Artist profile

Kasimir Severinovich Malevich was born near Kiev, Kiev Governorate of Russian Empire. His parents, Seweryn and Ludwika Malewicz. Kazimir was the first of fourteen children, although only nine of the children survived into adulthood. Until age 12 or 13 he knew nothing of professional artists, though peasant art had surrounded him in childhood. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1904 to 1910 and in the studio of Fedor Rerberg in Moscow (1904-1910).  In 1915 Malevich suddenly came up with the idea of Suprematism. In 1927, he traveled to Warsaw and then to Berlin and Munchen for a retrospective which finally brought him international recognition. Malevich's work only recently reappeared in art exhibitions in Russia after a long absence. Since then art followers have labored to reintroduce the artist to Russian lovers of painting. Malevich died of cancer in Leningrad on May 15, 1935. On his deathbed he was exhibited with the black square above him. His ashes were sent to Nemchinovka, and buried in a field near his dacha. A white cube decorated with a black square was placed on his tomb. The city on Leningrad bestowed a pension on Malevich's mother and daughter.