WORK OF KAZIMIR MALEVICH AS INSPIRATION FOR ZAHA HADID

Alleluia Mukiza[1]

Abstract: This paper explores how works of Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879 - 1935), Russian avant-garde suprematist, inspired Zaha Mohammad Hadid (1950 - 2016) in her works. Hadid became interested in Malevich’s works in 1970s when she was an architectural student at Architecture Association School in London, United Kingdom. After carefuly studing Malevich’s abstractions, Hadid developed her concepts, such as floating, lightness and fluidity, to use in her works. Hadid shown her interest in Malevich and inspiration as early as in her fourth year student project “Malevic's Tektonik” (1976-77), her fifth year thesis the “Museum of 19th Century” (1977-78) and later for her proposal for the “Peak Leisure Club in Hongkong” (1982-83). This research paper will discuss how Hadid developed her way of presenting architectural drawings through painting, rather than traditional way which she found constraining, being inspired by Malevich.

Key words: suprematism, abstraction, Kazimir Malevich, architekton, Zaha Hadid, Russian avant-garde

1. INTRODUCTION

Russian Constructuvism was a movement that was active from 1913 to 1940s. It was one of the most influential modern art movement created by the Russian avant garde and quickly spread to the rest of the continent. It was inspired by the the abstract concepts such as 'change' and 'revolution' sought to abolish the designed symmetry and traditional composition with something more industrial and man made. The movement is called constructuvism because it is inspired by the idea of ‘constructing’ newer goods and products using mass production by exploring modern material. Famous artists and architects of the Constructivist movement include Vladimir Tatlin, Kasimir Malevich, Alexandra Exter, Robert Adams, and El Lissitzky.

The movement affected architecture and design world. In architecture, this movement superimposed ideas from the Bauhaus, Suprematism and Neo Plasticism movements. It consisted of juxtaposing shapes that concurred in avant-garde geometrical forms. This style of architecture was highly experimental and focused on highlighting contrast in various building surfaces such as doors, walls and windows. The most famous projects was the 1919 proposal for the headquarters of the Comintern in St Petersburg by the Futurist Vladimir Tatlin[2], often called Tatlin's Tower and the Lenin Tribune by El Lissitzky[3] (1920), a moving speaker's podium. Also avant garde design schools began to encourage and inspire ambitious architects and urban planners , in particular the association of new architects (ASNOVA[4]) which was established in 1921.

Also in recent years Russian constructuvism has its influence. The known one is that it inspired much architect Zaha Hadid-the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize[5], in 2004- in her architecture.

2. SOME WORKS OF KAZIMIR MALEVIC

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (February 23,1879 – May 15, 1935) was trained at the Kiev school of art, the stroganov school in Moscow, and the Moscow school of painting, sculpture and architecture. He was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist, whose pioneering work and writing had a profound influence on the development of non-objective, or abstract art, in the 20th century [6]. In his career he tried different styles for example in his early works he followed impressionism as well as symbolism and fauvism, and cubism due an inspiration he had from Pablo Picasso[6] after his visit in paris but his most famous and important works concentrated in supremantism. In 1915, he published his manifesto“ from cubism to supremantism“. His concept of Suprematism sought to develop a form of expression that moved as far as possible from the world of natural forms (objectivity) and subject matter in order to access "the supremacy of pure feeling" and spirituality. The most famous supremantism paintings include Black square (Photo 1), white on white (Photo 2), flying airplane, etc. most of them exhibited at the last futuristic echibition 0,10 in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) (Photo 4).

Black square: it is his iconic painting which is the perfect example of his theoritical principles of supremantism (Photo 1). He made four variant of it where first one was painted in 1915 and the last one is thought to be painted in 1920s. It was first shown in the last futurist exhibition, 0.10 in Petrograd (Photo 4). It is an abstract painting of a black square painted on white background. Although seems to be simple painting there are such subtleties as brushstrokes, fingerprints, and colors visible underneath the cracked black layer of paint, even in 2015, art historians discovered a message “battle of negroes in dark cave“ while viewing the Black Square with a microscope at the state tretyakov gallery in Russia [7]. Different artistists, historians, curators and others perceived it as „zero point of painting“. Malevich's remarks about the black square was "It is from zero, in zero, that the true movement of being begins.", "I transformed myself in the zero of form and emerged from nothing to creation, that is, to Suprematism, to the new realism in painting - to non-objective creation.", "[Black Square is meant to evoke] the experience of pure non-objectivity in the white emptiness of a liberated nothing." [8] Additionally, Malevich saw the black square as a kind of godlike presence, an icon - or even the godlike quality in himself. It was hung in the corner at the exhibition where in Russian traditional homes it was supposed to hung an orthodox icon,because actually it was to end up being a new holy image for non-representational art. [9]

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Photo 1: black square by Kazimir Malevic ©tate.org.uk

White on white: this is abstract oil canvas painting painted a year after october revolution [Photo 2]. It is one of the more well known examples of the Russian supremantism movement and is one of his most famous and reproduced works of art. It was part of the white on white series in which he began to paint in 1916. The work measures 79.5 by 79.5 centimetres and it depicts off white square, positioned at a slight angle (suggests movement), that has been placed onto a white background (symbolising infinity) that appears to be warmer and more dense in colour, the idea behind was to make tilted square to look like as if is coming out of the canvas. What most interesting is how Malevich had been able to present two white squares in different ways. The uniqueness of second square is that it was not painted at all instead it was simply the square canvas. It can be viewed as the last, total phase of his "transformation in zero of form" since form has actually been diminished to nothing [9]. It is widely acknowledged that Malevich wanted the squares to appear as if they were floating. This is additionally heightened by the choice of the white colour which represents peacefullness, vastness and timelessness [10].

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Photo 2: White on White by Kazimir Malevic © moma.org

Apart from paintings, in 1923s till early 1930s Malevich and his followers moved from two to three dimensions to mean from painting to architecture. He started producing three dimensional models which was the composition of abstract forms which appear similar to models of skyscrapers, called “arkhitektons“ (Photo 3).

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Photo 3: architektons by Kazimir Malevic ©socks-studio.com

The drawings which was used to make architectons was called ''planitis''. They was mostly white plaster models composed of rectangular blocks added to one another where the central bigger rectangle was the main compositional element and the smaller parallelepipedes added to it. The final shape was pure result of assembling abstract masses in vertical or horizontal way. And after he displayed them all together in black room as if they were created out of nothing floating in nothingless of space (Photo 4). With help of arkhitektons, Malevich was able to translate supremantism principles into three dimensional forms and architecture.

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Photo 4: Kazimir Malevich exhibition in 0.10 exhibition in Petrograd ©theartstory.org

3. EARLIER PROJECTS OF ZAHA HADID

Dame Zaha Mohammed Hadid (1950-2016) was an Iraq-British architect. She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004. sterling prize the most UK's prestigious award for architecture in 2010 and 2011 and was the first woman to win RIBA[7] gold medal in 2015. She was described as the "Queen of the curve" who "liberated architectural geometry , giving it a whole new expressive identity" by The Guardian of London [12].

In 1970s she first became interested in Russsian avant garde because of her teacher Elia Zenghelis [8]at architecture association school in London, met when she was in her first year in architecture when he was giving a talk about Russian constructivism. From her fourth year, she began to employ the suprematism ideas such as lightness, floating and fluidity, and concepts such as explosion, fragmentation, warping and bundling, in her architectural projects. In her lifetime more than 30 years career, she designed many projects some realised others not. All her projects have similar characters in common, ''The whole idea of lightness, floating, structure and how it lands gently on the ground: It all comes from [the Russians]'' she shared with the curator of her painting exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries. Employing paintings as a design tool in architecture due the fact that she found traditional method limiting, was the result of her interest in Malevich's abstractions. Going deep into his works allowed her to use abstractions as investigative tool. Abstraction liberated her from traditions and doctrines within architeccture. For Hadid the act of drawing and painting led to ideas that she could straightforwardly convert them into buildings.

Lets look at her early projects after being inspired by Kazimir Malevich to see the product of her interest in russian suprematism. Her most known projects to include those ideas are her fourth year project ''Malevich's tektonik'', her fifth year thesis ''the museum of 19th century'' and his proposal for the ''peak leisure club'' in Hong Kong. The uniqueness of Zaha Hadid was that she employed abstract painting as representational tool of her works. As seen in her earlier drawings.

«Malevich's tektonik» (1976- 1977): this was Zaha Hadid's fourth year project which was completed as her architecture association thesis (Photo 5).

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Photo 5: malevich's tektonik by zaha hadid zaha-hadid.com

It was the idea that if a slide of a Malevich’s sculpture Architekton Alpha (1920) were to be imposed on an urban context it becomes architecture (Photo 6). So the work was to find a scale for the architekton and find a site to be imposed. Zaha Hadid come up with concept and design of fourteen level hotel and she imposed it to be constructed on the hungerford bridge across the river Thames in London linking 19th century building on the north shore and the brutalist south bank complex. The idea was to impose on an urban context to become architecture. The project explores the 'mutation' which is utilizing the random composition of suprematist tectonik forms to meet the unique demand of construction and its context [13].

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Photo 6: alpha architekton by Kazimir Malevic © socks-studio.com

The Museum of 19th century (1977-1978): this was Zaha Hadid's fifth year thesis project, at architecture association school in London (Photo 7). The project was located at the charing cross station with south bank center on the side of the river. So Zaha Hadid come up with the idea of bridge to explore the idea that contemporary architecture in urban context does not necessarily needed to abolish the ground to start new things as it was before. The project was composed of two intersecting beams, one being a hotel and other being museum. It was based on the ideas about juxtapositions, superimpositions and the idea of horizontal elevation was rooted in her interest in russian supermatism.

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Photo 7: museum of the 19th century by zaha hdid ©serpentinegalleries.org📷

Photo 8: longitudinal section of the museum of 19th century by Zaha Hadid © serpentinegalleries.org

Peak leisure club (1982-1983): the proposal for the peak leisure club in Hong Kong. It was a competition project and her proposal was the winning project (Photo 9). This project was inspired by earlier projects like Malevich's tektonik because also in this project the idea of horizontal skyscraper was re-emerged and also clearly shocases Hadid's interests in russian construtuvism. It was for a private healthy club in the hills of Kowloon overlooking Hong Kong. Hadid proposal was to transform the site by excavating the ­­­­­­rocky mountains in order to build artificial cliffs. Those excavated areas was intended to house range of hedonistic activities and above them the building was to feature horizontal beams, balonies and interconnecting corridors, and it has to be layered horizontally. The club itself was supposed to be 13m wide void and was suspended between buldings 's second and penthouse apartment layers. The club was to containing the exercise platforms, entrance decks, circulation areas, snack bar and hovering library. Above the club void, the building had four separate pent house apartments and other spaces like swimming pools and and ramps were left exposed in air. Hadid used paintings mainly in the presentation graphics of this project, this concept of presenting the architectural projects using painting was also the seeds of her interests in the russian suprematism.

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Photo 9: the peak leisure club by Zaha Hadid © zaha-hadid.com

4. EXHIBITIONS OF ZAHA HADID SUPREMANTISM WORKS

In her life time and even after her death museums and galleries conducted exhibitions to showcase Zaha Hadid's drawings and paintings which have routine in russian construtuvism. Some were organised in partnership with Zaha Hadid, while others was done after her death in 31st march 2016. this shows how she promoted Russian construtuvism to the world when she was alive.

Zaha Hadid works was included in 1988 landmark exhibition of deconstructivist architecture at museum of moderm art in New york. Her competition entry paintings of the peak leisure club in Hong Kong, were exhibited alongside with the drawings as well as models of other well established and most influential architects of the late 20th century such as: Peter Eisenman[9], Frank Gehry[10],Rem Koolhaas[11], Daniel Libeskind[12], Bernard Tschumi and the firm Coop Himmelblau. [15]

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Photo 10: inside the 1988 deconstructivist architecture exhibition ©archdaily.com

Painting and exhibition design: Zaha Hadid was the first architect afforded to design an exhibition at guggenheim museum in New york. She proposed to fill the guggenheim rotunda with the interpretation of valdmir tatlin monument to the third international for the exhibition of 1992:The great utopia: the Russian and soviet avant-garde, 1915-1932. The design of the exhibition took only two months and it was an exptional event after the bifurcation of the soviet union. For the exhibition she planned to devided the museum into 9 basic thematic rooms which are: Bent Tektonik, Black Room, Globe Room, Maze Room, Porcelain Beams, Skyline of Tektoniks, Suprematist Walls(photo 10), Tatlin Tower, and Zig Zag Wall but tatlin tower and bent tektonik failed to be implemented. She used the spiral to tell a story to a visitor as he/she moves up to the ramp. Interruptions are created with obstacles, and screens with posters push the visitor to the edge of the ramp, allowing different perspectives to be seen at the same time. [14]

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Photo 11: the suprematism walls, guggenheneim exhibition by zaha hadid © guggenheim.org

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Photo 12: the great utopia by Zaha Hadid © guggenheim.org

Nine months after her death, serpentine sackler galleries in partnership with Swarovski[13] organises exhibition entitled '' ZAHA HADID EARLY PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS'' in London. According to the gallery exhibition included'' architect’s calligraphic drawings and rarely seen private notebooks with sketches that reveal Zaha Hadid's complex thoughts about architectural forms and relationships''. The exhibition mainly focused on works before her first building the vitra fire station in Germany was erected.[17]

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Photo 13: Zaha Hadid installation view at serpentine galleries ©serpentinegalleries.org

5. CONCLUSION.

Zaha Hadid was one successfull architect in her time more than 30 years career, as mentioned above her life’s work was widely acknowledged and filled with honours and accolades. In feminist terms, she broke the glass ceiling of her field, she was the first woman to receive most known architectural award ''pritzker prize'' in 2004, sterling prize the most UK's prestigious award for architecture in 2010 and 2011 and was the first woman to win RIBA gold medal in 2015. She made an indedible mark on the 21st century architecture. She helped to change the way people think about contemporary architecture. Her interest in russian avant garde when she was a student is what made her who she was in architectural world. Her untimely passing in 2016 left some unfinished projects around the world since she was a well established and influential architect of the 21st century. Those projects are being finished by her own architectural firm established in 1980 few years after finishing her studies, '' zaha hadid architects'' and now that firm is still continuing her posthumous career and putting into reality the ideas of Zaha Hadid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] Hadid, Z. (2014). Zaha Hadid RA on the influence of Malevich in her work. [online] Royal Academy of Arts. Available at: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/zaha-hadid-ra-on-the-influence-of [accessed 10 Dec 2018]

[2] Foster, J.(2014). Zaha Hadid on Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. [online] Archdaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/530641/zaha-hadid-on-russian-artist-kazimir-malevich [accessed 8 dec, 2018]

[3] '' ZAHA HADID AND SUPERMATISM|TATE TALKS'' Youtube video, 1:21:17, posted by 'Tate' october 30, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF_qPKnrrHo [accessed 10 dec, 2018]

[4] Frampton, K.: Modern Architecture, Thames & Hudson, London, 2007, 168

[5] Martina, H. (2014). The Russian Revolutionary: Zaha Hadid on Kazimir Malevich. [online] available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04h8kpt/clips [ accessed on 12 dec,2018]

[6] Kazimir malevich biography. [online] available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kazimir-malevich-1561 [ accessed on 12 Jan,2019]

[7] 'battle in the dark cave': iconic blacksquare masterpiece found to be hiding more paintings (2015) [online] available at: https://www.rt.com/news/321737-black-square-secret-revealed/ [accessed on 20 feb, 2019]

[8] Mathew D. : Kazimir Malevich:suprematism, a Guggheneim museum publication, 2003, 25

[9] Important art by kazimir malevich [online] available at:https://www.theartstory.org/artist-malevich-kasimir-artworks.htm [accessed on 12 feb, 2019]

[10] ''White on white'' (2016) [online] available at: http://www.kazimirmalevich.net/white-on-white/ [accessed on 9 jan, 2019]

[11] Mariabruna F. (2015) Kazimir Malevich's arkhitektons [online] available at: http://socks-studio.com/2015/07/15/kazimir-malevichs-arkhitektons/ [accessed on 9 jan, 2019]

[12] Rowan M. (2013) Zaha Hadid:Queen of the curve [online] available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/08/zaha-hadid-serpentine-sackler-profile [accessed on 10 dec, 2018]

[13] Zaha H. Malevich's Tektonik [online] available at: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/malevichs-tektonik/

[14] Mendersohn A. (2016) Painting for the Guggenheim: Zaha Hadid’s Exhibition Design Process [online] available at: https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/checklist/painting-for-the-guggenheim-zaha-hadids-exhibition-design-process [accessed on 26 feb, 2019]

[15] Fiederer L. (2017) AD Classics: 1988 Deconstructivist Exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) [online] available at: https://www.archdaily.com/868063/ad-classics-1988-deconstructivist-exhibition-johnson-wigley-new-york-museum-of-modern-art-moma [accessed on 26 feb, 2019]

[16] Zaha Hadid Early paintings and drawings press release, london,serpentine gallery (2016). PDF.https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/sites/default/files/press-releases/zaha_hadid_press_pack_final_0.pdf

[17] Serpentine galleries, Zaha Hadid early paintings and drawings (2016) [online] available at: https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/zaha-hadid-early-paintings-and-drawings [accessed on 26 feb 2016]

[1] Student, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Rwanda, e-mail: alleluiamukiza@gmail.com

[2] Vladmir tatlin (1885-1953) was a Russian architect and painter he is one of the important figures of Russian avant garde with his mostly known monument to the third international or tatlin tower.

[3] Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (1890-1941) was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer and architect. He was an important figure in Russian avant garde helping to develop suprematism with his mentor Kazimir Malevic.

[4] ASNOVA (association of new architects) was an Avant-Garde architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active in the 1920s and early 1930s, commonly called 'the Rationalists'.

[5] the Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture"

[6] Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright. He is known as co-founder of the cubist movement, inventor of constructed sculpture, co-inventor of collage and for the wide variety of styles he helped to explore and develop. He was regarded as the most influential artist of 20th century.

[7] RIBA(Royal Institute of British Architects) International Awards are part of an awards program operated by the Royal Institute of British Architects, also encompassing the Sterling Prize and the European Award. The RIBA International Award rewards "the excellent work being done by RIBA members around the world". They are awarded annually to a varying number of buildings.

[8] Elia Zenghelis born in 1937, is a Greek architect and teacher at architecture association in London

[9] Peter Eisenman (born 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, he is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructive.

[10] Frank Owen Gehry (born in 1929) is a Canadian-born American architect, residing in Los Angeles. His works are cited as being among the most important works of contemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, which led Vanity Fair to label him as "the most important architect of our age"

[11] Rem Koolhaas (born in 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is widely regarded as one of the most important architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People.

[12] Daniel Libeskind: (1946) is a Jewish Polish-American architect, artist, professor and set designer.

[13] Swarovski is an Austrian producer of lead glass headquartered in Watterns, Austria.