Kazimir Malevitsj

Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) was an artist born near Kyiv, of Polish descent, who worked in Moscow and St Petersburg. After Impressionist, Symbolist and Cubo-Futurist works he launched Suprematism in 1915, with the Black Square as its manifesto: abstract forms on a white ground. After the revolution he taught in Vitebsk and Petrograd. Under Stalin abstract art was banned and he returned to figuration. After an exhibition in 1927, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam owns one of the largest collections outside Russia.