house painterby giving the man still sat in the bright vacantness
him the measurementsand specifyingthe colors! some of us can make our world
But do we not havea similarinflationin architecturetoday? blackwhite and sit headless with waiting hands
forever
Mies van der Rohe made a breakwith traditionas decisive as
that of Malevich.Many of his imitatorscopy his forms without Lorenzo Roberto Thomas

83 Hilbersheimer: Kasimir Malevich and the Non-Objective World