Kazimir Malevich, Landscape, 1911
Kazimir Malevich’s Landscape (1911) will be a highlight of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in London on June 20. This will be part of a series of auctions taking place from June 15 to 21 under the umbrella of ‘20th Century at Christie’s’.
The monumental, square-format landscape is from ‘The Red Series’, a group of works characterised by gestural brush strokes and an expressive use of colour, referencing both Fauvism and Cubism, and anticipating Malevich’s move towards Suprematism. The red-hot gleam on the horizon is a direct depiction of the sun, one of the unique features of the painting that foretells the primacy of colour that would define Suprematism.
Landscape was first exhibited in the ‘Moscow Salon’ in February / March 1911. It was shown the following year in St. Petersburg as part of ‘The Union of Youth’, where Malevich represented a radical collective known as ‘Donkey’s Tail’. In 1927, he was invited to Germany to show his work for the first time outside Russia and brought with him the best works of his career to date. Landscape was one such work and remained in Berlin after Malevich returned to Russia. Due to the rise of totalitarianism in Germany and in his home country, the artist lost control of his works abroad before he died in 1935. Landscape resurfaced after the war and was acquired by the Kunstmuseum Basel, where it hung for over 50 years, before being restituted to the heirs of the artist. It is estimated at £7-10 million.