KAZIMIR MALEVICH’S SUPREMATISM AND MODERNIST ARTISTIC MYTHOLOGY AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO RELIGION

Abstract

The present paper discusses the religious and mythological aspects of the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935). The purpose is to not to provide a broad and detailed overview of Malevich’s artistic practices, but to focus on the tendency to mythologise. The Suprematist art conception of Malevich radically changed the means of expression of visual art at the beginning of the 20  century, conclusively breaking all connections with mimetic art and starting from scratch with the “language” of pure geometric forms. Therefore (and especially from the viewpoint of the current journal’s central issue, dedicated to art and religion), of special interest is the fact that the formal innovations of Suprematism were motivated by impulses related to religious and, more broadly, mythological thinking.