Transcending representation, even in abstracted form
In Chapters from an Artist’s Autobiography [Malevich 1933, trans. by Upchurch 1990: 174], Malevich described his dissatisfaction with naturalistic painting:
“…the emotional energy of painting would not let me see images in their representational nature… The naturalism of objects didn’t stand up to my criticism…. I expected that the painting eventually would provide the form deriving from the properties of painting, and would avoid any vital connection with the object…. My acquaintance with icon painting convinced me that the point is not in the study of anatomy and perspective, not in depicting the truth of nature, but in sensing art and artistic reality through the emotions.”
Such a move from careful reproduction of what the eye sees toward careful expression of the emotion (or psychological state) that objects (or ideas) bring to the artist, underlies centuries of artistic movements in East and West. Most of these movements and styles (such as mannerism, Impressionism, Expressionism) make objects and figures into vehicles for expressing mood, emotion, internal psychology. Non-objective painting relies on formal elements (shape, color, texture, and their intersections) to convey mood, emotion, and ideas. The precise language that Malevich developed in Suprematism is but one such language for non-objective expression.
Once we recognize that our consciousness is limited and limiting, it follows that the phenomena of which we are conscious are limited. One role of artists is to explore the unconscious, and manifest elements from the unconscious so that viewers or readers might be able to lift the veil of their consciousness.
“Everything which we call nature, in the last analysis, is a figment of the imagination, having no relation whatever to reality. If the human being were suddenly able to comprehend actual reality – in that very moment the battle would be decided and eternal, unshakeable perfection attained. [Until then], the fact that our nervous systems and our brains do not function always and absolutely under the control of our conscious minds but rather, are capable of acting and reacting outside of consciousness, is left out of account. …To the human being, the conscious mind is always the decisive factor. …But what is the essence and content of our consciousness? The inability to apprehend reality!” [Malevich 1927, trans. by Dearstyne 1959: 20]
Malevich, Kazimir, trans. by Allan Upchurch. 1990. Fragments from Chapters From an Artist’s Autobiography (1933). Pp. 173-5 in Kazimir Malevich, ed. by Jeanne D’Andrea. Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles: The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center.
Malevich, Kazimir, trans. by Howard Dearstyne. 1959. The Non-Objective World. Chicago: P. Theobald. (Originally written and translated into German in 1927.)