Suprematist Composition – Malevich’s masterpiece for sale at Sotheby’s

Kazimir Malevich – Suprematist Composition, 1916

Suprematist Composition – Malevich’s masterpiece for sale at Sotheby’s

On the evening of November 3, 2008, Sotheby’s will present for sale, Suprematist Composition from 1916 by Kazimir Malevich, a work renowned as a premier painting from one of the most sophisticated and innovative artistic movements of the 20th century

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October 8th 2008 – Regarded as an icon of Russian art and a paradigmatic example of the 20th centuryavant-garde, the masterwork was executed in 1916, the same year that Malevich published his Suprematist Manifesto.The painting had been featured in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam for the past fifty years beforebeing restituted to the artist’s family. It has been included in every major exhibition of Malevich’s work ever mounted – both inside Russia and abroad, and was selected by the artist for his first ever exhibition to a Western audience in 1927.It is estimated to bring in excess of $60 million

“Suprematist Composition is a magnificent modern work of art of enormous art historical importance and culturalresonance,” said Emmanuel Di-Donna, Vice Chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art Worldwide and Head ofSotheby’s Evening Sales, New York. “It ranks amongst the finest paintings of the 20th Century, on a par with the bestpaintings of modern masters such as Picasso, Rothko, Pollock and de Kooning that have ever come up for sale either atauction or privately. Never has a work by the artist of such significance, lyricism and vibrancy appeared on the marketand it is a great privilege for Sotheby’s to be offering it at auction in November.”

A brilliant constellation of geometry and color in space, Suprematist Composition embodies what Malevich consideredto be the pinnacle of artistic expression. As he did with his other major compositions from 1915-16, the artist’s primarymode of expression here is an assembly of shapes and colors, plotted systematically on canvas. “Color and texture inpainting are ends in themselves,” he wrote in his 1916 treatise. Suprematism was rooted in Malevich’s desire to movebeyond traditional representation towards an art of pure color and geometric form. While this radical idea had itsorigins in Cubism and Futurism, Suprematism proposed something new in that it rejected a subjective basis or theme.

Suprematist Composition made its debut in one of the first important shows of the artist’s work at the 16th StateExhibition in Moscow in 1919-20, which established Malevich as one of the most influential artists of his era. In 1927,the Malevich accompanied this picture to exhibitions in Warsaw and Berlin, introducing Western Europe to theunprecedented aesthetic that he had devised. In June 1927, the artist was obliged to return to the Soviet Union andarranged for the paintings to be stored in Berlin, but he was prevented from leaving the Soviet Union, where he died in1935. Suprematist Composition was later entrusted to the German architect Hugo Häring, who purportedly sold it tothe Stedelijk Museum. It was finally returned to the artist’s heirs after a historic settlement was reached with the City ofAmsterdam following a 17-year struggle. The Heirs of Kazimir Malevich issued a statement through a spokesperson as follows: “The Malevich family is delighted that this masterpiece by our renowned ancestor is being brought to market by Sotheby’s. The sale confirms Kazimir Malevich’s place in the pantheon of 20th century masters.”