Links and Literature on Malevich
and the Russian Avantgarde


Whoever searches for links and further literature on Kasimir Malevich will soon let out a sigh of exasperation: Oh, Europe! In the internet, we've found five different ways of writing the name: Malewitsch, Malevich, Malevitch, Malewitch, and Malevic - not to mention Kasimir. Yet we've managed to find something, after all.

Preliminary information and a few images can be found in the Web-Museum. The german tv-channel WDR provides a small Malevich dossier, complete with links. The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg offers a virtual tour (shockwave) through Malevich's visual world. A large number of images can also be found through Google. An unknown French artist offers a very beautiful web address with a number of background articles on Malevich and his era, including articles on Lunatscharski, Narkompros, or the birth of Socialist Realism.

The Hermitage elucidates the meaning of the Black Square. You can find information on the archives where Malevich's estate is stored here.

Background information on the Russian avant-garde can be obtained at MoMa and the page russian.avantgarde, which has not only published numerous artists' biographies in the net, but also offers information on organizations such as Malevich's Unovis, the World of Art, or the Blue Rose. Another page that offers information on Unovis is the Belarus Guide. A good summary with further links can be found at Curtin University and Rollins College. Finally, we'd like to mention a wonderful address with numerous links to the opera Victory Over the Sun.

Suprematism, architecture, and outer space: Malevich drew satellite cities meant to float in outer space. You can find drawings here. Those interested in ideas on outer space dating from the beginning of the 20th century can find information on the homepage of the Tsiolkovsky State Museum. Tsiolkovsky was a pioneer of astronautics. Utopia collects plans and drawings of Russian avant-garde architecture from those years.

We've even found some things on suprematist theory: an elementary essay by V.V. Bychkov on Malevich's suprematist theories; a passionate appeal by Karin Wendt and Andreas Mertin that theologians should also investigate Malevich; an article by Charlotte Douglas on suprematist ornaments in clothing; and an essay by Cavan Wee on the emergence of abstraction.

In addition:

Literature

Catalogues

- Kasimir Malewitsch: Suprematismus. Ed. by Matthew Drutt, Catalogue, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin 2003.
- The Great Utopia. The Russian Avant-garde 1915-1932, Video, Guggenheim Publications, New York 1992
- Kazimir Malevich 1878-1935. Catalogue, Leningrad/Moskau/Amsterdam, 1989
- Kazimir Malevich in the State Russian Museum. Catalogue, ed. by Yevgenia Petrova
- Troels Andersen: Malevich, Catalogue Raisonne of the Berlin exhibition 1927. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1970
- J.-H. Martin: Oeuvres de Casimir Severinovitch Malevitch (1878 - 1935) avec en appendice: les oeuvres de Nicolai Mikhailovitch Souietine (1897 - 1954), Katalog Centre Georges Pompidou Paris 1980.

Publications on Malevich

- Charlotte Douglas: Kazimir Malevich, Masters of Art
- Charlotte Douglas: Kazimir Malevich, Artist and Theoretician
- Evgenia Petrova: Malevich. Artist and Philosopher, New York 1994
- Larissa A. Zhadova: Malevich. Suprematism and Revolution in Russian Art 1910-1930
- Jeannot Simmen: Malevich (Art in Hand), 2000
- W. Sherwin Simmons: Kasimir Malevich's Black Square and the Genesis of Suprematism 1907-1915, 1982

Writings by Malevich

- Kasimir Malewitsch: The non-objective world. 1959
- Kasimir Malewitsch: The White Rectangle: Writings on Film. Ed. Oksana Bulgakowa. Potemkin Press, Berlin 2002
- Kazimir Malevics: Über die neuen Systeme in der Kunst. Edition Howeg, Zürich 1989
- Kazimir Malevich: Essays on Art 1915-1928 / Essays on Art 1928-1933 / The World als Nonobjectivity. Unpublished Writings 1922-25 / The Artist, Infinity, Suprematism. Unpublished Writings 1913-33
ed. by Troels Andersen, Kopenhagen 1968-1978