Tea, anyone? Nikolai Suetin’s ceramic Suprematism, 1922-1928

Untitled.
IMAGE: Nikolai Suetin,
Suprematist teasets
(Moscow, 1925-1926)
.Untitled

Along with Il’ia Chashnik, Nikolai Suetin was Kazimir Malevich‘s most devoted disciple.  He first came under the great master’s tutelage during his studies at the Vitebsk School of Art in 1918, where he also trained with the renowned artist Jean Pougny.  Though a skilled painter, designer, and ceramicist in his own right, Suetin spent much of his time promoting Malevich’s body of work and keeping a photographic record of his life.  Unlike his mentor, Suetin never theorized his work in so self-conscious a fashion.  In 1924, however, he recorded a brief artistic creed in staccato verse, disavowing every attempt to systematize his work:

neither non-objectivity
nor object
what?
“X,” I reply
it signifies the sum of my painterly thought
in the world, and hence
the answer to the question
of modernity…
No system binds me, as I am unsystematic.
A reasonably logical premise can demonstrate any system, but I am alogical and therefore overcome the systems of cubism, futurism, and suprematism.”

ни беспредметность
ни предмет.
что?
я отвечаю X (икс)
это значит сумма моей живописной мысли
на мир и значит
ответ на вопрос осязания
современности «…»
Никакая система не связывает меня, ибо я бессистемен «…»
Разумно логической предпосылкой можно доказать всякую систему, но я алогичен и потому преодолеваю системы кубизма, футуризма и супрематизма «…»

While Suetin authored numerous remarkable works, perhaps his most striking pieces came in the form of Suprematist plateware commemorating the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917.  These were made over the course of the 1920s, especially from 1922-1928.  Included in this post are several very high-resolution photographs of these works.  Enjoy!

Nikolai Suetin’s Suprematist plateware

12 thoughts on “Tea, anyone? Nikolai Suetin’s ceramic Suprematism, 1922-1928

  1. Pingback: Nikolai Suetin’s crypto-Suprematist model for the Paris 1937 Soviet Pavilion, featuring Iofan’s Palace of the Soviets | The Charnel-House

  2. I confess that soon after viewing this post I searched eBay for any reproductions that might be available. They are beautiful pieces of art, but I guess it’s ironic that my immediate impulse was to acquire them.

    It maybe a charnel house, but it’s a nicely furnished one! :(

  3. Pingback: Moscow modernism | The Charnel-House

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  5. Pingback: Tea, anyone? Nikolai Suetin’s ceramic Suprematism, 1922-1928 | Research Material

  6. Pingback: Suprematism in architecture: Kazimir Malevich and the arkhitektons | The Charnel-House

  7. Pingback: Il’ia Chashnik, revolutionary suprematist (1902-1929) | The Charnel-House

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