Girl Figure 1929

Kazimir Malevich made Girl Figure, a painting, with oil on canvas. Look at how the colors are split right down the middle, like a flag, or two different ways of seeing. It’s like he's saying painting is a process of division as much as unification. The texture is smooth, but you can see the brushstrokes, especially in the bodice. The colors are both muted and bold. That red really pops, doesn’t it? Think about how he used simple shapes to make a whole person. My eye keeps going back to the feet. One black, one tan. Such small gestures speak volumes. Malevich’s simplification of form here reminds me of some of Léger's figures. Both artists were interested in reducing figures to basic geometric forms, but Malevich does it with a certain spiritual intensity. It makes you think about what it means to be human, in a really stripped-down, essential kind of way.