UNOVIS

The UNOVIS group was formed as an association of students of Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School (1919-1921), where he has replaced Chagall as its head. In this Art School it has quickly become evident that he intended to introduce a new type of art education, in which all forms of art are developed on the basis of Suprematism and are integrated into a universal system. He received the full support of Vera Ermolaeva (who was the rector and has in fact invited him to that School) and El Lissitzky (who has also taught there), as well as that of his pupil Ilya Chashnik, who accompanied him from Moscow.

Malevich wrote a long theoretical essay “On the new systems in art”, which was printed and published by the lithographic workshop of UNOVIS in Vitebsk (1919).

In April 1920 a new type of training was introduced into the academic organization of Vitebsk. The principle of collectivity was fundamental to the execution of this plan. It was given the name UNOVIS (the Affirmers of the New Art). In his two lectures Malevich explained his ideas about collectivity in the creative process. In December 1920 he has completed his book, “Suprematism.34 drawings”, published by the UNOVIS workshop.

A growing dislike of the new method of training was rising within the academic world, and the municipal government forced Malevich to find other accommodations for his UNOVIS. In the end of 1921 he attempted to ally with the INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) in Moscow, which was formed in 1920. But the difference between the institution’s chosen direction, presented under the name Constructivism, and Malevich’s Suprematism appeared to be too great.

In February 1922 he has completed the manuscript “Suprematism. The World as Non-Objectivity”.

The Vitebsk “renaissance” proved to be short-lived. In 1922 Malevich, along with a large group of his students, moved to Petrograd and continued to operate within the framework of the INKhUK (1923-1926). The UNOVIS have made a collective entry in the exhibition “Works of Petrograd Artists of All Movements” (May 1923) at the Art Academy.

Kazimir Malevich was not only a gifted artist, but also a researcher, seeking to understand both the causes for new forms in the world and art, and the logic of their evolution. For him Suprematism was not an isolated phenomenon, but a decisive step in the global development of artistic culture. The most important department at the INKhUK was the Department of Formal Theory, headed by Malevich. Many famous Leningrad artists spent time there. Malevich’s group of research assistants began an intense study of the five major systems of the new art: Impressionism, Cézannism, Futurism, Cubism and Suprematism. In elaborating his theory of supplementary element in art, Malevich relied substantially on these findings. He understood the “supplementary element” to be a new structural principle arising in the process of artistic evolution. During structural analysis, supplementary elements were found in numerous examples of the new art: the “fibrous graph line” of Cézanne, the “crescent line” of Cubism, the “straight line” of Suprematism, and these “supplementary elements” were determined for each system both in color and form. In his teachings Malevich has made considerable use of the theory of the supplementary element.

In collaboration with the Petrograd Lomonossov Porcelain Factory, Malevich and other UNOVIS members have worked on designs for new forms and decorative patterns based on the Suprematism principles.

Among the group’s members were Vera Ermolaeva, El Lissitzky, Ilya Chashnik, Nikolai Suetin, Anna Leporskaya, Lev Yudin, Evgenia Magaril, Lazar Khidekel and others. In practice and manifests they always adhered to the ideas and principles of Suprematism till the last day of their life.

A second exhibition of the UNOVIS group was held in Moscow (1921-1922). Similar groups were organized in Smolensk, Orenburg, Saratov, Perm and other cities.

Top of Page