Discover precisely how the artist sees himself in this stunning self-portrait by modern artist Kazimir Malevich.
The artist chose to depict himself in this painting with a very serious expression on his face. There is also a symbolic display of human bodies in the background, though the precise message that they deliver is not quite clear. Malevich sports a smart suit jacket and appears to be somewhere in his middle ages at the time of this artwork. One can always learn a lot about the inner workings of an artist’s mind through this very personal of artistic genres. Comparing self-portraits across an artist’s career can also help to reveal changes in mood and outlook.
This portrait makes use of a variety of green and red tones in order to deliver an impactful self-portrait. Malevich produced several in his career, each from a different angle and in a different style. It is likely that others also existed but were later lost as his career was not particularly well documented.
The final stages of Malevich’s career was dominated by figurative portraits, but in most cases were of other subjects rather than himself. By that point he had passed through his various themes that dotted around his career such as peasant life, landscapes and abstract shapes.