On the Boulevard 

Kazimir Malevich created the painting, “On the Boulevard,” using oil on canvas. We can see the influence of the West here, in the application of Impressionist techniques to the depiction of leisure. Malevich shows us a cross-section of city life, with a mass of figures gathered in a park. Although the artist was Russian, this work could easily be mistaken for French. When we consider that Malevich made his name as an avant-gardist, embracing abstract art as a revolutionary gesture, we might be surprised to see him working in this way at all. It may be that it was made under duress. In the social realism of the Soviet era, there was less space for the avant-garde. In that context, could this painting be seen as conservative? Was he forced to make it? These are the kinds of questions that art historians try to address using a range of different sources, always bearing in mind the institutional forces that influence the creation and reception of art.