Complex Presentiment: Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt 1932

Kazimir Malevich made this oil on canvas, Half-Figure in a Yellow Shirt, sometime before his death in 1935. Look at the way the yellow shirt emerges from the blue sky. It’s a painting that feels simple, but is also pretty weird. I imagine Malevich, wrestling with the material, trying to bring the figure into being. A figure with a head like an egg. The paint is laid down flatly with clean lines. It's a different way of seeing than, say, a painter like Matisse. Malevich is after something else. Notice the horizon line and the building to the left, almost like a stage set. The figure in the yellow shirt is like a performer. The thinness of the paint gives it a graphic, almost poster-like quality, yet the muted tones are distinctly Malevich. What feeling do you get when you look at it? The colours, the abstraction, and the flatness all have a quiet feeling. I bet Malevich was in dialogue with other artists, too. Each painter builds on the ideas of others. That’s how art evolves. He invites us to participate in the uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in abstract painting. There's something so alive about it, isn't there?