Peasants 1932

Kazimir Malevich painted 'Peasants' using oil on canvas, a traditional medium, yet the painting challenges artistic conventions. The application of paint is flat and unmodulated, with bold colors defining simplified forms. This abstraction reduces the figures to their essence, stripping away individuality to emphasize their collective identity as peasants. The faceless figures, rendered in blocks of color, evoke the anonymity and depersonalization often associated with agricultural labor and the working class. Malevich's choice of such reductive forms and non-naturalistic colors can be understood as a deliberate move away from academic painting traditions. Instead, he's referencing the aesthetics of early 20th century Russia, a time of immense social and political upheaval, where industrialization and collectivization transformed rural life. The repetitive nature of agricultural work may be reflected in the stylized, almost mechanical, depiction of the figures. By focusing on the materiality of paint and simplifying form, Malevich elevates the everyday lives of peasants to the realm of high art, while questioning traditional distinctions between representation and abstraction.