SUPREMATISM, the Russian modern art movement in definitions, meaning and manifesto; history facts & characteristics of the Suprematist art style (founding artist, Malevich)
Suprematism, the Russian modern art movement started circa 1915/16 by founding artist Malevich. Suprematism was a more subtle art variation of Russian Constructivism. Suprematist artists were using paint instead of the modern materials and constructions of steel, cement and glass by Constructivists. Suprematism’s main meaning was to express ‘pure experiences of daily life in modern times’ – for instance in the airplane – as Malevich explained in his manifesto. Composition played an important role in Suprematism. At the bottom short history facts of Jacob Bendien; the Suprematism quotes are taken from his texts. When you enjoy these quotes, please share them on Facebook, Google +1 or Twitter; – the editor.
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‘Krasnodar & Golden rectangle’, Malevich 1917 |
SUPREMATISM, the Russian Suprematist art movement in style characteristics, definitions, history facts and meaning; with artist & founder, Malevich
- Malewitsch (from now on written as Malevich, ed.) says…’It is the experience of the speed of a plane, which was looking for an expression, a form and this caused the plane to come into existence. The plane was not built to take letters from Berlin to Moscow, but to give expression to the irresistible urge to create a form for the experience of speed’.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- According to Suprematists art is not only dependent on the nature of the artist, but also on the sort of environment from which it is produced. For instance: Cézanne from a small provincial town, the Cubists and Futurists from worldly cities and industry, and the Suprematists – planes/aviation.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- The basics of Suprematism are not very varied, but in practice aeronautics has a rich arsenal of symbolic motifs. Also, the Suprematists did not always strictly adhere to these motifs, which actually inspire more than they limit.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- Although their compositions form an organic whole, their figures seem to float in space without a constructive connection to the three dimensional space, (suggested by the painted plane). In the same way that unfounded ideas float about in our consciousness with great conviction, but still influence and feed one another. Even simple general religious feelings are portrayed.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- As opposed to many other Russian Constructivists, Suprematists do recognize l’art pour l’art and resist any other aim. The Suprematists are the poets of Constructivism. They are not blinded by rationalization like many of the Russian Constructivists. They are more closely related to the softer and more tender Constructivist Moholy Nagy.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- Typical for the difference between both art movements is that Malevich wrote a book entitled ‘Gegenstandlose Welt’ (World without objects / things ed.). Whilst Lissistky specifically mentioned Gegenstand in the magazine he published with Ehrenburg.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- Even so, the Suprematists were no less influenced by modern technology. Not so much cars and factories, but especially air-travel. Malevich states in his ‘Gegenstandlose Welt’ nr. 11 of the Bauhausbucher, that one could call the Suprematists aeronautic.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- Why this very limited preference for aviation? We should view this not as a fascination for aviation itself, but rather for the feelings it evokes, such as speed.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- The areas of practicality and art are, according to Suprematists, totally separate in the human mind. However, they generally came together until the 20th century. Thus, in their opinion the artistic feeling did not come into its eternal right, but was obstructed by the presumption of temporality.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- The Suprematists want, where possible, to give feelings / emotion absolute supremacy. Even objects such as tables, chairs and beds are, according to Malevich, ‘not objects but the form of plastic perceptions… …The experience of sitting, standing or walking are, in the first place plastic experiences’.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- Suprematists do not want to sit, sleep or live in the way their bodies dictate, but according to their spiritual needs. They want to free not only art, but architecture from all social and materialistic tendencies. As far as art is concerned their ideal is achievable and is in fact realized. However, in architecture usefulness is a factor that can never be handled as a secondary circumstance.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
- Another question is whether all secondary circumstances, such as excluding social tendencies from art, is a good thing. Very often this is a necessary part of the inspiration of the artist, thus the ‘art’ value is not decreased but rather increased. Even if one recognizes l’art pour l’art, it does not mean that one is against this tendency in art. The main point is and remains; the intensity of the art value.
* source, Russian Suprematism in art quotes: “Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, Jacob Bendien, Rotterdam, 1936 (the Suprematist art movement with founder Malevich: definitions, meaning, manifesto, history facts, characteristics)
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Suprematism-in-art-quotes??
editor, Fons Heijnsbroek
translation, Anne Porcelijn
ART LINKS
for more information about Suprematism and the Suprematist art movement with founding artist Malevich
* more information on the Russian art movement Suprematism, on Wikipedia
* many images of modern art, created in Russian Suprematist art movement, on Google
Biography of Jacob Bendien, short history facts of the writer of the Suprematist art quotes
The selected art quotes here, over the modern Russian art movement Suprematism are taken from Bendien’s unknown but great Dutch art-book ‘Trends in the Present Day Art of Painting”, 1936.
As a young, exploratory, Dutch artist, Jacob Bendien spent some time in France, in Paris around 1913, just before the outbreak of the First World War. He was greatly inspired by early Cubism of Picasso and George Braque, by Delaunay’s Orphism and Matisse’s Fauvism. In Paris he witnessed the beginnings of the modern art movements such as Futurism, Dada, Purism and early Surrealism. He also learnt about the new abstract art styles; the ideas of Piet Mondrian, Kandinsky and the Blue Rider, and the Russian Constructivism and Suprematism of Lissitsky and Malevich.
Bendien was an inspirational and also empathic artist, he was eager to learn and understood the up and coming new modern art. He needed to do this in order to express his own position as a practicing artist, but he also loved to explain and teach other people about the ‘miracles’ of modern art. As an artist himself, Bendien needed to understand and describe the new art movements from the ‘inside’.
After 1930 Bendien became seriously ill with tuberculosis, and was forced to spend a great deal of time in bed reflecting on all the ideas and concepts of the new art movements, their differences and contrasts in style, but also about the elements they had in common with one another. In this way Bendien functioned as an inspirational and great teacher for several famous young Dutch art critics, such as Hammacher, who enjoyed frequent visits.
Bendien was an emphatic, inspirational artist and a truly witness to the start of the new art movements and styles till 1930. So we like to present his art quotes and hope you will enjoy them.
Fons Heijnsbroek
