The artist is Malevich
One of the first self -portraits of Malevich belongs to the so -called yellow series. “Sketches for fresco painting”, as the artist himself designated them, were written in the year marked by the conduct of the Blue Rose exhibition in Moscow. This circumstance is by no means accidental: the symbolist aspirations of Malevich coincided with one of the climax in the history of symbolism in Russian fine art. All works of the “series of yellow” are distinguished by emphasized ornamental and restrained color melody. The self -portrait also fully reflected both the features of symbolist aesthetics and the search for their own romanticized image within the style of modernity. (E. B.).
Russian portrait. XX century: St. Petersburg, 2001. WITH. 88.
In 1907, at the exhibition of the Moscow partnership of artists Malevich presented a cycle of paintings called “sketches of fresco painting”. These works are close to the works of Russian symbolist artists, who, in search of an indefinite, indelible, inexpressible, endowed the paintings with “musical texture” from color vibrations, are close to their mystical and esoteric spirit.
Malevich transforms his own appearance in the Auto Portrait. Representing the righteous souls, singing in the middle of the Garden, he likens himself to God. The yellow color here is a picturesque analogue of unwanted light, the light of the inner sun, which illuminates the entire space, without creating chiaroscuro. Such an interpretation of the image, of course, went beyond the adopted norms. Although this extravagant trick is explained by the then self -esteem of the artist and the inability to only fit into the boundaries of a particular direction for him. A few years later, Malevich will proclaim: “I am the beginning of everything, because worlds are created in my mind. I’m looking for God, I am looking for myself in myself. Not finding in myself, I exclaimed: “And the Lord created me in the image and likeness of His!”And I now have an idea of God: both his face and my face are of identity”.
