Painterly Realism of a Football Player—Color Masses in the 4th Dimension
Date:
Summer/fall 1915
Artist:
Kazimir Malevich Born Kyiv (formerly Russian Empire, now Ukraine), 1878; died Saint Petersburg, 1935
About this artwork
Kazimir Malevich explained in 1921, “In reality, the globe has no bottom, no top, no perspective, no weight—it does not have that most important thing upon which our knowledge of the world is based: relativity.” This statement, which expresses the radical ideas of the Suprematist movement, illuminates Malevich’s belief that art could undermine basic, yet erroneous, assumptions that inform what we accept as “natural” or “normal.”
Breaking from observed reality to focus instead on the relationship between colored geometric forms on a textured white background, Malevich asked viewers to imagine a new type of realism in painting. He invoked this style through the metaphor of a spatial fourth dimension, referenced in the title of this piece, and by displaying the works without frames and refusing to assign them a precise orientation.
Painterly Realism of a Football Player—Color Masses in the 4th Dimension
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Through prior gifts of Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection; Mrs. Albert D. Lasker in memory of her husband, Albert D. Lasker; and Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Reference Number
2011.1
Extended information about this artwork
Henryk Stazewski, “Malevich,” in MUBA (Muse Baro Apzvalga), no. 1, 1928, n.p. (ill.).
Praesens, no. 2, 1930, p. 107 (ill.).
Art Contemporain/Sztuka wspolczesna, no. 3, 1930, p. 89 (ill.).
Jan Brzekowski, Pri l’ Moderna Arto, ed. Salo Grenkamp-Kornfeld (Budapest: Literatura Mondo, 1933), p. 32 (ill.), cat. 38.
Margot Aschenbrenner, “Farben und Formen im Work von Kasimir Malewitsch 1878–1935,” in Quadrum IV, 1957, pp. 101, 103, (color ill.).
Troels Andersen, Malevich: Catalogue Raisonné of the Berlin Exhibition 1927, including the Collection in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1970), pp. 72 (color ill.), 94, cat. 51.
Christoph Brockhaus and Manfred Fath, eds., Malewitsch-Mondrian, Konstruktion als Konzept: Alexander Dorner gewidmet (Ludwigshafen: Wilhelm Hack Museum, 1977), p. 31 (installation photograph).
Larissa A. Zhadova, Malevich: Suprematism and Revolution in Russian Art 1910–1930 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), pp. 62 (ill.), 255 (installation photograph), 257 (installation photograph), 363, cat. 45.
Jean Claude Marcadé, ed., Malévitch: Colloque International Kazimir Malévitch (Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme, 1979), p. 238 (ill.), cat. 86.
Charlotte Douglas, Swans of Other Worlds: Kazimir Malevich and the Origins of Abstraction in Russia (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1980), p. 60, 123, fig. 11 (installation photograph).
Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 287.
Andréi Nakov, Malevitch Écrits (Paris: Champ libre, 1986), between pp. 78 and 79, fig. 30 (installation photograph).
Heiner Stachelhaus, Kasimir Malewitsch: Ein tragischer Konflikt (Dusseldorf: Claassen, 1989), p. 154 (installation photograph).
Luigi Paolo Finizio, L’Astrattismo Costruttivo: Suprematismo e Costruttivismo (Rome: Laterza, 1990), pp. 24 (installation photograph), 25 (ill.), 38.
Evgenija Petrova, et al., Malevich: Khudozhnik i Teoretik (Moscow: Avant-Garde, 1990), pp. 15 (installation photograph), 19 (installation photograph), 23 (installation photograph), 108–9, fig. 103 (color ill.), 236; translated as Malevitch: Artiste et Théoricien, ed.
Michel Draguet, trans. Alexandre Bagaev (Moscow and Paris: Avant-Garde, 1990); and Malevich: Artist and Theoretician, trans. Sharon McKee (Paris: Flammarion, 1990).
Patricia Railing, On Suprematism, 34 drawings: A little handbook of Suprematism, vol. 1 (Forest Row, East Sussex, England: Artists Bookworks, 1990), pp. 20 (ill.), 34 (installation photograph), 35 (ill.).
Rainer Crone and David Moos, Kazimir Malevich, The Climax of Disclosure (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 27, fig. 18 (installation photograph), 146, fig. 108 (color ill.), 154, fig. 114 (installation photograph), 156, 201, fig. 147 (installation photograph), 203, fig. 151 (installation photograph), 204, fig. 152 (installation photograph).
Serge Fauchereau, Malevich (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), p. 22–3 (ill.), 42 (two installation photographs).
Elena B. Basner, et al., Kazimir Malevic: Una retrospectiva, exh. cat. (Florence: Artificio, 1993), pp. 47 (installation photograph), 250 (installation photograph), 254 (installation photograph).
Elena Basner and Evgenija Petrova, Malevich: Colleción del Museo Estatal Ruso, exh. cat. (Madrid: Fundación Juan March, 1993), p. 95 (installation photograph).
Dmitrii Sarabianov and Aleksandra Shatskikh, Kazimir Malevich: Zhivopis’ Teoriya (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1993), pp. 93 (color ill.), 412, cat. 65, as Suprematism: Painterly Realism of Football Player. Color Masses of the Fourth Dimension.
Linda S. Boersma, 0,10: The Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1994), p. 56-7 (installation photograph), 77.
Charlotte Douglas, Kazimir Malevich (New York: Abrams, 1994), p. 23 (installation photograph).
Mark Rosenthal, Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom Discipline, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1996), pp. 12–13, fig. 9 (color ill.), 307.
John Milner, Kazimir Malevich and the Art of Geometry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 121 (installation photograph), 142–43 (color ill.).
Bruno Duborgel, Malevitch: La question de l’icône (Saint-Étienne: L’Université de Saint-Étienne, 1997), p. 160 (installation photograph).
Paul Coumans et al., Sandberg + Mondrian (Amersfoort: De Zonnehof, 1997), p. 54, cat. 130 (color ill.)
Patricia Railing, ed., Malevich on Suprematism, Six Essays: 1915 to 1926 (Iowa City: University of Iowa, Museum of Art, 1999), p. 15 (installation photograph).
Hans Peter Riese, Kasimir Malewitsch (Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1999), pp. 60 (installation photograph), 107 (installation photograph).
John Golding, Paths to the Absolute: Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Newman, Rothko, Still (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 60, fig. 40 (installation photograph), 67–8, fig. 46 (color ill.), 236.
Mel Gooding, Abstract Art (London: Tate Publishing, 2001), pp. 14 (installation photograph), 16, fig. 3 (color ill.), 17.
Andréi Nakov, Kazimir Malevicz: Catalogue raisonné (Paris: Adam Biro, 2002), p. 182 (ill.), cat. S-14.
Andrzej Turowski, Malewicz w Warszawie: Rekonstrukcje i Symulacje (Krakow: Universitas, 2004), p. 86, fig. 30 (color ill.), 158, fig. 54 (installation photograph), 163, 167, fig. 59 (installation photograph), 173, fig. 67 (installation photograph), 177, pl. VIII (installation photograph, color ill.), 186–88, fig. 84 (installation photograph, color ill.), 193, pl. IX (installation photograph, color ill.), 215 (installation photograph), 278.
Gilles Néret, Kazimir Malevich, 1878–1935, and Suprematism (Cologne: Taschen, 2003), p. 51, 54 (installation photograph).
Hubertus Gassner, Das schwarze Quadrat: Hommage an Malewitsch (Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2007), p. 17 (installation photograph).
Andrei Nakov, “Devices, Style and Realization: Professionalism in Malewicz’s Painting,” Artibus et Histoire, no. 57 (2008), p. 224, fig. 67 (color ill.).
Jerry Souter, Malevich: Journey to Infinity (New York: Parkstone International, 2008), pp. 122, 126–27 (color ill.).
Andréi Nakov, Black and White: A Suprematist Composition of 1915 by Kazimir Malevich (Gottingen: Steidl, 2009), p. 16–17 (installation photograph).
John Milner, “Suprematism.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online (2007–2010) http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T082379
Rosanna Negrotti, “Acquisition of the Year,” Apollo 174, 593 (December 2011), p. 72 (color ill.).
Matthew Drutt et al., In Search of 0,10 : The Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting, exh. cat. (Riehen/Basel, Switzerland: Fondation Beyeler; Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2015), 126 44-45 (ill.), (color ill.).
Matthew S. Witkovsky and Devin Fore, ed. Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Text. Exh. Cat. Art Institute of Chicago, 2017, cat. 94, pp. 54–55 (ill.), 299.
Petrograd, Galerie Dobychina, 0,10 (Zero-Ten). The Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting, December 19, 1915–January 19, 1916, cat. 40, as Painterly Realism of a Football Player—Color Masses in the 4th Dimension [installation photograph].
Moscow, Sixteenth State Exhibition, One-Man Exhibition, K. S. Malevich, opened March 25, 1920, no cat. [installation photograph (showing work hung in the reverse orientation)].
Warsaw, Polish Art Club, Exhibition of Kazimir Malevich, March 20-27, 1927, no cat. [installation photograph (showing work hung in the reverse orientation)].
Berlin, Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, Sonderausstellung Malevich, May 7–September 30, 1927 [installation photograph].
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, First Showing of the Malevich Collection, December 1957–January 1958, no cat.
Braunschweig Kunstverein, Malevich, February 16–March 16, 1958, cat. 23 (ill.), as Fußballmatch.
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Casimir Malevich (1878–1935), May 21–June 15, 1958, cat. 23, as Match de football.
Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Paintings from the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, January 7–February 4, 1959; traveled to Milwaukee Art Center, February 12–March 12, 1959; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, March 20–April 20, 1959; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, April 27–May 24, 1959, cat. 47, as Football Match.
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Kasimir Malevich, 1878–1935, October–November, 1959, p. 16, cat. 23.
Humlebaek, Denmark, Louisiana Museum, Malevich, March 25–April 25, 1960, cat. 23 (ill.), as Fodboldkamp.
Ulmer Museum, Malevich, October 1–29, 1961, no cat.
Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Kasimir Malevich, 1878–1935, December 14, 1961–January 14, 1962; traveled to Vienna, Galerie Würthle, January 25–February 17, 1962, cat. 15, as Fußballmatch.
Leverkusen, Städtisches Museum, Kasimir Malevich, March 10–April 1, 1962, cat. 15, as Fußballmatch.
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum, Malevich, April 13–May 27, 1962, cat. 15 (ill.), as Fußballmatch.
Kunsthalle Bern, Marcel Duchamp, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malewitsch, Josef Albers, Tom Doyle, October 23–November 29, 1964, cat. 15, as Fußballmatch.
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Inner and Outer Space: An Exhibition Devoted to Universal Art, December 26, 1965–February 13, 1966, cat. 35, as Parallellogram, purpur.
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Kazimir Malevich, November 16, 1973–January 13, 1974; traveled to Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, January 28–March 25, 1974, no cat.
Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Malevich, March 14–May 15, 1978, p. 84, cat. 28, as Match de football.
Washington D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Dreams and Nightmares: Utopian Visions in Modern Art, December 8, 1983–February 12, 1984, pp. 49, 50 (color ill.), 178, cat. 16, as Soccer Match.
Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Space in European Art: Council of Europe Exhibition in Japan, March 28–June 14, 1987, p. 290–91 (color ill.), cat. 117, as Football Match.
Leningrad, Russian Museum; Kazimir Malevich, November 10–December 18, 1988; traveled to Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, December 29, 1988–February 10, 1989; Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, March 5–May 29, 1989, pp. 47 (installation photograph), 134 (color ill.), 157 (installation photograph), 169 (installation photograph), 271, cat. 49, as Suprematism: Painterly Realism of a Football-Player, Color Masses of the Fourth Dimension.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Kazimir Malevich, 1878–1935, September 16–November 4, 1990; traveled to Los Angeles, Armand Hammer Museum of Art, November 28, 1990–January 1, 1991; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 7–March 24, 1991, pp. 75 (color ill.), 209, cat. 47, as Suprematism: Painterly Realism of a Football-Player, Color Masses of the Fourth Dimension.
Bonn, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Europa, Europa: Das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde in Mittel und Osteuropa, May 27–October 16, 1994, vol. 1, pp. 138 (installation photograph), 152 (color ill.); vol. 2, p. 163, as Suprematismus: Fußballspieler.
Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Die Epoche der Moderne Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert, May 7–July 27, 1997, p. 230 (color ill.), cat. 130, as Suprematismus: Malerischer Realismus eines Fußballspielers; translated as Christos M. Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal, eds., The Age of Modernism: Art in the Twentieth Century (Berlin: Zeitgeist-Gesellschaft; Ostfildern-Ruit: G. Hatje, 1997).
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism, May 13–September 7, 2003; traveled to Berlin, Deutsche Guggenheim, January 14–April 27, 2003; Houston, The Menil Collection, October 3, 2003–January 11, 2004, p. 23 (installation photograph), 24 (color ill.), 25–26, 146 (color ill.), 253, 254 (installation photograph), 256 (installation photograph), as Suprematism: Painterly Realism of a Football-Player (Color Masses of the Fourth Dimension).
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Malevich in Focus: 1912–1922, February 19–June 30, 2010, no cat.
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Geometry of Kandinsky and Malevich, July 9–September 7, 2010, no cat.
New York, Malevich and the American Legacy, Gagosian Gallery, March 3–April 30, 2011, pp. 36-37 (installation photograph), 48-49 (color ill.), 52-53 (installation photograph), 176-77, 180, 181-82, 218-219 (installation photograph), 226-27 (installation photograph), 236 (color ill.).
Basel, Fondation Beyeler, In Search of 0,10: The Last Exhibition of Futurist Painting, Oct. 4, 2015-Jan. 10, 2016, cat. 40
Art Institute of Chicago, Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test, October 29, 2017–January 15, 2018, cat. 94.
The artist (d. 1935); by descent to the artist’s heirs; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, January 2011.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.