The Movement of the Suprematistic Square, Which Constitutes a New Dihedral Suprematistic Element 1927

Curator: The work is Malevich's, “The Movement of the Suprematistic Square, Which Constitutes a New Dihedral Suprematistic Element,” a print from 1927. What do you make of it? It feels both very simple and a bit unsettling. Editor: The way the gray shapes are textured almost makes it look like industrial material, or maybe some kind of cast off. How does that inform how you understand the image? Curator: Precisely! Think about the rise of industrial production at this time. Malevich isn’t just painting shapes; he's engaging with new materials, production processes and the societal shift toward mass production. We need to think about what it meant to use a 'craft' like printmaking to depict geometric forms, things that could easily be manufactured perfectly by a machine. Does that tension suggest anything to you? Editor: Maybe it's about control – or a lack of it? Like, he’s deliberately making something look mass-produced, but by hand? Curator: Yes, it's about exploring that relationship. How does labor, specifically the act of creating this print, challenge the boundaries between traditional art and the emerging dominance of industrial creation? Is he critiquing, celebrating, or something else entirely? Editor: I never thought about it that way. So it's less about the shapes themselves and more about what the choice of material and process says about the world around him. Curator: Exactly. Malevich isn't just dealing with pure forms, but also commenting on a changing society by highlighting the contrast between the artist’s hand and the machine's precision, inviting us to question value in production. Editor: I see it differently now. I was focused on the image, and now it's the physical creation I'm thinking about. Curator: Good, always dig below the surface and think about how things are made.