Andrei Nakov – Forms in Dissolution / Kazimir Malevich, Carré rouge / El Lissitzky, Proun
Excerpt from the book “Zaha Hadid and Suprematism”, published by Galerie Gmurzynska in collaboration with Hatje Cantz on the occasion of an exhibition at the gallery space in Zurich, designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher.
Excerpt from the book “Zaha Hadid and Suprematism”, published by Galerie Gmurzynska in collaboration with Hatje Cantz on the occasion of an exhibition at the gallery space in Zurich, designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher.
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ZAHA HADID<br />
AND<br />
SUPREMATISM<br />
GALERIE GMURZYNSKA
<strong>Andrei</strong> <strong>Nakov</strong><br />
Forms <strong>in</strong> <strong>Dissolution</strong><br />
Follow<strong>in</strong>g the first phase of Suprematism which had, above all, been about<br />
the affirmation of non-objective elements, <strong>Kazimir</strong> <strong>Malevich</strong> would focus<br />
on the philosophical exploration of the idea of a non-objective form. On<br />
this path toward a k<strong>in</strong>d of existentialism of the Suprematist “be<strong>in</strong>g”<br />
(accord<strong>in</strong>g to his own def<strong>in</strong>ition), he very rapidly succeeded <strong>in</strong> conceiv<strong>in</strong>g a<br />
sort of osmosis between non-objective form and space. Projected with a<br />
great k<strong>in</strong>etic energy toward <strong>in</strong>f<strong>in</strong>ite space, the Suprematist plans were to<br />
be lost <strong>in</strong> this space; <strong>in</strong> other words, to identify and thus to merge with<br />
(<strong>in</strong>f<strong>in</strong>ite) space. Extremely <strong>in</strong>novat<strong>in</strong>g works resulted from this concept,<br />
where the idea of a forme fixe, a form with def<strong>in</strong>ed limits (frames) found<br />
itself taken to the next level by the pa<strong>in</strong>ter’s philosophical verve. The<br />
creator of Suprematism thus def<strong>in</strong>ed the conditions of a new aesthetic,<br />
where the idea of form itself was conceived <strong>in</strong> a totally different way than<br />
thought of before. This revolutionary idea of an open form would <strong>in</strong>evitably<br />
lead to the monochrome or, follow<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Malevich</strong>’s def<strong>in</strong>ition, to the pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g<br />
of the “colorless” (see his 1918 manifesto; the first pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>gs of this series<br />
were exhibited <strong>in</strong> Moscow <strong>in</strong> April 1919).
By go<strong>in</strong>g through the practical aspects of certa<strong>in</strong> of his nearest<br />
Russian comrades (Ivan Kliun and, above all, Olga Rozanova), the<br />
advocator of this revolutionary idea would be imitated regularly throughout<br />
the twentieth century. We f<strong>in</strong>d some of the first and most brilliant<br />
affirmations made by his Polish student Vladislav Strzhem<strong>in</strong>sky (see his<br />
theory on the “Unism”). In the United States, from the 1940s onward,<br />
Barnett Newman was to go beyond <strong>Malevich</strong>’s ideas with his grand,<br />
abstract Color Field compositions. With his monochromes, Yves Kle<strong>in</strong><br />
gave this lyrical verve an existentialist dimension unparalleled to this day.<br />
We can thus clearly say that <strong>Malevich</strong>’s formes en dissolution are a<br />
capital moment <strong>in</strong> the history of modern pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
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<strong>Andrei</strong> <strong>Nakov</strong><br />
<strong>Kazimir</strong> <strong>Malevich</strong>, <strong>Carré</strong> <strong>rouge</strong><br />
Presented at Petrograd <strong>in</strong> December 1915 at the first Suprematism<br />
exhibition (0.10), <strong>Carré</strong> <strong>rouge</strong> (Red Square) was to become one of the<br />
works that most surprised a public already moved deeply by this first<br />
presentation of non-objective (abstract) works, which showed a way of<br />
do<strong>in</strong>g th<strong>in</strong>gs never before seen <strong>in</strong> the history of our civilization. Entitled<br />
Réalisme pictural d’une paysanne en deux dimensions (Pictorial Realism of<br />
a Peasant Woman <strong>in</strong> Two Dimensions), this pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g is merely comprised<br />
of a simple red quadrilateral <strong>in</strong>scribed on a white background. Indeed, this<br />
was someth<strong>in</strong>g to shock the public. A revolutionary work <strong>in</strong> the best sense<br />
of the word—similar to the famous <strong>Carré</strong> noir (Black Square), which was<br />
part of the same exhibition under the laconic title Quadrilatère<br />
(Quadrilateral)—<strong>Carré</strong> <strong>rouge</strong> illustrates better than any other Suprematist<br />
work of this exhibition the concept of non-objective (Suprematist) pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g<br />
itself. This audacious composition also has the advantage of enlighten<strong>in</strong>g<br />
the viewer on the path <strong>Kazimir</strong> <strong>Malevich</strong> took to reach his goal.
The reference to the rustic theme thrusts the present-day <strong>in</strong>terpreter<br />
and even more so the spectator of the epoch <strong>in</strong>to a series of expressionist<br />
images of peasants created by <strong>Malevich</strong> four years earlier. Beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g with<br />
these images of peasants, <strong>Malevich</strong> would focus on work<strong>in</strong>g on their<br />
Cubist, then Cubo-Futuristic transformation. In 1915, he achieved a<br />
pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g that expresses, <strong>in</strong> a declamatory way, the title Réalisme pictural<br />
(Pictorial Realism). We are thus deal<strong>in</strong>g here with realism <strong>in</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g as an<br />
ideal and as a way of pictur<strong>in</strong>g imag<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the categories of the absolute,<br />
and not the illustration of any extra-pictorial fact. The new pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g<br />
asserts itself free of any l<strong>in</strong>k, of any submission to another system of<br />
values (literature, philosophy, etc.).<br />
The color red, qu<strong>in</strong>tessence of (pictorial) emotion, was glorified <strong>in</strong><br />
the form of a simple, slightly irregular quadrilateral whose absolutely<br />
monumental simplicity spectacularly enhanced the ideality of the concept<br />
of pure pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g. From the first (black) quadrilateral, then the red one,<br />
<strong>Malevich</strong> would very rapidly develop a real theater of non-objective forms.<br />
At the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of the 1920s, the importance of <strong>Carré</strong> <strong>rouge</strong>, taken as a<br />
sign, would be underl<strong>in</strong>ed by <strong>El</strong> <strong>Lissitzky</strong>, who, under the impulse of<br />
<strong>Malevich</strong>, created the first Conte suprématiste pour enfants (Suprematist<br />
Children’s Tale) <strong>in</strong> Vitebsk, Belarus. Entitled Histoire de deux carrés<br />
(History of Two Squares), this extraord<strong>in</strong>arily abstract narration sports a<br />
red square and the number two on its cover, notify<strong>in</strong>g children (to whom<br />
this Suprematist comic strip was dedicated) that this was about a tale of<br />
two squares, of which only the red one, considered to be the victor aga<strong>in</strong>st<br />
the “Old World” (symbolized by the <strong>Carré</strong> noir), made it onto the cover.<br />
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<strong>Andrei</strong> <strong>Nakov</strong><br />
<strong>El</strong> <strong>Lissitzky</strong>, <strong>Proun</strong><br />
The cosmic visions of Suprematism, the new way of pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>troduced<br />
by <strong>Kazimir</strong> <strong>Malevich</strong> <strong>in</strong> 1915, led to architectural projects by 1916. Thus, at<br />
the public speech he had given follow<strong>in</strong>g the important analytic presentation<br />
of his coloristic evolution (<strong>in</strong> Moscow <strong>in</strong> November 1917), he had<br />
already <strong>in</strong>cluded the subject of a Suprematist architecture. In 1919, when<br />
he had achieved his journey <strong>in</strong> pictorial Suprematism, <strong>Malevich</strong> would<br />
focus on the concrete elaboration of a Suprematist architecture only upon<br />
sett<strong>in</strong>g up <strong>in</strong> Vitebsk <strong>in</strong> November 1919. At this moment, a new phase<br />
began <strong>in</strong> his concept of Suprematism, as well as <strong>in</strong> the application of his<br />
Suprematist ideas “<strong>in</strong> real life.” Thus, when he organized his teach<strong>in</strong>g<br />
courses at the Vitebsk Art School, he immediately <strong>in</strong>cluded an important<br />
architectural section. The young Lazar (<strong>El</strong>) <strong>Lissitzky</strong> was the artist<br />
who, <strong>in</strong> 1920, seconded him <strong>in</strong> this task. Enraptured with <strong>Malevich</strong>’s<br />
Suprematist ideas, <strong>Lissitzky</strong> would go head over heels <strong>in</strong>to Suprematist<br />
architectural creation. Under the direct impact of <strong>Malevich</strong> and <strong>in</strong> a state<br />
of almost total osmosis with the ideas of his master, <strong>Lissitzky</strong> conceived<br />
architectural projects at the end of 1919 which he would later call <strong>Proun</strong>s.<br />
The term “<strong>Proun</strong>” on its own came to <strong>Lissitzky</strong> at the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of 1920<br />
when the Suprematist circle at Vitebsk Art School adopted the acronym<br />
“UNOVIS” (from Utverditeli Novogo Iskusstva or Champions of the New<br />
Art). Derived directly from UNOVIS, the term “<strong>Proun</strong>” sounded like a sort<br />
of fanfare for the UNOVIS camp.
<strong>Lissitzky</strong> def<strong>in</strong>ed his <strong>Proun</strong>s as fantastic compositions realized with<br />
Suprematist (non-objective) elements “<strong>in</strong> volume,” as “<strong>in</strong>termediary<br />
stations between pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g and world architecture.” In his first Suprematist<br />
text <strong>in</strong> 1920, he clearly <strong>in</strong>dicated that his “constructions” were “exits<br />
from the surface of the pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g” <strong>in</strong> order to launch <strong>in</strong>to “architectural<br />
prospective.” He thus asserted openly that <strong>Malevich</strong>’s Suprematist<br />
pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g was the orig<strong>in</strong> of his creation of the <strong>Proun</strong>. Benefitt<strong>in</strong>g from<br />
an education <strong>in</strong> architecture he had acquired at school <strong>in</strong> Darmstadt,<br />
Germany (1909–14) and, follow<strong>in</strong>g this, at Moscow Civil Eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g<br />
School (1916–17), <strong>Lissitzky</strong> had the technical means to realize <strong>Malevich</strong>’s<br />
wild ideas. It is important to note that <strong>Malevich</strong> had then said that <strong>in</strong> the<br />
person of <strong>Lissitzky</strong> he had “found the means that will realize my<br />
architectural ideas.”<br />
The first <strong>Proun</strong>s were united by <strong>Lissitzky</strong> <strong>in</strong> a lithographic portfolio<br />
he produced himself <strong>in</strong> 1920 when he left Vitebsk to go to Moscow.<br />
This portfolio reunited the eleven first and strongest <strong>Proun</strong> projects,<br />
which ma<strong>in</strong>ly dist<strong>in</strong>guish themselves by their “constructive” exuberance.<br />
For several of his works, we know the pr<strong>in</strong>ceps versions, i.e. the def<strong>in</strong>ite<br />
pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>gs, several of which were produced on wooden supports<br />
(sometimes follow<strong>in</strong>g the lithographs): <strong>Proun</strong> 1 C and <strong>Proun</strong> 1 E (“Town”),<br />
both circa 1920; whereas <strong>Proun</strong> 23, No. 6 (of the former Estorick<br />
Collection, London), one of the first works <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Proun</strong> series, was<br />
pa<strong>in</strong>ted on canvas before the end of 1919. Undoubtedly, <strong>Lissitzky</strong>’s first<br />
<strong>Proun</strong> series, made <strong>in</strong> Russia before his departure to Germany where he<br />
would reside from 1922 onward, was a crucial moment <strong>in</strong> the history of<br />
Suprematism as well as twentieth-century architectural th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g. Be<strong>in</strong>g<br />
a follow-up to the grand idealist verve of utopian architecture of the years<br />
1910–20 (Antonio Sant’<strong>El</strong>ia, Hermann F<strong>in</strong>sterl<strong>in</strong>, and the other members<br />
of the movement Die Gläserne Kette), <strong>Lissitzky</strong> added the imag<strong>in</strong>ary,<br />
utopian dimension of Suprematism; <strong>in</strong> short, he strongly re<strong>in</strong>forced<br />
its visionary force.<br />
<strong>Lissitzky</strong>’s Suprematist enthusiasm would lead him to develop the<br />
<strong>Proun</strong> series dur<strong>in</strong>g his second stay <strong>in</strong> Germany (1922–24). Installed <strong>in</strong><br />
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136<br />
Hannover for the Kestnergesellschaft, of which he was cashier, he created<br />
a second <strong>Proun</strong> portfolio <strong>in</strong> 1923. Composed of six compositions, this<br />
Kestnermappe was much more elegant and lavish than the 1920 series,<br />
but had not quite the visionary force of the first set. The <strong>Proun</strong><br />
compositions created dur<strong>in</strong>g this era contributed greatly to <strong>Lissitzky</strong>’s<br />
<strong>in</strong>ternational reputation and were, so to say, Suprematism’s spearhead<br />
beyond the Russian border. They were greatly appreciated by the German<br />
architects and first collectors of non-objective Russian art, such as<br />
Kather<strong>in</strong>e Dreier <strong>in</strong> the United States. In her role as director of the Société<br />
Anonyme, Dreier would present to the American public (at the Brooklyn<br />
Museum) <strong>Lissitzky</strong>’s <strong>Proun</strong> series <strong>in</strong> 1926.<br />
In 1923, <strong>Lissitzky</strong> created a <strong>Proun</strong> space <strong>in</strong> three dimensions at the<br />
Grosse Berl<strong>in</strong>er Kunstausstellung which was an immediate success. In<br />
1925, the Kühl & Kühn gallery <strong>in</strong> Dresden presented an important<br />
<strong>Lissitzky</strong> exhibition where the <strong>Proun</strong>s were up front. We can safely say<br />
that this exhibition was the trigger for the only neo-plastic space planned<br />
by Piet Mondrian, an almost mythical <strong>in</strong>stallation today that was created<br />
one year later (1926) <strong>in</strong> the same city of Dresden for a private collector.<br />
It was destroyed dur<strong>in</strong>g the tragic 1945 bombardments.<br />
In 1927, <strong>Lissitzky</strong> received from Alexander Dorner, the audacious<br />
custodian of Landesmuseum Hannover, the commission to create an<br />
abstract <strong>in</strong>terior, a museum <strong>in</strong>stallation dest<strong>in</strong>ed to present solely abstract<br />
art and which referred manifestly to the Berl<strong>in</strong> <strong>Proun</strong>enraum of 1923.<br />
Called Cab<strong>in</strong>et des Abstraits, this <strong>in</strong>stallation, destroyed by the Nazis and<br />
reconstructed today at the same place, is one of the truly unavoidable<br />
witnesses to the <strong>in</strong>scription of abstract art with<strong>in</strong> European society of<br />
the twentieth century.<br />
Be<strong>in</strong>g a protean creator and of great emotional, thus existential, fragility,<br />
<strong>Lissitzky</strong> would dedicate a good deal of his strength to the field of architectural<br />
prospective all through the 1920s up to the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of the 1930s.<br />
Ow<strong>in</strong>g to his German contacts (the Hannover Kestnergesellschaft), the<br />
first and only foreign <strong>Malevich</strong> retrospective would see the light of day—an<br />
event organized <strong>in</strong> 1927 by the Kartell der Vere<strong>in</strong>igten Verbände
Bildender Künstler <strong>in</strong> Berl<strong>in</strong>. At this time, thanks to his presence <strong>in</strong> Berl<strong>in</strong><br />
and his journey to the Dessau Bauhaus, <strong>Malevich</strong> suddenly emerged as<br />
the <strong>in</strong>itiator and grand visionary of Suprematist architecture <strong>in</strong> Germany,<br />
or even of modern architecture altogether. But we should never forget<br />
that <strong>Lissitzky</strong> opened this path <strong>in</strong> Germany. At that time, <strong>in</strong> the mid<br />
1920s, a certa<strong>in</strong> confusion had resulted between <strong>Lissitzky</strong> and <strong>Malevich</strong>’s<br />
creations, which lucid critics (such as Ernst Kallai) didn’t fail to remark<br />
upon. <strong>Malevich</strong>’s visit to the Dessau Bauhaus <strong>in</strong> April 1927 and the one he<br />
paid to Mies van der Rohe upon his arrival <strong>in</strong> Berl<strong>in</strong> rema<strong>in</strong> crucial events<br />
for the evolution of architecture <strong>in</strong> the twentieth century, s<strong>in</strong>ce, from this<br />
moment on, a humanist and really neo-Platonic <strong>in</strong>flection can be noted <strong>in</strong><br />
the work of Mies which would change the image of modern architecture.<br />
Similar to the new visions of a “Constructivist” Giovanni Battista Piranesi,<br />
<strong>Lissitzky</strong>’s <strong>Proun</strong>s, compositions of a highly technical, neo-romantic<br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ary, had already prepared the path for this disruption several years<br />
before the meet<strong>in</strong>g between <strong>Malevich</strong> and Mies <strong>in</strong> Berl<strong>in</strong>.<br />
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