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THE MAKING OF KAZIMIR MALEVICH’S BLACK SQUARE
by
Catherine I. Kudriavtseva
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ART HISTORY)
August 2010
Copyright 2010 Catherine I. Kudriavtseva
Object Description
| Title | The making of Kazimir Malevich's Black square |
| Author | Kudriavtseva, Catherine I. |
| Author email | kudriavt@usc.edu; kudriavt@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Art History |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2010-05-13 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-08-04 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Troy, Nancy J. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Bowlt, John Lang, Karen |
| Abstract | This dissertation provides a historical and theoretical framework to the interpretative possibilities generated by Malevich’s Black Square. Focusing on the transformations of this work from an easel painting to a Unovis revolutionary icon, and to a signature in Malevich’s late paintings, I have argued that from the moment of its conception as the “first” Suprematist painting, the Black Square resisted being read as producing any single meaning. This resulted in the painting’s repeated reinterpretation--by the artist himself, by his students, and later by art historians--in an effort to maintain its position of political and aesthetic relevance under shifting historical circumstances.; The dissertation also addresses more general questions about the engagement of the Russian avant-garde with politics putting forward a more nuanced reading of Malevich’s engagement with the tsarist regime, Anarchism, and, finally, Bolshevism, accounting for the artist’s different strategies of negotiating the meaning of Suprematism vis-à-vis the limitations imposed by each of these political systems.; The dissertation sheds light on the way Russian avant-garde art in general, and Malevich’s art in particular, were included in the Western modernist canon. I have argued that Malevich’s high status was cemented by the artist’s own ability constantly to renegotiate the meaning of Suprematism by adapting it to changing political realities. His capacity to inspire a devoted following and organize an art movement motivated Lissitzky and Strzeminski to popularize Suprematism abroad, which contributed greatly to its later inclusion in the modernist canon. And, finally, Malevich’s decision to leave many of his most important works in Berlin in 1927 resulted in the division of his oeuvre into Western and Russian holdings, which made paintings by him available for research and display during the period when his work was hidden from public view in the Soviet Union. All these factors were constituent components in Malevich’s reputation-formation process, either in the West or in Russia, or both. |
| Keyword | Malevich; Suprematism; art market; Unovis, Supremus; Russian avant-garde; historiography |
| Geographic subject (country) | Soviet Union; Russia |
| Coverage era | Twentieth Century |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3266 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Kudriavtseva, Catherine I. |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Kudriavtseva-3778 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Kudriavtseva-3778.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | THE MAKING OF KAZIMIR MALEVICH’S BLACK SQUARE by Catherine I. Kudriavtseva A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ART HISTORY) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Catherine I. Kudriavtseva |
