Soon, soon we will in Krakow 1914

Kazimir Malevich made this painting, Soon, soon we will in Krakow, using what looks like gouache or tempera, sometime around the early 20th century. I can imagine him, standing at a table, quickly and efficiently making these simple shapes with blocks of flat colour. It’s kind of like watching a political cartoon come to life – here are the soldiers, lined up behind a wall, there’s the guy on the horse… but look at the colours! They're so playful. The red, that grassy green, the blues, the white. It feels really optimistic! The horse looks startled, or maybe determined. It reminds me of the work of Stuart Davis, with its clear lines and bright, cheerful colours. Both artists are playing with abstraction and representation, creating images that are both familiar and strange. It seems like, even when there's political unrest, artists are talking to each other across time, inspiring each other to keep pushing the boundaries of what painting can be!