What a Crash 1914

Kazimir Malevich made “What a Crash” and it is rendered in flat planes of colour - red, blue, yellow, green. You can almost feel him leaning in, figuring it out as he went along. I imagine Malevich thinking about Russian folk art and children’s book illustration, looking at ways to tell a story using simplified forms. There is a tension between abstraction and figuration; you can see how these elements shift and change. The giant is such a strong visual device, he seems to have so much fun with his absurdly big whip, sending soldiers scattering. There’s a rhythmic, almost musical quality to the arrangement. The colour feels distinctly Russian; I'm thinking of Kandinsky and Larionov playing with similar palettes. It reminds us that artists don't exist in a vacuum. We're all crashing together, influencing each other, riffing on ideas across time and space.