A rare Suprematist Composition by Russian artist Kasimir Malevich (1878-79-1935) might fetch a world record price when sold by Phillips in New York on May 11th 2000. Malevich, who once wrote that the keys to Suprematism were leading to the discovery of unconsciousness, said his new form of painting did not belong to the Earth as in fact man was ambitioning space in an attempt to pull himself away from the terrestrial globe.
Malevich, whose book «A World without Object» was published by the Bauhaus, will soon shake the world of art with this Suprematist Composition sold by the MoMA at 5 p.m on May 11th at Phillips.
This well composed oil work with its red and black carnivorious colours reflected a certain feeling that it was made with elements, a notion of void, of solitude and of the desperate aspect of life.
This work is so rare that no one has tentatively advanced a correct estimate. Some dealers however said that it might fetch over US $ 20 million, a record price for the artist whose catalogue raisonné took art historian Andrei Nakov twenty years to complete.
Malevich seldom signed his works, which are not easy to list in a sure chronological order. His regular exhibitions held in Russia until 1920 as well as many letters in which he referred to his works remain the best clues in this respect.
Andrei Nakov painstakingly sifted through Malevich's works to retarce his itinerary in the best possible way notwithstanding the fact that it is essential to situate works in the context of the Soviet avant-garde movement and its achievements. There are only 300 oil paintings known so far whereas only a few specialists are able to determine the authenticity of rediscovered works.
«Suprematist Composition » was painted in 1919 or 1920, according to Phillips and was produced after Malevich's much famous « White square over a White Background» of 1918, a work which celebrated pure non-objectivity over what was practical. Still, this painting is of high quality and carries a superb provenance as any collector would dream to possess a work which belonged to the MoMA.
Malevich's dearest wish was to exhibit his paintings in Paris but travelled out of the USSR only once in 1927 to show some 70 works in Berlin. feeling that future problems with the Stalinist regime, which considered his works as subversive, the artist handed over his paintings and writings to some friends in Berlin before going back to Moscow. His friends preserved his works, first from the Nazis and then during the war when Berlin was bombed. Malevich's large paintings were however destroyed while several small works were found intact in a Bavarian house destroyed by a bomb. Other works had been hidden in the reserve rooms of the Hanover Museum where the envoy of the Museum of Modern Art in New York shipped them to the U.S after Germany's defeat.
Una, the heir of Malevich, and the daughter he had from his second marriage were happy to think that his works were kept in the West despite pressures from the Russian government. A German lawyer eventually traced back Galina, the daughter Malevich had during his first marriage and in all 31 heirs who claimed that the MoMA had no right to keep his works.
The MoMA was thus forced to reach an agreement with these heirs and concluded a $ 5 million transaction in order to keep these works excepted the one to be sold by Phillips.
The proceeds will go to the heirs of Malevich who are all known to live in poverty. Now the question remains as to how much the painting will fetch. Phillips' has give a $ 8 to 10 million estimate before revising it at $ 20 million, a price similar to that paid in private for another work by Malevich. The art market won't have to wait long regarding the final bid due to fall soon.
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