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Kazimir Malevich’s Morning in the Village after Snowstorm (1912) stands as a remarkable testament to the rapid evolution of early 20th-century avant-garde art. Painted during a time of radical experimentation, this work exemplifies Malevich’s engagement with Cubo-Futurism while hinting at the beginnings of his journey toward Suprematism, a movement he would later pioneer. With its fractured forms, bold use of color, and dynamic composition, the painting offers a rich field for analysis, revealing layers of cultural, historical, and artistic significance.
Historical Context: The Russian Avant-Garde Awakens
To fully grasp the depth of Morning in the Village after Snowstorm, it is essential to situate it within its historical framework. The year 1912 marked a pivotal moment for the Russian avant-garde, as artists sought to break free from the constraints of academic realism and embrace new visual languages inspired by European modernist movements. In Russia, artists like Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, and Kazimir Malevich began synthesizing Western innovations with native Russian traditions.
Malevich, who was in his early 30s at the time, was deeply influenced by both French Cubism and Italian Futurism. These two schools prioritized, respectively, the fragmentation of form and the depiction of dynamic movement. In Russia, these influences were merged into what became known as Cubo-Futurism — a hybrid style that fused the analytical structure of Cubism with the energetic propulsion of Futurism.
Simultaneously, Russia was experiencing immense social, political, and technological upheaval. The encroaching shadow of World War I, coupled with the rapid industrialization of the Russian Empire and mounting revolutionary tensions, fostered an atmosphere of existential uncertainty and creative urgency. Artists like Malevich responded by crafting visual languages that could capture the complexities of this transitional era.
Composition and Subject Matter: A Village Reimagined
At first glance, Morning in the Village after Snowstorm presents a scene that is deceptively simple: a village after a snowfall, with two women walking down a snow-covered street lined with houses and trees. However, Malevich abstracts the scene to such a degree that it transforms into a highly stylized, almost otherworldly landscape.
The village is reduced to a series of geometric planes and angular structures. The houses are depicted as crystalline forms, with slanted rooftops that seem to pierce the sky. Their facades are simplified into flat, color-blocked surfaces in shades of red, blue, black, and tan. The trees are rendered as cylindrical trunks with spherical foliage, resembling lollipops or stylized balloons.
The two figures — presumably peasant women — are similarly abstracted. Their bodies are composed of cone-like shapes, while their heads appear as truncated pyramids or ovals. Despite their distorted forms, there is a clear sense of motion as they stride forward, their cloaks fluttering behind them.
The snow itself is not rendered with soft, blended textures but with hard-edged planes of white, intersected by shadows and gradients of grey and blue. This treatment gives the snow a sculptural quality, transforming it from a soft substance into a dynamic, multifaceted surface.
Color Palette: The Tension of Warm and Cool
Malevich’s color choices play a crucial role in the painting’s visual impact. The dominant hues are stark whites and cool blues, which effectively convey the crisp chill of a snowy morning. These are counterbalanced by vivid splashes of red, ochre, and black, which create striking contrasts and focal points.
The use of red in particular draws attention to the figures’ garments, making them stand out against the otherwise monochromatic landscape. This not only aids in distinguishing the human forms from the architectural elements but also introduces a sense of vitality and warmth into an otherwise cold environment.
The gradient sky, transitioning from a pale blue at the horizon to a soft, warm red near the top, suggests the early morning light beginning to penetrate the frosty air. This subtle but crucial detail imbues the scene with a gentle sense of awakening, aligning with the painting’s title.
Cubo-Futurist Techniques: Breaking and Reconstructing Form
One of the most striking features of Morning in the Village after Snowstorm is Malevich’s masterful use of Cubo-Futurist principles. Unlike traditional perspective that organizes space into neat foreground, middle ground, and background, Malevich fractures and flattens the spatial planes. The viewer’s eye zigzags across the canvas, encountering multiple angles and viewpoints simultaneously.
The village is not presented as a fixed scene but as a dynamic field of intersecting planes and shifting perspectives. This fragmentation challenges the viewer’s perception, forcing a more active engagement with the image. Forms appear to rotate and pivot on invisible axes, creating a sensation of latent movement even within the stillness of a snow-covered village.
The dynamism typical of Futurism is subtly embedded in the composition. The figures’ strides suggest forward motion, while the angular houses and trees seem to sway or tilt in response. Even the shadows in the snow seem energized, forming rhythmic arcs that lead the eye forward.
Symbolism and Cultural Resonances
Though heavily abstracted, Morning in the Village after Snowstorm retains clear references to Russian village life. The depiction of peasant women and the rural setting reflect a continued interest in narodnost — a uniquely Russian preoccupation with peasant culture, folk traditions, and the rural landscape.
This focus was particularly significant in pre-revolutionary Russia, where many intellectuals and artists romanticized the simplicity and purity of the countryside as an antidote to urban alienation and Western decadence. Malevich’s village is not a literal representation but an idealized, modernist reinterpretation of Russia’s spiritual heartland.
The snowstorm, while serving as a setting, may also symbolize the broader social and political turbulence sweeping Russia at the time. Yet, in the morning light, there is a suggestion of renewal and hope, as though the village — and perhaps Russia itself — might emerge transformed from the storm.
The Path to Suprematism
Morning in the Village after Snowstorm occupies a fascinating position within Malevich’s artistic evolution. In just a few years, he would go on to develop Suprematism, a non-objective art movement that entirely abandoned representational forms in favor of pure geometric abstraction.
Many of the formal experiments seen in this 1912 painting foreshadow this transition. The simplification of forms into basic geometric shapes, the use of stark contrasts between color fields, and the flattening of space all point toward Suprematist aesthetics.
Indeed, it is not difficult to imagine the cone-shaped women or the crystalline houses dissolving entirely into floating rectangles and circles, as they do in Malevich’s later masterpieces like Black Square (1915) or White on White (1918). Morning in the Village after Snowstorm can thus be seen as a critical stepping stone in his quest to strip art down to its most essential visual elements.
The Influence of French Cubism and Italian Futurism
Malevich’s exposure to Western European avant-garde art played a significant role in shaping this work. French Cubism, especially as practiced by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, had introduced the fragmentation of form and multiple perspectives that Malevich adopted here. However, unlike the subdued color palette often associated with early Cubism, Malevich retained a vibrant, almost folkloric use of color.
Italian Futurism, with its emphasis on speed, technology, and mechanization, contributed to the sense of dynamism that pervades the painting. Although Morning in the Village after Snowstorm depicts a timeless, rural subject, its execution suggests the pulsing energy of modern life. The snow seems to vibrate, the figures stride purposefully, and the architectural forms appear in flux.
This blending of influences was not mere imitation but a deliberate synthesis that led to the distinct language of Russian Cubo-Futurism, of which Malevich became one of the most important exponents.
Psychological and Emotional Undertones
Beyond its formal innovations, Morning in the Village after Snowstorm resonates on a psychological level. There is a quiet sense of resilience and routine in the figures’ progress through the snow. Despite the cold and the aftermath of the storm, life continues; the women go about their day, their brightly colored garments asserting their presence against the harsh landscape.
At the same time, the angular, disjointed forms can evoke a sense of unease. The village appears almost precarious, its structures tilted and fragmented, as though vulnerable to collapse. This tension between stability and instability mirrors the broader anxieties of a world on the brink of monumental change.
Reception and Legacy
At the time of its creation, Morning in the Village after Snowstorm was part of a broader movement that was still largely unfamiliar to Russian audiences accustomed to realist and academic art. Yet, within avant-garde circles, Malevich’s innovations were met with considerable interest and admiration.
In retrospect, this painting is often cited as a seminal example of early Russian modernism. It encapsulates a moment of transition — both for Malevich personally and for Russian art as a whole — capturing the tension between representation and abstraction, tradition and modernity.
Today, the painting holds a secure place within the canon of 20th-century art history, celebrated not only for its aesthetic brilliance but also for its historical significance as a precursor to Suprematism and non-objective abstraction.
Conclusion: A Masterful Balancing Act
Morning in the Village after Snowstorm stands as a brilliant convergence of multiple forces: the avant-garde experimentation of the early 20th century, the cultural nostalgia for Russian peasant life, and Malevich’s own evolving artistic philosophy. In this single canvas, we witness the artist negotiating the competing demands of representation and abstraction, Western modernism and Russian tradition, dynamism and stillness.
Malevich’s ability to transform a simple village scene into a pulsating, multifaceted composition speaks to his extraordinary vision and technical prowess. The painting remains as fresh and compelling today as it was over a century ago, inviting viewers to lose themselves in its crystalline forms, vibrant contrasts, and poetic ambiguities.
In Morning in the Village after Snowstorm, we do not merely see a village. We see the very process of seeing — fractured, reconstructed, and elevated into the realm of modernist innovation.