Peasant 1932

Kazimir Malevich painted ‘Peasant’ with oil on canvas, in a way that feels both bold and strangely unsettling. The figure emerges against a deep blue ground, maybe even a sky, with a red jacket, yellow pants, and an arm extended like he’s about to offer you something, or maybe stop you in your tracks. I can almost feel Malevich working, balancing the composition of the figure with planes of colour, simplifying form, reducing the world to its most essential shapes. The face is a blank space. What does it mean? Is it an erasure, or an opening for a new kind of seeing? I feel the spirit of this painting in the work of other artists, a continuous line of inquiry. This painting feels like a dare to find new ways to experience the world.