Kasimir Malewitsch
1878 - 1935

Entwürfe für die Ausgestaltung des Roten Theaters (9 Blatt). 1931/32.
Watercolor, pencil, gouache, and color chalk on paper.
From a series of 22 watercolors. On wove paper. Up to 29.9 x 23.2 cm (11.7 x 9.1 in), size of sheet.

9 watercolors:
Projets pour le décor de la coupole centrale, watercolor on wove paper, 21.4 x 15 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-648-a).
Untitled, pencil and watercolor on paper, 21.4 x 15 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-648-d).
Piliers, watercolor and pencil on firm wove paper, 29.9 x 23.2 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-649-c).
Soubassements des piliers, recto: watercolor, gouache, and pencil; verso: Essais de couleurs et autres esquisses pour la polychromie, watercolor, pencil, and color chalk. On firm wove paper. Inscribed “36” in pencil by a hand other than the artist's on the reverse, 22.9 x 30 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-649-d).
Sommet de l'arc central, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on wove paper, with a pencil sketch and an illegible number on the reverse, 15 x 21.4 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-649-e).
Rampe d’entrée, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on vellum, inscribed “26” in pencil by a hand other than the artist’s on the reverse, 21.4 x 15 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-649-f).
Étude de polychromie de l'escalier conduisant au foyer du deuxième étage, watercolor and pencil on wove paper, inscribed in pencil by A. A. Leporskaja as “bokovye stupeni veduscie na vtoroj etaz” (“side staircases leading to the second floor”) by A. A. Leporskaja at the bottom, 16.7 x 15 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-650-a).
Étude pour un buffet dans le foyer du deuxième étage, watercolor and pencil on wove paper, inscribed “Bufet” in the upper right by A. A. Leporskaya, inscribed “33” in pencil by a hand other than the artist's on the reverse, 15 x 21.4 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-651).
Décor du plafond, watercolor on wove paper, inscribed “30” in pencil on the reverse by a hand other than the artist's, 21.2 x 15 cm, sheet size (Nakov S-652-b).
The interior design of the Red Theater in Leningrad was based on designs by Malevich in collaboration with some of his students, particularly Anna Aleksandrovna Leporskaya. The theater was located in the building known as the “Zeleznyj dom” (“Iron House”), which dated from the time of Nicholas II.

• Suprematist color visions in architectural space: rare draft watercolors for the decorative design of the Red Theater in Leningrad (1931/32).
• Kazimir S. Malevich: Protagonist of Suprematism and a key figure of the Russian avant-garde.
• Rarity: To date, only a single watercolor from this sought-after series has been offered on the international auction market (source: artprice.com).
• Distinguished provenance: Formerly in the collection of Anna A. Leporskaya, a student of Malevich and later the independent curator of his archive.
• Of museum-quality: Three additional watercolors from this significant body of work are now part of the renowned collection of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.
• Part of the same German private collection for nearly 25 years.

We are grateful to Mr. Lucas Haberkorn of the Museum Jorn for his kind assistance.

PROVENANCE: Anna Alexandrovna Leporskaja, Leningrad (a student of Malevich and the wife of the artist Nikolai Mikhailovich Suetin).
Nina Suetina, Moscow (presumably inherited from the above)
Gmurzynska Gallery, Cologne (presumably around 1992; with the gallery label on the backing board of the frame)
Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired from the above in 2002).

EXHIBITION: Malevich, Suetin, Chasnik, Gmurzynska Gallery, Cologne, June 13–July 31, 1992, cat. numbers 13–16, 21, 23–24, 26–27 (with color reproductions of all nine sheets on pp. 65–67, 70, 72–75).
Klasycy XX wieku. Picasso, Bacon, Beuys, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Warhol, Malevich, Dalí, Mondrian, Brancusi, Galeria Sztuki Wspólczesnej Zacheta, Warsaw, Oct. 24–Dec. 3, 2000, pp. 112–117 and 171 (with color reproductions pp. 113 (Nakov S-649-f), 115 (Nakov S-649-e), and 117 (Nakov S-652-b)).

LITERATURE: Andréi Nakov, Kazimir Malevich. Catalogue raisonné, Paris 2002, CR numbers. S-648-a, S-648-d, S-649-c, S-649-d, S-649-e, S-649-f, S-650-a, S-651, S-652-b (with b/w illustrations, S-648-d shown mirror-inverted, and S-649-f and S-652-b shown upside down).
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Larissa Shadowa, “From the History of Soviet Polychromy,” in: Technical Aesthetics, no. 7 (139), Moscow 1975, numbers 1-2, 4-6, pp. 3–5 (with color illustrations: Nakov S-649-e (no. 1), Nakov S-649-d (no. 2), Nakov S-651 (no. 4), Nakov S-648-a (no. 5), Nakov S-650-a (No. 6)).
Larissa Shadowa, Suche und Experiment. From the History of Russian and Soviet Art between 1910 and 1930, Munich 1982, p. 361 (with color illustration on p. 70 (Nakov S-651)).
Evelyn Weiss, Von Malewitsch bis Kabakov. Russian Avant-Garde in the 20th Century. The Ludwig Collection, exhibition catalog, Museum Ludwig, Cologne 1993, pp. 164ff (with illustrations of other watercolors from the series).
Troels Andersen, K. S. Malevich, The Leporskaya Archive, Aarhus, Denmark 2011, cat. no. 608 (with illustrations of other watercolors from the series, p. 207).