Kazimir MALEVICH
b. 1879
Kazimir Malevich was a Russian avant-garde artist and theorist born in Kiev to an ethnically Polish family. He founded Suprematism in 1915, a radically non-objective style of painting built from basic geometric forms, epitomized by his Black Square. Malevich's writing and teaching shaped a generation of Russian abstract artists, and he continued working under increasing state pressure until his death in Leningrad in 1935.