- Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte – HU Berlin - http://www.kunstgeschichte.hu-berlin.de -

Fellow Talks: Kamila Kociałkowska – Malevich’s ‘Mimetic Resistance’: The Censor’s Strike as a Spur to Suprematism

Datum/Zeit
Date(s) - 16/06/2021
18:15 - 20:00

Kategorien


Fellow Talks

Bitte melden Sie sich für die Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung bei Cynthia Klinghammer an (sekretariat-bluemle@hu-berlin.de [2]). Nach erfolgter Anmeldung erhalten Sie die Login-Daten für das Zoom-Meeting. Vielen Dank.

[3]Dr. Kamila Kocialkowska [4]

Malevich’s ‘Mimetic Resistance’: The Censor’s Strike as a Spur to Suprematism

Kazimir Malevich’s 1919 treatise On New Systems in Art marked his first attempt to account for the evolution of his pioneering abstract art movement, Suprematism. The book’s striking typography — replete with strikeouts, redactions, and marks of deletion — is usually understood as a statement of anarchic anti-canonicity, yet this talk argues that Malevich’s visibly deconstructed text can be traced back to a pervasive part of Russian print culture: censorship. Tracing the formal parallels between the “cuts” and “strikes” of Russian censors and the dissonant, deconstructed aesthetics of avant-garde books reveals new reference points for abstract art. Revising the traditional view of censorship as a top-down application of repressive power, this talk uses the framework of “mimetic resistance” to explores how and why artists like Malevich may have stylistically imitated an institution they so vocally opposed.