New Man (Costume Design) - Kazimir Malevich
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Description
A 1913 costume design by Kazimir Malevich for the opera Victory over the Sun, featuring geometric forms and a bold, non-representational aesthetic.
This work is a costume design by Kazimir Malevich, created in 1913 for the experimental opera Victory over the Sun. The production, staged in St Petersburg, is recognised for its radical departure from traditional theatrical conventions. Malevich, working alongside composer Mikhail Matyushin and poet Aleksei Kruchenykh, sought to dismantle established artistic forms through the principles of Cubo-Futurism.
The figure depicted is the New Man, a character representing the transformation of humanity through technological and ideological change. The design employs geometric simplification, reducing the human form to a series of angular, block-like shapes. The colour palette is deliberate, featuring blocks of yellow, black, and purple, contrasted against a stark white background. The mask-like face is rendered in a flat green, suggesting a departure from individual identity towards a more universal, mechanical archetype.
Malevich uses pencil outlines to define the structure, with watercolour washes applied to fill the geometric segments. The costume reflects the broader aesthetic of the period, where artists experimented with non-objective forms and the rejection of representational art. The asymmetry of the legs, with one side rendered in white and the other in black, reinforces the sense of a figure caught between different states of being. This design provides insight into the early development of Suprematism, as Malevich began to prioritise pure form and colour over narrative content. The work remains a primary example of the intersection between avant-garde painting and theatrical performance in early twentieth-century Russia.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
New Man (Costume Design) - Kazimir Malevich
Artist Biography
Kazimir Malevich
He was born in 1879 near Kyiv, to parents of Polish origin, the eldest of fourteen children. Nine survived to adulthood. He moved through Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, and Cubism before arriving at Suprematism, a system of pure geometric abstraction that he invented in 1913. White on White (1918) pushed the principle to its logical end: a white square, barely visible, tilted on a white background.
In 1927, he took approximately seventy paintings to Berlin for an exhibition. Soviet authorities recalled him abruptly. He left the entire cache with a German architect named Hugo Haering and never saw them again. The works eventually ended up at MoMA in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
In 1930, the secret police arrested him, accused him of Polish espionage, and threatened execution. He was imprisoned for two months. His teaching position was taken away. Artworks and manuscripts were confiscated. He was banned from making art and forced to return to figurative painting under Stalin.
He died of cancer in 1935, aged fifty-six. On his deathbed, Black Square was hung above him. His ashes were buried at Nemchinovka. He had requested a Suprematist sculptural form to mark his grave. Instead, it was marked with a white cube bearing a black square, which was destroyed during the war.
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