An Analysis of the New and the Figurative Art (Paul Cezanne)

This article presents Malevich’s explanation and indeed justification for the new art, including his own objectless art of Suprematism. He divides the history of art into two trends – figurative art, which relies on an identifiable subject matter to convey any spiritual sensations, and non-figurative art in which sensations are evoked through the mixing of colors, the fabric of the painterly structure – “painting as such” and “color painting” (tsvetopis’). Much of the text focuses on Cezanne who expressed the nature of painting so powerfully in works like The Bottom of the Ravine (1879) and The Card Players (1890–1892). Malevich compares his “painterly realism” to the “illusory” realism of figurative artists, such as Ivan Shishkin and Ilia Repin. This article is translated and edited by Alexander Bouras and Maria Kokkori.