Acrylic on canvas board. Featuring an abstract composition. Signed and attr. Kazimir Malevich (Russian-Ukrainian, 1879-1935). Gallery seal on verso. 13.4 x 9.8 in. (34 x 25 cm). Kazimir Malevich was a pionnering Russian painter and founder of the Suprematist movement. His seminal Black Square (1915) and Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918), are often cited as some of the first abstract paintings ever produced. “The black square on the white field was the first form in which nonobjective feeling came to be expressed,†Malevich wrote. “The square = feeling, the white field = the void beyond this feeling.†Born on February 23, 1878 in Kiev, Ukraine, he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture where he learned to paint in an impressionistic style. At school, he fell in with the Russian avant-garde group known as the Soyuz Molodyozhi, led by Vladimir Tatlin, and participated in their group shows. In 1915, the artist laid out his beliefs in an iconic manifesto, outlining Suprematism and the value of pure aesthetic feeling derived from geometric shapes. Malevich would briefly come into celebrity, with exhibitions throughout Europe, before being condemned as a bourgeois artist by the Stalinist regime. Forced to adapt, Malevich returned to his earlier style of depicting peasants and landscapes in a traditional Impressionist-like style. He died of cancer on May 15, 1935 in Leningrad, Soviet Union at the age of 57. Mourners at his funeral rally waved a banner bearing his Black Square. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the Albertina in Vienna, among others. PROVENANCE: Private estate (Perugia, Italy)

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By [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : In our opinion, a work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: In our opinion, a work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century : In our opinion, this work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Bears signature : In our opinion, the signature on the artwork may be spurious.
Apocryphal : Of doubtful authenticity.