Malevich Works Questioned

The biggest retrospective of Kazimir Malevich‘s works ever held in Britain, Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art, has just opened at the Tate Modern, but several specialists on the Russian avant-garde are questioning the authenticity of some of the paintings on display. malevich-Tate

Born in February 1879 in Kiev, Ukraine, Malevich is a pioneer of abstract modern art and the father of Suprematism, an especially radical movement based on geometrical patterns and primary colours, which opened the door for his successors. Malevich therefore had as much of an impact on early-20th-century art as Brancusi or Duchamp and his market reflects this, which is why increasing numbers of fakes are flooding the Russian market. malevich-paints-cover According to a several conservators interview by the The Art Newspaper, Malevich could never have painted as many works as people say. The owner of the Elysium gallery in Moscow, Marina Molchanova, is assembling an international team of experts, art historians, and museum directors to discuss the way in which some of his paintings have been authenticated, particularly those reproduced in the recently published book, Malevich Paints: the Seeing Eye. To be continued…