A few weeks ago, I wrote about the
Triadic Ballet Costumes made at the German design school Bauhaus. These costumes transformed the dancers into geometric forms that leapt around the stage. As I was looking at all of the images of the Triadic Ballet, I came across another brilliant costume designer: Kazimir Malevich.
Fat man costume design for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malvich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Kazimir Malevich (1879 – 1935) was a Russian-born abstract painter. He is most known for starting the art movement Suprematism. Malevich conceived the idea of Suprematism around 1913, which focuses on basic geometric forms painted in a limited range of colors. Malevich believed that the true power of art was it’s ability to evoke emotion in the viewer. By using simple geometric forms, there was no way for political or social meanings to be imparted on the work of art.
Death to Wallpaper by Kazimir Malevich. Image courtesy of Art Might.
He explained:
Under Suprematism, I understand the primacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the Suprematist, the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth.
I stumbled across a really interesting, cogently written blog called
Freelancer Frank. Essentially, he explained how Malevich was very interested in Bauhaus and their progressive fusion of art, design, and industrialism. Malevich traveled to Germany to meet with several of the Bauhaus instructors. This meeting was fruitful, and resulted in the publication of Malevich’s Suprematist manifesto,
The Non-Objective World.
Victory Over the Sun. Costumes by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Photo by Tom Caravaglia. Image courtesy of BAM Blog.
It was fun to learn about Malevich, particularly because his venture into costume design preceded most of his major paintings. His first costuming job was for the Russian Futurist opera, Victory Over the Sun. Malevich was also responsible for the set design. As you can see, the costumes are very geometric, making the performers look like chess pieces.
Attentive worker costume design for Victory Over the Sun by Kasimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
The costumes are Malevich’s first Suprematist work. You can see how each of the garments are comprised of distinct geometric shapes. There is the use of black and white, with pops of brightly hued colors.
Coward costume design for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Sportsman costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings
After looking at the costume sketches, it was easy to see the correlation between Malevich’s later paintings. The above costumes had angular panels of blue, white, yellow, and black fabric. Three years later, Malevich made the Suprematist oil painting below – which has the same color pallet.
Supremus No. 58 by Kazimir Malevich, 1916. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
There are so many fantastic parallels between the costumes for Victory Over the Sun and Malevich’s later paintings. Take a look:
The Enemy costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
The New Man costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Suprematist Composition by Kazimir Malevich, c. 1916. Image courtesy of Kootatian.
Reciter costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Supremist No. 18 by Kasimir Malevich, 1915. Image courtesy of All Paintings.
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Singer costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Athlete of the Future costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Untitled by Kazimir Malevich, 1915. Image courtesy of iBiblio.
Someone Wicked costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Many & One costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Book Cover design by Kazimir Malevich for Nikolai Punin, 1920. Image courtesy of MoMA.
The Undertaker by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Suprematist Variation & Proportions of Color by Kazimir Malevich. Image courtesy of Wahoo Art.
Also noteworthy is that many of Malevich started to use shapes to replace the faces of the figures. This was a common theme in many Surrealist paintings, a movement that started in the 1920s. (New to my blog? You should read my previous posts on
Surrealist art & fashion.)
The Athlete of the Future by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Red Cross on a Black Circle by Kazimir Malevich, c. 1921. Image courtesy of It Is Snowing.
Soldier costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Turkish Soldier costumes for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Throughout his career, Malevich continued to design costumes and textiles, something I’m curious to investigate more.
Suprematic Dress by Kazimir Malevich, 1923. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Suprematic Dress by Kazimir Malevich, 1923. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
GHTime Code(s):
Singer costume for Victory Over the Sun by Kazimir Malevich, 1913. Image courtesy of Wikipaintings.
