Recently I came to a few realizations. One of them is that most of my life I was stupid, empty, and selfish. I think it changed, but you can never be sure that what we believe is true. Some people think I am smart. But it’s easy for me to seem like it - I have physic of a dumb person. So, it’s probably just surprising that some things that come out of my mouth make sense.
I haven’t opened the books in a long time now, so it took the effort to make it through this semester- I had to open a few pages to write papers and exams.
Back to that cubism remark. By everything, I meant abstraction.
Greenberg thought that abstraction was the real deal and everything else is piss. Everything he praised so much, though, is pictorial flatness and allover painted surfaces. As if abstraction is the most unique and is somehow an innovation.
Another thing is that abstraction is, in fact, figurative. Look, even we consider Suprematism. Malevich said that “subject matters are vulgar.”
What he talks about, though, is simplified figuration. Ok, there is no subject matter, but the black square is a square. So it’s a figure, right. It doesn’t come from anything else but the shape of a square, which could easily be a table or an Orthodox icon that Malevich was alluding to. So the debate is really about what to depict, a simple figure or a more complex figure. What he says is basically, “ok, I am cooler because I am ballsy enough to paint a square” He did not forget about Three Girls (fig.1) , Or Torso (fig.2), and An Englishman in Moscow (I was born there, fig3) that are cubist. Officially only the last one is Cubo- futurism.
The most fantastic aspect of the specifics of Art History is that everyone has an opinion, and everyone is right. Malevich wasn’t wrong; he was just focused.
He sort of twisted the idea of figuration, but I have to say he is very correct in one critical aspect. He talks about that courage that some artists still have, and some don’t. Malevich is undoubtedly a great art theorist whose art and writing affected the elaboration of non-objective art. He was right – it is depressing to see artists who are not brave enough, even within the scope of non-objective art itself. Nowadays, some artists have talent but still make Ikea-type pieces and stay in a comfort zone. Can’t get rid of this cheap sculpting/texturing/shaping/ Papier-mâchéing etc. Uffff. But if you listen to me, you would think that the only abstract piece I would like has to be a black and red simple canvas. If that was the case, it would definitely be a sign of some mental issues.
Kazimir Malevich, Three Girls, oil on wood, 1932.
Kazimir Malevich, Torso, oil on canvas, 1932.
Kazimir Malevich, An Englishman in Moscow, oil on canvas, 1914