In 1914, Malevich exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris with other Russian artists, including Alexander Archipenko (1887–1964) and Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979). In 1915, at the “0.10” show in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), he named his abstract, geometric painting style Suprematism. While Suprematism began before the Russian Revolution, the influence of Malevich’s radical approach to art was pervasive in the early Soviet period. After the Revolution, he and other activist artists were supported by the Soviet government and given prominent administrative and teaching positions. As a result, Suprematism became the popular and fashionable style of post-revolutionary Russia. From 1919, Malevich held various teaching posts, exhibited frequently and was made a curator at the Kremlin. Then, in 1932, Stalin suppressed independent abstract artists and it was only during the 1950s that his work became influential to young artists once more.
Key Works
Woodcutter 1912–13, STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Englishman in Moscow 1914, STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Black Suprematist Square 1914–15, THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY, MOSCOW, RUSSIA
Suprematism. (Supremus #56) 1915, THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
KLEE
1879–1940 • EXPRESSIONISM, ABSTRACTION, THE BLUE RIDER, THE BLUE FOUR
Templegärten, 1920, 186 (Temple gardens)
1920 WATERCOLOR AND PEN ON PAPER ON CARDBOARD
18.4 × 26.7 CM (7¼ × 10¼ IN)
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, THE BERGGRUEN KLEE COLLECTION, NEW YORK, US
This was inspired by Klee’s visit to Tunisia in 1914 and is reminiscent of stained glass, or a child’s collage. He moved sections of the composition about until they reached his desired balance and harmony. Stairways lead to the doors of various garden pavilions, while domed towers, minarets and palm tree fronds can be seen over sections of high walls.
Paul Klee was one of the quirkiest—and most subtly mocking—artists of the 20th century. A Swiss painter of German nationality, he developed a highly individual style influenced by Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. He painted and wrote extensively about color theory, and also infused his individual and colorful paintings with Orientalism, humor, personal philosophies and rhythm.
Born near Bern in Switzerland, from a young age Klee demonstrated equal talents in music and art. His father was a music teacher and his mother had trained as a singer, but from the age of 19 he began studying art at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. There, he excelled at drawing and also developed a love of literature. After graduating, he spent six months in Italy, studying the old masters. From 1902, he returned to live with his parents, taking occasional art classes and experimenting with techniques and materials. He also played in an orchestra and wrote concert and theater reviews to earn money.
In 1906, Klee moved to Munich and in 1912, exhibited with Kandinsky’s Der Blaue Reiter group. That year he traveled to Paris, where he saw Cubist works and met Robert Delaunay (1885–1941). In 1914, he visited Tunisia. Until then, he had mainly produced satirical etchings, but the colors of Delaunay’s work and the intense light in Tunisia had a life-changing effect. He wrote: “Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever. That is the significance of this blessed moment. Color and I are one. I am a painter.” He began producing vivid compositions of colored shapes, reminiscent of the mosaics he had seen in both Italy and Tunisia. He also began incorporating letters and numerals into some works as part of his thoughts about the unconscious mind and the power of symbols.
After World War I, Klee returned to Munich, where a large exhibition of his work secured his reputation. He was invited to teach at the Bauhaus, a newly formed school of art and crafts where avant-garde ideas were welcomed. He taught bookbinding, stained glass and mural painting. In 1923, along with Kandinsky, Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) he began Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four). Two years later, his work was exhibited in Paris, where it inspired the French Surrealists. When the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, they labeled Klee “degenerate” and seized 102 of his works. Dismissed from his job, he fled to Switzerland and spent the rest of his life there.
Key Works
On a Motif from Hamamet 1914, KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL, BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Fish Magic 1925, THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, US
Polyphony 1932, KUNSTMUSEUM, BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Ad Parnassum 1932, KUNSTMUSEUM, BERNE, SWITZERLAND
Red Waistcoat 1938, KUNSTZAMMLUNG NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN, DUSSELDORF, GERMANY
PICASSO
1881–1973 • CUBISM, PRIMITIVISM, ABSTRACTION, EXPRESSIONISM, SURREALISM
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
1907 OIL ON CANVAS
243.9 × 233.7 CM (96 × 92 IN)
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, US
Often called the most important painting of the 20th century, this portrays five prostitutes. Picasso revolutionized the art world when the work was first seen. With unpainted patches, flat, angular, distorted figures and faces that are a mixture of African and Iberian mask styles, the painting is often seen as the starting-point for Cubism.
Probably the most famous artist of the 20th century, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was a painter, draftsman, sculptor and ceramicist. During a career lasting more than 75 years, he produced over 20,000 works and changed the course of painting. A child prodigy, he co-founded Cubism, and became one of the most influential artists of his time.
The son of a painter, curator and art teacher, Picasso demonstrated exceptional artistic skill as a child. He grew up painting in a highly realistic manner, and at 14 he was accepted at La Llotja Academy, where he completed art exercises in a day that took older students more than a month. In 1900, he moved to Paris with a friend, Carlos Casagemas. When Casagemas committed suicide, Picasso began painting mournful, elongated subjects inspired by El Greco and in a predominantly blue palette—his Blue Period. Three years later, while still in Paris, he became part of a circle of writers, actors, musicians and artists and his palette took on pinker tones—his Rose Period.
Seeing the work of the Fauves at the Salon d’Automne in 1905, and meeting Matisse the following year, stimulated his use of different techniques and materials. In 1906 the art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939), who helped to promote several artists before they became appreciated (including Cézanne, Renoir, Gauguin and van Gogh), bought many of Picasso’s pictures. From then on, Picasso never struggled financially again. Impressed by Iberian sculptures at the Louvre and by Cézanne’s ideas, he began to analyze structure and simplify his figures and faces. His explorations culminated in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a painting that distorted everything that had previously been valued in painting. It was soon seen as the seminal painting of the 20th century, prefiguring Cubism, which he developed with Braque. In Cubism, Picasso and Braque challenged the principles of perspective that had been practiced since the Renaissance, by painting from several angles at once. Because objects shown at different angles take on geometric shapes, a critic called them “little cubes.” The name Cubism stuck.
After World War I, Picasso designed costumes and scenery for Parade, a ballet composed for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The developments of Cubism gave way to a more classically inspired style, and then Surrealism. By this time, Picasso had produced collages, etchings and sculpture, as well as paintings. In 1937, while in the midst of Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Republican government asked Picasso to create a mural glorifying Spain for the Universelle Exposition. Instead, he produced a monumental work showing the effects of the appalling bombing of a defenseless Spanish town, Guernica. The painting is a violent but controlled expression of horror. After World War II, he moved to the south of France and began to produce ceramics. He continued experimenting for the rest of his life, his ideas as diverse and original as his technical skills were masterful.