The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
suprematism
Russian art movement founded (1913) by Casimir Malevich in Moscow, parallel to constructivism. Malevich drew Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky to his revolutionary, nonobjective art. In Malevich’s words, suprematism sought “to liberate art from the ballast of the representational world.” It consisted of geometrical shapes flatly painted on the pure canvas surface. Malevich’s white square on a white ground (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City) embodied the movement’s principles. Suprematism, through its dissemination by the Bauhaus, deeply influenced the development of modern European art, architecture, and industrial design.
