Ivan Kliun (1873-1943)

Ivan Vasilevich Kliun, a contemporary of Kazimir Malevich, worked on the boundaries of Suprematism and early Constructivism. Like Malevich, he was interested in the problem of colour in a flat art composition, as in a multi-dimensional work.

The son of a carpenter, Kliun paid particular attention to the rich texture and shades of colour of different types of wood. Kliun shared the Tatlinian veneration for 'materials' by which found objects are considered to have an intrinsic meaning due to their unique form and texture. Following this line of reasoning, their creative assemblage emphasises each object's pure and raw strength, independently and as a whole. The refined simplicity of this assemblage pays homage to Kliun's explorations into the rendition of space through the weaving of abstract planar surfaces. The academically-established genre of sculptural relief is revived with a radical Cubo-Futurist twist.

Kliun experimented with an 'assortment of materials' in the spirit of Tatlin right up until 1916. Kliun, the Suprematist did not accept the the transition from construction to the creation of utilitarian objects and the appearance of Constructivism. For him, a painting was always a pure, artistic experiment, and never a technical project.