What: "Peasant Scene" by Kazimir Malevich of Russia in 1912 Pencil on Paper
Where to find it: IU Art Museum
Why you should care: Before developing his signature geometric, abstract style known as Suprematism, Malevich participated in the neo-primitivist movement that swept the Russian avant-garde prior to World War I. Urban artists, enthralled by the Russian peasantry's disappearing way of life, and searching for ways to mark their art with the stamp of their Russian identity, turned to peasant life and folklore for subject matter. Malevich's abstract geometric inclinations can already be seen, however, in this neo-primitivist drawing. He simplified the peasants' bodies into cylindrical and pyramidal shapes and rendered the ground as a collection of geometric planes.
