Nina I. VELIGOTSKAYA
Doctor of Arts, Author of the first in Ukraine scientific monograph on Maria Priymachenko,
Researcher of Malevich's works

«SEEKING MALEVICH!»

The so-called «Konotop» period in life of Malevich was not studied at all. His family lived in Konotop (Sumy region, Ukraine) from 1894 to 1895 and there are reasons to believe this town is a very place where Malevich began to paint.

I come from Konotop also. And, frankly speaking, in my youth I was not attracted by artist Malevich. Who thought that everything would change to such extent...

After graduating from high school in Konotop, one can say that I drew a lucky ticket and entered Moscow University after M. Lomonosov, Art Department, which was well-known in those days. Returning after the University to Kiev, I had a lot of scientific work, became a member of Union of Artists, etc. And it happened that the last five years led me back to the native city. I began to search and even put announcement «Seeking Malevich!» in a local newspaper. I searched in a literal sense at markets, among collectors, where one can only imagine... As a result, I found three works that are likely to belong to the brush of Malevich. «Portrait of a girl» was among them. One Konotop collector had it and had not even suspected whom this work could belong to.

But let us put all in order. «Autobiography» of Malevich is a source for all art critics to study his biography. In the book he writes about his life in Konotop, where «from morning till evening» he «spent paints and so days, months or even years were passing by». Again, according to Malevich, in Konotop he «painted his first canvas of «Moonlight night». He was lucky, as the work was sold for fairly decent money for the time – 5 karbovanetss. Whatever the case but the young artist felt himself a rich man, moral incentives joined financial and both of them defined his choice of creative destiny.

In my studies I see Konotop as «a cradle of power» for Malevich, a launching pad for his subsequent flight in the world and, incidentally, as one of his «points of view» on art. I’m referring here to the fact that another autobiographical book, which he intended to write but did not managed to, was supposed to be called «Point of view of my art». The book was not written because of death when he was 56 years old.

«PASTE» OF PAINTING

It is well known that Malevich was an autodidact. He never studied drawing or painting. His father even wanted the son to become a sugar producer and therefore was quite skeptical about his works. Kazimir Malevich himself was quite ironic appreciating his own art. You

may recall how he writes in «Autobiography» that upon discovering his propensity to drawing, «the family realized it was not without a freak».

Still, he began to work and we need to say that with all his irony he was quite ambitious. One can imagine that in such circumstances a young aspiring artist (he was 16 years old) is unlikely to put his name on pictures, as his favourite Murashko or Pimonenko did. Instead, he puts encrypted «copyrights signs», a sort of marks, on early works. Moreover, he used many of them as art techniques in later pictures.

Thus, he creates two backgrounds painting: real and unreal. Malevich called it «realism in two dimensions». A proof of it is that in this portrait you can see an outline of some animal's muzzle in the girl's hair. Then, «paste» of this painting is full of distinctive signs, crosses and small letters «m». All of it can be seen when considering a larger picture – without a microscope, just a good digital photo would be enough!

And it is only a beginning of the evidence in favor of the fact that the picture may very likely belong to Malevich. Of course, in conclusions, I considered testimony of micro-chemical analysis, which was held at the Department of Restoration in National Academy of Arts and confirmed that the painting dates from the late nineteenth century. But there are some other interesting arguments that relate to historical facts.

HISTORICAL PERSUASION

I found that in Konotop Malevich learned from his mother to embroider and knit crochet. This is very important because in his

early and later works a kind of «needlework» is manifested: he uses figure stitches and knots in drawing... The same with «Portrait of a girl» – sleeves and a neck of her dress are tied with a hook. The dress with spots, by the way, ascends to Ukrainian peasant art, with which Malevich was genuinely in love all his life.

The girl looks very much like mother of Malevich – Lyudmila Alexandrovna. From here comes my assumption that this is a portrait of Malevich's sister (he had 4 of them in addition to brothers). Her name was Severina and she was born in 1884.

Further evidence relates to the nature of painting. As I already mentioned, Malevich was an autodidact. An experienced art critic can always tell a professional hand from «amateur's». The way paint was put in «Portrait of a girl» shows that only a novice artist could work like that.

By the way, famous academician Dmitry Sarabianov was Scientific Council Chairman at presentation of my doctoral thesis. In addition, he is one of the greatest connoisseurs of Malevich's art. And here I would like to refer to his important observation. He said that in Konotop Malevich was not a professional yet but rather an amateur painter and his findings at the time «could somehow«echo» in later works of the artist».

Thus, it is likely the case. I’ve just referred to «spots» in the dress pattern, which dates back to traditions of Ukrainian wall painting. Likewise, you can notice a form of the head-dress, which has «three parts». This is a very characteristic style of Malevich and a basis for his later philosophic developments «heaven-earth-man».

It is interesting that by style this portrait reminds an early self-portrait Malevich drew around 1910. But the most important is that by the type of nose and face the girl is strikingly similar to a heroine of a later work of Malevich – «Woman worker» (1933).

Thus, a set of methods for a study of the picture's origin is triggered, from the intuitive, without which an art critic can not do, to the analytical and comparative or the historical and visual.

FATE

Personally, I have no doubt that it is Malevich. Many prominent scientists, including those in Moscow, share my arguments and conclusions. I also very much appreciate the support of Alexander Nayden, Doctor of Arts, who is one of the authors of «Malevich muzhik» article.

However, formally, until a final examination, we must say that this is allegedly Malevich's brush. So far, unfortunately, artistic expertise I could trust

does not exist in Ukraine. Because of legal collisions I can not take the picture for examination in Moscow, where there is a representative office of Sotheby's. It may happen that we take the painting from the country as «a picture of an unknown artist» and then should bring it back as «Malevich's» – with a starting price of $1 million at any auction of the world! It is unrealistic in my situation.

That is why we have chosen a different path. We will put the work to the auction, providing all «pros» and «cons». Here I completely trust Yelena Yagodovskaya and her professional feeling. And we ought to continue our work. By the way, soon my book «Along paths of Malevich. A stop in Konotop» is to be launched into print. It describes in more details all of what I told now here...

I can conclude this story with an almost mystical history. A few years ago I had a workshop on Andreyevskiy uzviz. I worked there over a manuscript of this new book and there was also «Portrait of a girl». For reasons that we do not have to discuss here, our house was set on fire. My great library disappeared and it was a real disaster... Though it was at three o'clock in the morning, somehow I managed to take the manuscript under one arm, the picture under the other and ran out... So, in addition to all these «in search of Malevich» peripeteia, it also made a way out of fire!

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