KAZIMIR MALEVICH. BEFORE AND AFTER THE SQUARE

100 years ago in Russia the new trend in art that later received the name of suprematism (after the highest in Latin) had been created by Kazimir Malevich. For the first time this idea had found its embodiment in the theatre show. At the beginning of December 1913 in St. Petersburg Luna-Park theatre the Avant-garde Victory Over the Sun opera was presented for the first time. The costumes and decorations for this opera were created according to the sketches by Malevich. In the second act of this show the artists tears the curtain where the sun was presented not red and round as usual, but in the form of black square. In such way the authors (libretto by Alexei Kruchyonikh, music by Mikhail Matushin) showed his attitude to traditional values of art. The Black Square that became the emblem for Malevich had superseded the sun and symbolized the victory of the active human art over the passive form of nature. In 1915 the Black Square painting was showed as the easel painting. After creation of this work in Russia began the active movement towards one of forms of non-figurative art that had the strong influence also on the world culture. The exhibition in the Russian Museum is devoted to the two stages of creative path of Kazimir Malevich - before and after the creation of the Black Square. There are presented the costumes for the Victory Over the Sun opera that are made depending on author's sketches and close to original works. 

The Russian Museum owns the greatest in world collection of works by Kazimir Malevich that includes 101 paintings, over 50 graphic works, two architectons and the examples of applied art. The exhibition brings together about 100 works, including the sketches of costumes and decorations.

On the screen is presented the video version of the "Victory Over the Sun" opera. Nearby there are presented the costumes for the opera that are created depending to the sketches by Malevich with the use of technologies close to original. The reconstruction of costumes was made by the students of the St.Petersburg Academy of Applied Art named after A.Shtigliz «DivinaHarmonia» design school under the direction of Olga Kalashnikova and teachers E.Kuptsova, A.Mahnova, I.Peschanskaya, S.Stazkova, and also by the students of «DivinaHarmonia» (teachers - L.Bulavkina, N.Palmina, J.Tretyakova, in collaboration with S.Vorobyeva, D.Ginsburg, E.Lagutina).    

With the financial support of OJSC NOVATEK