malevich portrait of m v matiushin 1913 Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935)

Description of the painting "Portrait of Matyushin" by Kazimir Malevich

In 1913, the famous artist K. S. Malevich painted an unusual painting, Portrait of Matyushin, in the style of the then-new art movement, Cubo-Futurism. Unlike most of its adherents, Malevich did not use only monochrome colors in his work. He painted it in oil, using a rich color palette and depicting in different corners of the picture realistic elements, perfectly conveying the dynamics of the composition and incompatible.

Though the painting is abstract, an attentive person can see her forehead and dark hair parted with a straight parting and some details of her clothes on a canvas. It is thanks to these "snippets" that one can understand that this is a portrait, and not a collection of geometric shapes painted in different colors.

The first thing that catches the viewer’s eye is a long horizontal stripe of many white rectangles running along the center of the canvas. As is well known, Matyushin was not only a great painter but also a composer, and Malevich decided to emphasize his musical talent in his work. Of course, the white squares are the keys of the piano. The artist also alludes to the uniqueness of Matyushin’s musical system with the absence of the usual black keys.

Malevich perfectly conveyed the dynamics of the abstract image. Big figures seem to disintegrate into a multitude of smaller ones, which in their turn are also subject to disintegration. Portrait of Matyushin is undoubtedly one of the best works of art, executed in a combination of cubist and futuristic styles.