AllMovie

Though his name risks being drowned by the tide of history today, at one point in time the Russian painter Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) made headlines around the world for an audacious movement that he founded, christened suprematism. This form involved "liberating" art from depictions of everyday objects. Though it gained widespread support from the Bolsheviks at first (and thus took on revolutionary connotations for many spectators), this mode of painting was soon disdained by the Communists and declared counterrevolutionary. In 1989, Amsterdam, Holland's Stedelijk Museum formally recognized Malevich's brilliance by mounting a retrospective in his honor. This 1989 documentary was shot at that retrospective, and finds art historian Barrie Gavin delineating various periods of Malevich's life and creative output.