Suprematist Ceramics

Suprematism was an experimental Russian art style in the first half of the 20th C, in many ways connected to the Russian Revolution. It bears a relationship to other international styles of the time, notably Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism. It was an abstract art form based on geometric figures, centered largely around the painter Kasimir Malevich, whose famous first Suprematist work of 1913 was Black Square on white Background. To Malevich, this was "no empty square, but rather the experience of non-objectivity... the supremacy of pure feeling..."

In a similar way to the workings of the Bauhaus in Germany, Suprematism sought to be an art movement that would permeate everyday Russian life. Thus Suprematist works included architecture, textiles, furniture, book design and ceramics. They influenced Soviet architecture and design for many years to come. From Suprematism arose the call for a synthesis between art and daily life - this was referred to as 'Production Art'.

UNOVIS (Champions of the New Arts) was a group of artists surrounding Malevich that became a new kind of art school. It would have played a similar role in the Soviet Union as the Bauhaus did in Germany. One of UNOVIS' objectives was the creation of objects for practical use, hence the concern with applying Suprematism's principles of volume construction and spatial geometry to functional ceramic objects. Ceramics were seen not as isolated objects of beauty, but rather integral elements of an aesthetically designed 'whole' environment, based on Suprematist volume construction. A few Suprematist ceramic works were made by Malevich himself, more then by his students and followers Nikolei Suetin, Anna Leporskaya and Ilya Chashnik.

Soon after the October Revolution, Malevich, Suetin and Chashnik began working at the Leningrad China Factory, formerly the Imperial Factory, which had supplied the Tsarist Court and the deposed Russian upper classes with fine china. The factory soon became a center of Russian experimental ceramics, with such luminaries as Tatlin and Kandinsky passing through. The factory initially produced 'Agit China', i.e. ceramics in the service of Soviet revolutionary propaganda. In the early 1920's, the Suprematists went on to establish a style of ceramics based on their spatial concepts for decorative art.

Malevich designed a few cups and teapots himself, but was mainly a catalyst for his students, demonstrating the possibility of applying Suprematist principles to ceramics, e.g. in his cubo-suprematist teapot of 1923 (pictured left).

In contrast to Malevich's visionary, but perhaps not so functional teapot, Nikolei Suetin went in the direction of using ceramic surfaces as a canvas to apply geometric Suprematist decorative effects. This also had a practical reason, as the young Soviet Union had little resources and it was easier to use established molds and machinery from the existing Imperial Factory. These were used as late as the 1930's. Using the old forms, Suetin achieved remarkable effects, applying geometric fields to the surfaces. "The decorative patterns of Suetin and Chashnik transformed them into a kind of materialized china space, in which Suprematist themes soared and swam"*. In contrast to traditional coffee sets etc., Suetin's were based on a recurring theme, i.e. each piece in a set had a similar decorative pattern, but with variations.

The introduction of Suprematist spatial concepts into Soviet China also had social implications. In contrast to the ornamented Tsarist decorative style, Suetin's and Chashnik's designs were more formal and austere, reflecting the general trend in emerging Soviet society to reject anything that might be associated with the opulence and ostentatiousness associated with that class.

Although Suprematism has been relegated to the history books, it's influence on Soviet and contemporary Russian art and ceramics should not be under estimated - Suprematist works are still capable of firing the imagination today.

*Zhadova, Larissa A., Malevich, Thames & Hudson, NY 1982

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