realist. 9 It was a divided society, where minorities were often oppressed by the authorities.
Much of the Russian Avant-Garde would come from this background. Lissitzky was Jewish.
Malevich was of Polish origin. 10 These men understood the divisions between Russian
culture well.
‘Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge’, El Lissitzky, 1919, lithograph .
The First World War would prove to be the crucible that would forge the new art of
Russia. For example, before Stalin would brutally enforce the supremacy of socialist realism,
Suprematists would attempt to capture the transcendental nature of art to combat the
divisions within Russian society. 11 El Lisitzky, the protégé of Malevich, was embraced by the
9 Palko Karasz, Two London exhibitions show changes in Russia during World War 1 (2023), <https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/arts/international/two-london-exhibitions-show-changes-in-russia- during-world-war-i.html> [accessed 6 January 2024] (para. 3 of 27). 10 Steven G. Marks, 'Abstract Art and the Regeneration of Mankind', New England Review , 24.1 (2003), 53-79 (pp. 53-54). 11 Peter Stupples, 'The Notation of Radical Change in the Graphic and Painterly Systems of Malevich and Lissitzky', New Zealand Slavonic Journal (1994), 171-197 (pp. 176-177).
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