Malevich and the Birth of Abstract Minimalism

 

It's well-accepted that the Russian Kazimir Malevich (1879 - 1935) is among the very earliest pioneers, and perhaps the most significant of the early pioneers, to engage in pure abstraction and full-on minimalism. Duchamp and others get the credit for inventing conceptual art, but in their own way, Malevich's works were also instances of that mode, deviating so drastically from the accepted notion that painting consists of the depiction of things. A square isn't a thing unless its part of a table. Otherwise its a mathematical-geometric concept. Platonic, even.

Malevich gave his art the unfortunate name of Suprematism. Though he started as an Impressionist-Cubist, he soon developed the conviction that moving completely beyond the world of objects and natural forms would allow for better access to the "supremacy of pure feeling." I do think it's true that abstract art allows us to experience different modes of emotion and spirituality than representational art does. The mistake is to think it represents an advance in the visual arts. My personal preference actually is for abstract art, but there's no need to make a program or ideology out of it. Then again, those sorts of things were very popular in the early 20th century. In fact, Malevich even issued a manifesto! No one reads anyone's tracts anymore, but the art lives on.