''Suprematist Composition (blue rectangle over the red beam)'' is a 1916 painting by
, Russian painter of
geometric abstraction
Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popu ...
.
The painting was created in 1916 and stayed with the artist until June 1927. Malevich exhibited his work in the
Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, but soon left for the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. The painting came into the possession of German architect
Hugo Häring
Hugo Häring (11 May 1882 – 17 May 1958) was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had ...
, who sold it to the
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. , where it remained for the next 50 years. It was shown at various expositions, mostly in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
.
After an extended legal battle over the painting's ownership, which endured for 17 years, the painting was returned to heirs of the artist. A few months later, in November 2008, the artist's heirs sold it at a Sotheby's auction for $60 million to the Nahmad family.
In 2018 it was sold at a Christie's auction for $85.8 million with fees to art dealer
Brett Gorvy.
It was the highest price paid for a work in the history of Russian art.
See also
*
List of most expensive paintings
This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The record payment for a work is approximately United States dollar, US$450.3 million (which includes Commission (remuneration), commission) for the work ''Salvator Mundi (Leonardo), ...
*
1916 in art
Events from the year 1916 in art.
Events
* February 5 – Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich), Cabaret Voltaire is opened by German poet Hugo Ball and his future wife Emmy Hennings in the back room of Ephraim Jan's ''Holländische Meierei'' in Zürich; ...
*
Suprematism
Suprematism () is an early 20th-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of p ...
*
Supremus
Supremus (; 1915–1916) was a group of Russian avant-garde artists led by the "father" of Suprematism, Kazimir Malevich. It has been described as the first attempt to found the Russian avant-garde movement as an artistic entity within its own hist ...
Notes and references
1916 paintings
Abstract art
Modern paintings
Paintings by Kazimir Malevich
{{Art-stub