Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich was a Russian avant-garde painter, art theorist, and designer whose Suprematism made geometric abstraction a central force in twentieth-century art. His paintings—including *Black Square* and *White on White*—reduced composition to floating fields of color and simple forms, while his writings articulated a new non-objective visual language. Born near Kyiv to Polish parents, Malevich also taught and directed artistic institutions in Vitebsk and Leningrad.