Hommage à Kazimierz Malewicz

The work by Ewa Partum, Hommage à Kazimierz Malewicz, was created on the occasion of the exhibition organized in Galeria Arsenał in Białystok, Malevich in Poland (2004). The curator of the presentation, Zbigniew Warpechowski, invited artists not only to speak out about the achievements of one of the most important representative of the avant garde, but also to offer a contemporary interpretation of the key work of Modernism: The Black Square on a White Background (1913).

The painting and its presentation at the last exhibition of the Futurists in St Petersburg in 1915 gave rise to Suprematism. The announcement made by Malevich about the supremacy of “pure feeling” revealed that the departure from art related to the outside world was not only an artistic act but also an ethical one. It was one of the achievements in art history which have provoked a never-ending dialogue and the need to take a position. The argument began with the manifesto of the Russian Constructivist El Lissitzky, which was a planned transgression of the line marking the end of painting as it was happening in Suprematism. The constant need to carry on the discussion with Malevich is clear, if only to look at the series of paintings from the 1980’s by the American artist David Diao, or a painting thematically close to them, namely 0.10 in 2010 (2010, part of Kolekcja II).

By taking on the theme of the legacy of Malevich, Partum does not interact with his painting. She literally quotes The Black Square on a White Background, changing the medium of her expression and moving the iconic work of art from the sphere of painting into the sphere of object art. In her interpretation, the painting by Malevich adopts the form of a road sign. Hommage à Malewicz seems like an absolute tribute – the pragmatic road sign carries the meaning of a metaphorical road sign in the artist’s life and art. Partum’s work can be seen as an affirmation of the stance of the artist, his fight for modern art, as well as for the recognition of the relevance of his postulates and importance of achievements. The self-reflection of Malevich/artist also carries a certain universalism. Deriving the genesis of his work from the feeling of night, which to him, was like a black surface, first in the shape of a square and then a circle, he talked about a problem faced by every artist, namely how to translate intuitive experiences into a visual form.

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