Inspired by Malevich

A couple of weeks ago, we had a day trip to London to the Tate Modern to see the Malevich exhibition.  Kazimir Malevich was born in Kiev in 1879. His parents were Polish. His progress as a painter led to a revolution in art.

In a famous exhibition of his work in St Petersburg in 1915, The Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10, the first version of his iconic painting Black Square was exhibited.  The Tate exhibition displayed nine out of the twelve paintings in the same layout as the original exhibition.  The Black Square was placed in the corner of the room in the place which, in Russian orthodox homes, was reserved for icons, traditionally known as the red corner.

The exhibition was amazing.


I decided to make a cushion cover - inspired by Malevich .


I started by choosing colours and cutting coloured paper into strips. Black, red, blue, grey and yellow seemed appropriate.  I placed them on a sheet of paper the same size as the front of the cushion and moved them around until I had a design that I liked.  This was an interesting exercise.  I tried strips of different widths and lengths until I was satisfied.

Once I was happy with the arrangement, I wove coloured bands using cottolin.

woven bands, coloured strips and paper design.

I used iron on  bondaweb.  This ensured that when the bands were cut to size they would not fray. Also, I could iron the bands onto the material for the cushion cover so that they were fixed in place.

Ironing the bondaweb onto the bands..

           




After applying the bondaweb, I cut the bands to size and placed them on the material. Ironing the bands, stuck them onto the cloth.
             


   Rather than weave a wide blue band, I used two narrow bands together to get the width I needed.  I carefully sewed the bands around the edges.

             
This is a close up of the blue band where it crosses the grey band.  Once it was sewn in place the join was invisible.

The cushion is now in place under the poster of a painting by Malevich, Supremus No. 38 (1915 - 1916).

My cushion design inspired by Malevich.

After we had seen the Malevich exhibition, we went to the Gallery for Russian Art and Design. In their current exhibition about the First World War, there were also some illustrations by Malevich.



Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes

November 2014