Head of Peasant 1932

Kazimir Malevich made this ‘Head of Peasant’ using oil paints and, to me, it feels like he’s stripping away the details to find some kind of pure form. Look at the way the face is divided, almost like a map, into contrasting blocks of black, white and grey. It’s so flat, so direct, and those pale blue eyes stare right through you. The landscape behind is simplified too, just fields and buildings rendered as geometric shapes. The brushstrokes are visible, giving a tactile quality to the surface. There’s a tension here, between representation and abstraction. That yellow line suggesting a nose feels crucial, it roots the painting in the real, the human. I see echoes of early Picasso in this work, that same urge to break down reality into its basic components. What does it mean to represent a person, a place? Can we ever truly capture it, or are we always just approximating, interpreting? These are the questions Malevich seems to be asking.