Kazimir Malevich
b. 1878, Russia
d. 1935
Russian painter, printmaker, and theorist, 1878-1935
Malevich was a pivotal figure of the Russian avant-garde movement during the revolutionary periods of 1905 and 1917 and immediately after. He developed a style of severe geometric abstraction called Suprematism and was a leading force in the development of Constructivism. While his work was suppressed by the Soviets during the 1930s and remained little known for decades, it was rediscovered in the mid-1950s and became an influence on such movements as Hard-edge painting and Minimalism.