There was an atmosphere of transformation in the beginning of the 20th century. The proletariat and bourgeoisie were fought for the socialist reorganization of society, the social system changed, the division due to anti-religious propaganda took place. People’s minds transformed. They started to think in completely different way.
All these events had found the reflection in the artistic styles of decadence, where artists strived to show a new, perfect, changed world with a positive attitude and meaningful disappointment at the same time, with shocking and nihilistic positions towards outdated values of culture and life. The past was interpreted as something frozen, and the future as a new necessary process. This row of social catastrophes produced then some doubts on the rationality of these events. Both artists and the creative intelligentsia became the prism of that time which projected the ideas of protest, expression, individuality, and defeat. Technological innovations gave birth to belief in their own power and independence.
So-called “Revolutionaries of the avant-garde” and the Bolsheviks took concerted action only in the first post-October years. Later Socialist realism became prevalent trend and that slowed down the process of modernization of artistic culture in our country, which was taking place in full swing in Europe, for half-century.
All these events influenced trends of painting, made it changeable and unstable. After 1930 the modernist tendencies of fiction, both Malevich’s name and his “Black Square” were banned almost until the end of the 20th century.
Kazimir Malevich became world famous after a half-century delay. In Russia it happened when the Soviet ideology collapsed. In Europe it started earlier because the artist had taken away his numerous works and canvases and they found its home in the private and public collections and in the Steidelik Museum, Amsterdam.
Not only artistic works but Malevich’s philosophical and literary ones are also of the high value. In this case Malevich’s art should be studied as a concept of dormitory (Malevich called human civilization “dormitory”) which is formed by artist’s style, theoretical conclusions and the “Black Square” as a logo. To evaluate Malevich’s legacy the study must be done in a holistic and voluminous manner with the identification of the most significant moments in the life and work of the artist-thinker.