by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Introduction
A worker bends over a sharpening wheel. His hands, blade, feet and machine seem to break apart and come together again in a close-packed arrangement of blue, green, grey and orange. This is Kazimir Malevich's The Knife Grinder, also catalogued as The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering. The oil painting dates to 1912–13 and belongs to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, as 1941.553. Its approximately square canvas measures 79.5 × 79.5 centimetres. Unlike Malevich's later nonobjective pictures, it still gives us an identifiable person and task; unlike a conventional work scene, it makes the rhythms of a moving person and wheel the picture's organizing problem. [1], [2], [3]
The longer title matters. The English “Principle of Glittering” translates part of the Russian title Tochil’schik Printsip Mel’kaniia. Sources also render that last phrase “Principle of Flickering.” Both alternatives point toward a visual effect of quick change or shimmer, though a translation alone cannot prove that every small facet represents a metal spark. The viewer can find the wheel and the sharpening action, then see how repetition and small shifts make a stationary canvas feel busy. [1], [2]
At a Glance
- ArtistKazimir Malevich (1879–1935)
- Yale-linked catalogue titleTochil’schik Printsip Mel’kaniia (The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering)
- Short titleThe Knife Grinder or The Knifegrinder
- Date1912–13 in the Yale-linked catalogue
- MediumOil on canvas
- Dimensions79.5 × 79.5 cm
- CollectionYale University Art Gallery, New Haven, accession 1941.553
- Collection historyGift of the Société Anonyme, 1941; earlier Berlin 1922 display is recorded in catalogue sources
- Image on this pageFull-canvas exact-work reproduction, credited to Yale as provider on Commons; see source 3
Contents
- Where are the worker and his machine?
- How does a still painting suggest movement?
- What makes it Cubo-Futurist?
- Titles, date and early display
- The Société Anonyme and Yale
Where this work sits in Malevich’s career
The Knife Grinder
1912–13White on White
1918Sportsmen (Russian Museum canvas)
1928–1932Girl with a Comb in Her Hair
1932–33Girl with a Red Staff
1932–33Watch: Kazimir Malevich
Three short films place Black Square, the 1915 exhibition and Malevich’s later work in context.
Kazimir Malevich | TateShots
A curator introduces Black Square, the 0.10 exhibition and Malevich’s later work.
Watch on YouTubeWhere are the worker and his machine?
The painting rewards a slow search for the figure. Near the upper centre, pieces of a head are assembled from dark, pale and warm-toned planes. A cap-like shape and the suggestion of eyes bring a person into focus. Broad blue and green masses bend around him, making the upper body seem compressed over the task. Across the middle are several hands or hand-like sequences gripping a dark horizontal blade. The hands are among the clearest clues that this is work rather than a portrait posed for the viewer. [2], [3]
Below the hands, at the lower right of centre, a large pale circular form suggests the turning grindstone. It is not drawn as a clean diagram. Thin divisions, overlapping wedges and darker parts break the disc, and a narrow support seems to descend beside it. Toward the bottom, angular forms can be read as legs and a pedal mechanism. The exact count of limbs and machine pieces is deliberately hard to settle from the image alone. It is more useful to notice how the figure, blade and wheel interlock than to assign a separate mechanical label to every painted plane. [3], [4]
The knife cuts through the middle of the composition. Its dark horizontal direction gives a temporary line of stability in an image crowded with diagonals and curves. Around it, the fingers are segmented into small cylinders, and the arms are broken into coloured blocks. The eye can follow the line from one hand through the blade to the other, then down to the wheel. This route reassembles an action from fragments: a person keeping a blade against a rotating surface. [3], [4]
The lower half is especially active. A long dark diagonal runs toward the bottom edge, while paler and warmer wedges push in the opposite direction. The large wheel occupies a striking amount of the right half, but does not isolate itself from the worker. Body parts cross its area; machine parts seem to continue into the figure. Earlier museum writing describes the man as becoming one with his machine. That is an interpretation of the painting's close visual fit between worker and tool, not a literal claim that metal and flesh are indistinguishable materials. [3], [4], [5]
On the right, grey rectangular planes step upward. On the left, smaller blocks and tube-like forms cluster behind the worker. A MoMA catalogue compares the right-side steps with those in Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase while acknowledging that successive steps are a broad visual device, not proof of a direct quotation. The surrounding forms provide a rhythm and a setting without supplying a fully mapped workshop or street address. Calling each block a particular piece of furniture would claim more than the image shows. [3], [5]
Despite its near-square support, the picture is not balanced like a centered emblem. The wheel swells on the right; the worker's dark blue mass pushes left; the blade joins them across the middle. Blue and green dominate, interrupted by rusty orange, small yellows, warm flesh-like segments and flashes of pale grey. Dark and light sides of the cylindrical forms make them look rounded, but the abrupt switches from one colour plane to the next continually expose the painting's constructed surface. [1], [3]
How does a still painting suggest movement?
The repeated fingers, overlapping blade shapes and broken legs can be read as traces of action. Yale educational writing describes the painting as capturing a sequence of moments in sharpening. Another Yale publication pays particular attention to the contrast between a relatively firm leg and the multiple positions of a vibrating leg. These are strong readings of visible repetition. The picture nevertheless does not label each fragment with a time stamp. Its movement is a painted effect built from rhythm, angular changes and colour, not a recovered film strip of one worker's exact motions. [2], [4]
The wheel offers the most obvious circular motif. Its implied rotation is reinforced by angled spokes or divisions, and by the way nearby shapes fan outward. A viewer might imagine the foot pumping the pedal, the wheel spinning and the blade crossing its edge. The visible composition supports that broad action, while leaving the precise mechanics partly unresolved. This ambiguity is productive: the viewer keeps testing where one form ends and another begins, just as the image asks the eye to reassemble a continuous task from fragments. [3], [4]
“Glittering” may suggest the changing glint of a sharpened edge, reflective metal or the fleeting brightness created by movement. The painting includes pale facets that interrupt darker blues and greys, particularly around the central action. Yet there is no securely identified spray of individual sparks in the source image. The title can guide a reading of flicker without license to assert that every yellow or white plane is an actual spark. A good close look keeps the title and the visible paint in conversation rather than making the picture a coded machine diagram. [1], [3]
There is also no single direction in which the action must be read. One viewer may begin with the bright wheel and discover the face later; another may find the hands first. The tight composition makes the grinder's focused labour feel continuous because so many visual routes loop back to the work at the centre. The wheel is both an object in the scene and a compositional anchor. Its disc and the square support hold together a picture that otherwise threatens to scatter into parts. [3], [4]
What makes it Cubo-Futurist?
Malevich's painting belongs to a moment when Russian artists were actively reworking Cubist and Futurist pictorial ideas. In broad terms, Cubist fragmentation makes it possible to rebuild body and machine from geometric planes; Futurist interest in movement helps explain why their parts seem to recur and vibrate. The label Cubo-Futurist is a useful description of this work's visible method, and Yale's own educational writing uses it. It should not erase what is specific to Malevich here: an ordinary manual occupation becomes the engine of a dense, square composition. [2], [4]
The worker's subject is important. In Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement, a carrier is likewise constructed from repeated cones and angled planes. Both pictures retain a human task even as the body becomes hard to separate from surrounding form. This painting adds the pronounced circular wheel and a more compact encounter between person and tool. The comparison is about shared problems of work and movement, not a claim that the two canvases show the same person or were made in a known order. [1], [3], [6]
Older MoMA writing sees affinities with Fernand Léger's early Cubist painting and compares the steps on the right to Duchamp. Such comparisons locate The Knife Grinder within a wider early-twentieth-century experiment in planes, machines and repeated motion. They do not establish that Malevich copied a particular Léger canvas or saw Duchamp's painting before making this one. The object's own arrangement—hands on blade, body over wheel, and square pressure around the action—has to carry the analysis. [5]
The picture is still representational. We can point to a man, the blade, a wheel and the physical effort of sharpening. Calling it “abstract” can be reasonable in the loose sense that forms have been radically reorganized, but calling it nonobjective Suprematism would confuse two stages of Malevich's work. In the first 1915 Black Square, a recognizable worker and machine have disappeared. In the 1915 Boy with a Knapsack, a human title remains while the image presents two simple coloured planes. The earlier grinder shows how far an identified subject could be compressed and multiplied before that later break. [1], [6], [7]
A straightforward “march toward abstraction” misses the painting's energy as a work scene. Malevich did not merely hide a future square in the wheel. He made a picture in which the sharpening task becomes hard to detach from its visual rhythm. The wheel's circle, the worker's bent form and the blade's horizontal run act together. The continued legibility of the labour is part of its accomplishment, not a flaw on the way to something else. [3], [4], [5]
Titles, date and early display
The Yale-linked Société Anonyme catalogue calls the work Tochil’schik Printsip Mel’kaniia (The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering) and dates it 1912–1913. Shorter museum and popular accounts use The Knife Grinder or The Knifegrinder. “Glittering” and “Flickering” are English attempts to render the title's final phrase. Different spellings and translations do not create separate Yale paintings: 1941.553, the 79.5-centimetre square format and the worker-at-wheel image identify this canvas. [1], [2], [3]
The Commons image metadata uses 1913 alone. That is a useful file label but not a reason to override Yale-associated catalogue dating of 1912–13. Older exhibition literature has also used circa 1912. The responsible date line remains a range, because the sources cited here do not establish an exact completion day or supply a reverse inscription that would settle one. [1], [3], [5]
Jeremy Howard's University of St Andrews research reports that Malevich showed The Knife Grinder at the Target exhibition in Moscow in 1913. That is a specific scholarly attribution, not a detail independently checked here against the original exhibition list. It fits the documented Cubo-Futurist period and explains why the painting belongs to the public story of Malevich before Suprematism. The article does not infer an exact wall position or audience response from the exhibition name. [8]
The Yale-linked record and Commons metadata also associate the painting with the First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin in 1922. This is a separate Berlin event from Malevich's own 1927 exhibition journey. The distinction matters: it would be easy to import the custody history of the 1927 works he left with Hugo Häring into this Yale painting simply because both stories involve Berlin. The sources used here support the 1922 display association, the Société Anonyme collection and the 1941 Yale gift; they do not support that 1927-to-Häring route for this canvas. [1], [3]
The Société Anonyme and Yale
The accession number 1941.553 and Yale-linked catalogue credit identify The Knife Grinder as part of the Société Anonyme gift to Yale in 1941. The Société Anonyme was an organization devoted to bringing modern art before American audiences, and its collection made works such as Malevich's available for study in the United States. The exact prior ownership chain should not be padded with guessed purchases or dates. A later historian reports that Katherine Dreier acquired the work at the 1922 Berlin Russian exhibition, but the short object facts independently established here are the Yale holding, the Société Anonyme credit and the gift year. [1], [2], [3]
An official Yale publication and its more recent annual report continue to discuss the painting as a significant Cubo-Futurist object. The current Yale object page is the right place to check display status before visiting; gallery placement is changeable, and a collection location is not a promise that the painting is on the wall today. The page's image shows a faithful full-canvas reproduction associated with Yale, not a live view of the object in a particular gallery. [1], [3], [4], [9]
The public-domain mark on the Commons file and Yale's role as image provider should be kept distinct. Commons describes a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional public-domain painting as free of known copyright restrictions. That is Commons' status statement, not a bespoke permission letter from Yale. The exact file, its 2,986 × 3,000-pixel resolution, its 300-dpi embedded metadata and the resize used on this page are recorded in the image ledger. No details have been cropped or digitally annotated to imply evidence beyond the source image. [3]
Documented Malevich collection records
Explore 665 catalogued source objects from museums and archives, including 87 exact links to local artwork pages. Records include works, print impressions, book components and archival items; they are not a deduplicated or complete oeuvre. Medium labels are grouped into broad English categories. Titles link to local artwork pages where available.
| Artwork title | Date | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| "Front line soldier" (Ratnik 1-go razriada) | Δεκαετία 1920 | Photograph |
| [Le Cheval blanc] | [circa 1930 - 1931] | Painting |
| [Sensation du danger] | [1930 - 1931] | Painting |
| A Game in Hell, Petrograd, 1913 (2nd expanded edition) | 1913 | Book |
| A Game in Hell: A Poem (Igra v adu: Poema) | 1914 | Book |
| A Peasant Woman Goes for Water | 1913 | |
| A pork-butcher came around to Lodz and we said "Good day." From Lodz to neighboring Radom he passed, and left behind one sorry ass. (Podoshel kolbasnik k Lodzi / my skazali : 'Pan dobrodzi!' Nu, a s Lodz'iu riadom Radom / i ushel s podbitym zadom.) | c. 1914 | |
| Alogisme 1. Portret Moskovskoy Damy (Alogisme 1. Portret van een Moskouse dame) | 1914 | Drawing |
| Alogisme 2. Vis, zaag, lepel, telegraafpaal | 1914 | Drawing |
| Alogisme 22. Malorossiyanin (Alogisme 22. Een kleine Rus) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Alogisme 23. Sobol, koshka (Alogisme 23. Sabel, kat) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Alogisme 29. Derevnya | 1915 | Drawing |
| Alogisme 3. Chastichnoe zatmenie (Alogisme 3. Gedeeltelijke eclips) | 1914 | Drawing |
| Alogisme 4. Apteka (Alogisme 4. Apotheek) | 1914 | Drawing |
| Alpha | 1923 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| An Austrian was going to Radzivily | 1914 | |
| An Austrian was going to Radzivily | 1914 | |
| Analytical Chart | 1924–27 | Drawing |
| Analytical Chart | 1924–27 | Drawing |
| Analytical Chart | 1924–27 | Drawing |
| Analytical Chart | 1924–27 | Drawing |
| Analytical Chart | 1924–27 | Drawing |
| Announcement for Malevich's lecture in Orenburg | 1917-1920 | |
| Apple Tree in Blossom | c. 1930 | Painting |
| Architecton Alpha | 1920 | Sculpture or object |
| Architecton Gota | 1923 (?) | Sculpture or object |
| Architectonische constructie | 1917 (versie ca. 1925) | Drawing |
| Architectons and Figurines | Späte 1920er Jahre | Sculpture or object |
| Architecturaal-kosmische compositie | 1920 (latere versie (1927?)) | Drawing |
| Architectural construction | ca. 1917 | Drawing |
| Aritmetica | 1913 | Drawing |
| Aritmetica | 1913 | Drawing |
| Arkhitekton Zeta | 1926 | Photograph |
| At Harvesting (Marfa and Vanka) | 1928-1929 | Painting |
| Aveniriens | vers 1931 - 1932 | Drawing |
| Aviator | 1914 | Painting |
| Aviator v Pobede nad solntsem (Vliegenier in Overwinning op de zon) | 1913 (versie ca. 1929) | Drawing |
| Baadsters op de rug gezien | 1910 | Painting |
| Back cover from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Back cover from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Bader | 1911 | Drawing |
| Betende Bäuerin | 1933 | Drawing |
| Biddende figuur | motief ca 1922, versie voor 1927 | Drawing |
| Birkenhain | um 1905 - 06 | Painting |
| Black Circle | c. 1923 | Painting |
| Black Cross | c. 1923 | Painting |
| Black quadrilateral | 1915 | Painting |
| Black Square | c. 1923 | Painting |
| Black Square and Circle | 1920-1921 | Drawing |
| Black Square and White Cylindrical Form | 1915 | Drawing |
| Black Square, Second State | 1915/20 | Drawing |
| Blacksmith | Study. 1933 | Painting |
| Blestifze (Pencils) | 1917–1918 | Drawing |
| Boer met baard | ca 1930 | Drawing |
| Boerenvrouw in het veld | ca. 1929-1930 | Drawing |
| Boerenvrouw met emmers | 1912 | Painting |
| Book of Selected Poems (Kniga izbrannykh Stikhotvorenii) | 1930 | Book |
| Boy (Vanka) | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Boy wuth knapsack / Mal'chyk s rantsem | 1915 | |
| Brooch | 1920 | Sculpture or object |
| Brooch | 1920 | Sculpture or object |
| Bubnovy Valet 21. Boerenvrouw met kind | 1911-1912 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Bubnovy Valet 40. Portret (van M.F. Larionov?) | 1910 | Drawing |
| Bubnovy Valet 41. Na uglu stoit apteka, lyubov sushit tseloveka (De drogist is op de hoek, van liefde droogt een man uit) | 1910-1911 (versie ca. 1930) | Drawing |
| Bubnovy Valet 42. Portret moei rodstvennitsy (Bubnovy Valet 42. Portret van mijn familielid) | 1911 | Drawing |
| Bubnovy Valet 43. Kop van een boer | 1912 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Bubnovy Valet 44. Dansend paar | 1912 | Drawing |
| Bubnovy Valet 57. Lopende man | 1911 | Drawing |
| Bubnovy valet 8. Kop van een boer | 1912 | Drawing |
| Budetliyansky silach (Futuristische sterke man) | 1913 (versie 1915) | Drawing |
| Bêta | avant 1926 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| Car and Lady | Photograph | |
| Carpenter | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Carré noir | [1923 - 1930] | Sculpture or object |
| Chelovek v ochkakh (Man met bril) | ca 1929 | Drawing |
| Compositie 1 z (Supremus nr. 67) | 1916 (versie jaren 1920) | Drawing |
| Compositie 10 t (Suprematisme: constructief moment) | 1917 | Drawing |
| Compositie 11 t (Supremus nr.18: constructievorming afhankelijk van de beweging naar een bol ) | 1916 | Drawing |
| Compositie 13 t (Supremus nr 38) | 1915-1916 | Drawing |
| Compositie 13 t (Supremus nr 38) | 1915-1916 (gedrukt 1920, annotaties jaren 1920) | |
| Compositie 14 t Oshchushchenie elektrichestva (Compositie 14 t Gevoel van electriciteit) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Compositie 15 k (Suprematisme) | 1916 (versie begin jaren 1920) | Drawing |
| Compositie 15 q (Supremus nr. 118) | 1918 | Drawing |
| Compositie 16 t (Suprematisme: groot zwart trapezium en vierkant tussen rechthoeken en lijnen) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Compositie 2 i (Suprematisme: gecombineerd gevoel: cirkel en vierkant) | 1916 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Compositie 2 t (Verlengd vierkant met elementen overdwars) | 1915 (versie ca. 1920) | Drawing |
| Compositie 2 z Obshchushchenie magnita (Compositie 2 z Gevoel van een magneet) | 1916 (hernomen in 1919, versie jaren 1920) | Drawing |
| Compositie 3 t | 1916 | Drawing |
| Compositie 4 l Suprematisme van de geest | 1919 | Drawing |
| Compositie 4 t (Suprematisme: cirkel tussen rechthoeken en driehoeken) | 1916 | Drawing |
| Compositie 4 z (Supremus nr. 84) | 1916 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Compositie 5 l Suprematisme van de geest | 1919 | Drawing |
| Compositie 6 d (Tekening verwant aan ‘Huis in aanbouw’) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Compositie 6 t Obshchushchenie vremeni (Compositie 6 t Gevoel van tijd) | 1916 | Drawing |
| Compositie 9 b. Fevralizm kak emotionizm (Compositie 9 b. Februarisme als emotionisme) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Compositie 9 h (Suprematisme: kruis en drie rechthoeken) | 1916 (versie 1920) | Drawing |
| Compositie 9 k (Suprematisme: zeven rechthoeken) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Compositie 9 t (Suprematisme: vier ruimtelijke elementen tegen een zwart trapezium) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Composition 1 e (Suprematisme: vierkant op diagonaal vlak) | 1915 | Drawing |
| Composition 1 t | [1916 / vers 1920] | Drawing |
| Composition 14 f | [1918] | Drawing |
| Composition 15 t | 1916 | Drawing |
| Composition 2 a | [1917 - 1918] | Drawing |
| Composition 3 z | [1919 / avant 1930] | Drawing |
| Composition 5 x | [été 1915] | Drawing |
| Composition 5 x | [été 1915] | Drawing |
| Composition alogique | [1915] | Drawing |
| Composition with La Gioconda (Partial Eclipse) | 1914 | Painting |
| Compositions 11 R | circa 1915–16 | Drawing |
| Construction 5 h | 1916 | Drawing |
| Costume study for the Budetlyan Athlete in Victory over the Sun | 1913 | Drawing |
| Cow and Violin | 1913 | Painting |
| Cow and Violin from On New Systems in Art (O Novykh Sistemakh Visk Usstve) | 1911–19 | |
| Croix [noire] | [1915] | Painting |
| Croix noire | [vers 1923 - 1926] | Sculpture or object |
| Dame | 1915 | Drawing |
| Dame an der Straßenbahnhaltestelle | 1913 | Drawing |
| Dame bij reclamezuil | 1914 | Painting |
| De gardist | 1913-1914 | Other |
| De houthakker (recto) / Boerenvrouwen in kerk (verso) | 1912 | Painting |
| De likdoornsnijder | 1911 | Drawing |
| De likdoornsnijder | 1911 | Drawing |
| De provincie | 1910 | Painting |
| De tuinman | 1911 | Painting |
| De vloerboeners | 1911 | Drawing |
| Der Häftling | 1930 | Drawing |
| Der Tod eines Menschen, gleichzeitig im Flugzeug und der Eisenbahn | um 1913 | |
| Desk and Room (legacy site: Bureau and Room) | 1913 | Painting |
| Dessin de Lissitzky d'après "Supremus n° 58, composition dynamique jaune et noire", 1916, de Malevitch | [1924] | Drawing |
| Deux plans de villes | [1916 / avant 1930] | Drawing |
| Deux plans en extension | [1916 - 1919] | Drawing |
| Diagramm | around 1917/1918 | Drawing |
| Die Hochzeit | 1903 | Other |
| Die Waschfrau | 1911 | Painting |
| Dorp | ca. 1906 | Other |
| Dorpje | 1908 | Drawing |
| Drei Köpfe | after 1930 | Drawing |
| Drie boerenvrouwen | 1917-1919 of eind jaren 1920 | Drawing |
| Drie figuren in een landschap | ca. 1928-1930 | Drawing |
| Drie naakte vrouwen en een kind, peren plukkend | 1909 | Drawing |
| Drie staande vrouwen | 1930 | Drawing |
| Drie vrouwenfiguren | ca 1905-1906 | Drawing |
| Druckstock für Holzschnitt | 1920 | |
| Dynamic Construction | 1923 | Photograph |
| Dynamic Figure from On New Systems in Art (O Novykh Sistemakh V Iskusstve) | 1911 | |
| Dynamic Suprematism | 1915/16 | Painting |
| Dynamisch suprematisme | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Een Engelsman in Moskou | 1914 | Painting |
| Een paar onder bomen | ca 1929 | Drawing |
| Elegant gezelschap in een park | ca 1908 | Drawing |
| Elementarer Suprematismus | 1917 | Drawing |
| Eléments d'architectone | [après 1924] | Drawing |
| Eléments non identifiés | [1923 - 1935] | Sculpture or object |
| Engelsman in Moskou | 1913-1914 | Drawing |
| Entwurf für das Gemälde 'Die roten Häuser' | 1910 | Drawing |
| Entwurf für die Bemalung der Pfeiler aus der Serie von Entwürfen für die Ausgestaltung des Roten Theaters in Leningrad | 1931 | Drawing |
| Entwurf für eine Deckenmalerei im Roten Theater in Leningrad | 1931 | Drawing |
| Eskiz k portretu Roslavtsa. Pesn golubym oblakam (Schets voor portret van de componist Roslavets. Lied van de blauwe wolken) | 1907-1908 | Drawing |
| Etude de paysan | fin 1911 | Drawing |
| Etyud suprematis 52 sistema A 4 | 1916-1917 (versie 1920-1927) | Drawing |
| Explodity (Vzorval') | 1913 | Book |
| Explodity (Vzorval') | 1913 | Book |
| Explodity (Vzorval) | 1913 | Book |
| Female Figure | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Female portrait | ca. 1910-1911 | Painting |
| Female Torso | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Female Torso | 1928-1929 | Painting |
| Figur mit ausgebreiteten Armen, ein Kreuz bildend | 1933 | Drawing |
| Figuren in Schwarz und Weiß | 1928/1930 | Drawing |
| Flower Seller | 1930 | Painting |
| Folio 1 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 15 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 17 verso from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 18 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 19 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 19 from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Folio 20 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 23 from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Folio 25 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 27 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 27 from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Folio 29 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 31 from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Folio 32 verso from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 34 verso from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 37 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 4 verso from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 7 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Folio 9 from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Footballer / Futbolist | 1915 | |
| Four Squares | 1915 | Painting |
| Fragmenten van een tekst over het suprematisme | 1927 | Other |
| From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism (Ot kubizma i futurizma k suprematizmu) | 1916 | Book |
| Front cover from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Fruit plukken / Overvloed | 1909 | Painting |
| Fuhrleute | 1909-1910 | Drawing |
| Full portrait of Malevich | 1931 | Photograph |
| Futuristische draak | 1913 | |
| Futurizm: dvizhenie cheloveka po lestnitse (Futurisme: beweging van een man op een trap) | 1919 | Drawing |
| Gebet II | um 1913 | |
| Gesellschaft in Zylindern | 1907 | Drawing |
| Girl in the Countryside | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Girls in a Field | 1928-1929 | Painting |
| Gliad', pogliad' uzh blizko Visly. Nemtsev puchit, znachit kislo. | 1914/1918? | |
| Glyad, poglyad, uzh blizko Visly | 1914 | |
| Golgatha | around 1911 | Drawing |
| Gota | 1923 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| Gota 2-a | 1923 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| Grafik ... | ca. 1923 | Other |
| Grafik dvizheniya tvorcheskikh edinits v beskonechnosti | ca. 1923 | Other |
| Grammatica | 1913 | Drawing |
| Harvesting | Study for a painting. 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Head of a Peasant | Early 1930s | Painting |
| Head of a Peasant | 1928-1929 | Painting |
| Head of a Peasant | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Hiëratisch suprematistisch kruis (groot kruis in zwart over rood op wit) | 1920-1921 | Painting |
| Houses of the Future Leningrad: Pilot's House | 1924 | Drawing |
| Huis, man, ladder | 1930-1931 | Drawing |
| Huit dessins suprématistes | [1917 / avant 1930] | Drawing |
| Huizen op het platteland | ca. 1906 | Other |
| Häuser und Kreuze (Golgatha) | 1930 | Drawing |
| I yu mane tor | ca. 1915 | Drawing |
| Igra v adu | 1914 | Other |
| Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1914 | Book |
| Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1914 | Book |
| Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1914 | Book |
| Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| II | 1913 | Drawing |
| Illustration for the book by Aleksei Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov "Igra v Adu»" (2nd edition, Moscow 1914) | 1914 | |
| Ils vont à l'église | 1928 - 1932 | Drawing |
| Into Wagons of the French, German Corpses Were Tightly Wrenched; Their English Brothers Carried Kegs Stuffed with Germans Who Lost Their Legs | c. 1914 | |
| Izbornik stikhov s poslesloviem rechiaria. 1907–1914 gg. (A Selection of Poems with an Afterword by the Wordsmith: 1907–1914) | 1914 | Book |
| Jnitsa | 1913 | Drawing |
| K.Malevich, M.Matiushin, A.Kruchenykh, St.Petersburg, December 1913 | 1913 | Photograph |
| K.Malevich, M.Matiushin, A.Kruchenykh, St.Petersburg, December 1913 | 1913 | Photograph |
| K.Malevich, M.Matiushin, A.Kruchenykh, St.Petersburg, December 1913 | 1913 | Photograph |
| Kabarett | 1930 | Drawing |
| Kazimir Malevich lying seriously ill in his bed, shortly before he died | 1935 | Photograph |
| Kettle with lid | 1923 | Sculpture or object |
| Komposition mit einer Figur | after 1930 | Drawing |
| Konstruktion | around 1915 | Drawing |
| Kop van een boer, kruis, en landschap | 1928-1929 | Drawing |
| Kop van een boerenmeisje | 1912 | Painting |
| Kop van een boerenvrouw | 1913 | Drawing |
| Kopf | 1930 | Drawing |
| Kopf | around 1930 | Drawing |
| Kostüm für das Stück 'Maskenball' | 1913 | Drawing |
| Krestyanka (Boerenvrouw) | 1913 | |
| Krestyanka idet po vodu (Boerin haalt water) | 1913 | |
| Kubisme 25. Avtoportret (Kubisme 25. Zelfportret) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Kubisme 6. Wandklok | 1913 | Drawing |
| Kubisme 9. Molitva (Kubisme 9. Gebed) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Kubistische compositie | ca 1925 | Drawing |
| Kubistische figuur staand op de rug gezien | 1912-1913 (versie ca. 1925) | Drawing |
| Kubofuturistische compositie met piano | 1913-1914 | Painting |
| Kubosuprematismus | 1916/1920 | Drawing |
| Kuppel des Volkshauses in Leningrad | 1931 | Drawing |
| Lamp - Musical Instruments | Δεκαετία 1920 | Photograph |
| Lamp / Muziekinstrumenten | 1913 | Painting |
| Landscape | 1911 | Painting |
| Landscape | c. 1906 | Painting |
| Landscape with a White House | 1928–1929 in Gasper-Hulvat 2012; Christie’s groups work with early-1930s landscapes | Painting |
| Landscape with a Yellow House (Winter Landscape) | c. 1906 | Painting |
| Landscape with Five Houses | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Landscape with house | c. 1905-1906 | Painting |
| Landschaft | around 1933/34 | Other |
| Landschaft (Der Winter) (Landscape (Winter)) | after 1927 | Painting |
| Lauf | 1917 | Drawing |
| Let's Grumble (Vozropshchem) | 1913 | Book |
| Liggende naakte vrouw met twee spelende kinderen | 1908 | Drawing |
| Lopende man met zaag onder de arm | ca. 1928-1929 | Drawing |
| Maaiende vrouw | 1913 | Drawing |
| Maaiende vrouw | 1913 | Drawing |
| Maaiende vrouw | 1913 | Drawing |
| Maaiende vrouw | 1912-1913 | Drawing |
| Magnetic construction | Drawing | |
| Magnetisch architectonische compositie | ca. 1920 (versie 1925-1926) | Drawing |
| Magnetischer Suprematismus | 1916 | Drawing |
| Male Portrait | 1933–1934 | Painting |
| Malevich archief | 1913-1927 | Other |
| Malevich with his students (UNOVIS) | Μάιος 1922 | Photograph |
| Man met zak | 1910-1911 | Painting |
| Manifesto handbill for the 0.10 exhibition | 1915 | Book |
| Mann in suprematistischer Landschaft | um 1930 - 31 | Painting |
| Mann mit Pferd | 1933 | Drawing |
| Manuscript with drawings, Page 27, 1 July 1916 | 1916 | Other |
| Maternity. Woman in Birth | 1908 | Drawing |
| Moederschap / Overvloed | 1910 | Painting |
| Morning in the Village after Snowstorm | 1912 | Painting |
| Muziekinstrument | 1913 | Drawing |
| Muziekinstrumenten | 1913-1914 | Drawing |
| Mystic Suprematism (Black Cross on Red Oval) | 1920–22 | Painting |
| Mysticus | 1930 | Drawing |
| Mystiek suprematisme (rood kruis op zwarte cirkel) | 1920-1922 | Other |
| Naakt met geheven handen | 1908 | Drawing |
| Nachtwandeling | 1909-1910 | Drawing |
| Nu i tresk-zhe, nu i grom-zhe byl ot niemtsev podlie Lomzhi. | 1914/1918? | |
| O Novykh Sistemakh V Iskusstve (On New Systems in Art) | 1919. (Prints executed 1910-1919). | Book |
| O novykh sistemakh v iskusstve. Statika i skorost' | 1919 | Other |
| O novykh systemakh v iskusstve. Statika i skorost' ( On New Systems in Art: Statics and Speed ) | 1919 | Book |
| O novykh systemakh v iskusstve: Statika i skorost’ (On New Systems in Art: Statics and Speed), Vitebsk | 1919 | Book |
| Ohne Titel | around 1904-1908 | Drawing |
| Ohne Titel | 1916 | Drawing |
| Ohne Titel | around 1931 | Drawing |
| Ohne Titel | 1916 | Drawing |
| Ohne Titel | around 1916 | Drawing |
| Ohne Titel (Untitled) | 1917–1930 | Drawing |
| Omslag van A. Kruchenykh en V. Khlebnikov, Igra v adu (Een spel in de hel) | 1913-1914 | |
| Omslag van Sezd Komitetov Derevenskoi Bednoty (Congres van Comités van Armoede op het Platteland) | 1918 | |
| Omslag van Troe (Het drietal) | 1913 | |
| Omslagontwerp voor Internatsional iskusstva (Internationale van de kunst) | 1918 | |
| Omslagontwerp voor N.N. Punin, Pervy tsikl lektsii (Eerste cyclus van lezingen) | 1920 | Drawing |
| Omslagontwerp voor Troe (Het drietal) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Ontwerp voor een architecton type 'Alfa' | ca 1925-1926 | Drawing |
| Ontwerp voor een architecton type Alfa | 1925-1929 | Drawing |
| Ontwerp voor een monument | ca. 1932-1933 | Drawing |
| Ontwerp voor een monument | ca. 1932-1933 | Drawing |
| Ontwerp voor een monument | ca. 1932-1933 | Drawing |
| Oogstende vrouwen/Het binnenhalen van de rogge II | 1912 | Other |
| Op de boulevard | 1910 | Painting |
| Opdoemende kruisvorm | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Ornements suprématistes | 1927 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| Ot kubizma i futurizma k suprematizmu. Novyi zhivopisnyi realizm (From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: New Painterly Realism) | 1916 | Book |
| Ot kubizma k suprematizmu. Novy zhivopisny realizm | 1916 | Other |
| Ot Sezanna do Suprematizma. Kritichesky ocherk | 1920 | Book |
| Ot Sezanna do Suprematizma. Kritichesky ocherk. | 1920 | Other |
| Paard en koets in beweging | 1913 | Drawing |
| Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack - Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension | 1915 | Painting |
| Painterly Realism of a Football Player—Color Masses in the 4th Dimension | Summer/fall 1915 | Painting |
| Patriotic poster against the Germans | 1914 | |
| Patriotic Poster Against the Germans | 1914 | |
| Patriotic Poster Against the Germans | 1914 | |
| Patriotic Poster Against the Germans | ||
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Patriotic propaganda postcards with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1914 | Book |
| Paysanne | [1912 / 1932] | Drawing |
| Paysanne et deux enfants | [1911 / avant 1930] | Drawing |
| Peasant | Between 1930–1932 | Painting |
| Peasant bringing Water | 1912 (Thema), 1920er Jahre (Ausführung) | Drawing |
| Peasant in a Field | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Peasant Woman | Early 1930s | Painting |
| Peasants | c. 1930 | Painting |
| Peasants | circa 1928 (NGA); 1928–1929 (Gasper-Hulvat) | Painting |
| Perfected Portrait of Ivan Kliun | 1913 | Painting |
| Peruyi Tsikl Lektsii | 1920 | Book |
| Pervyi tsikl lektsii chitannykh na kratkosrochnykh kursakh dlia uchitelei risovaniia (First Series of Lectures, Given at a Short-Term Course for Teachers of Drawing) | 1920 | Book |
| Plan d'éléments d'architectone | [après 1924] | Drawing |
| Planetaire constructie (magnetische kruisvorm) | 1916-1917 (ontwikkeld 1920-1922, latere versie (voor 1927)) | Drawing |
| Planetary-Architectural Suprematism | 1919-1920 | Drawing |
| Plate (folio 17) from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Plate (folio 21) from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Plate (folio 22) from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Po utru iz Lvova vyshli | 1914 | |
| Pobeda nad solntsem. Opera (Victory over the Sun: An Opera) | 1913 | Book |
| Podoshel kolbasnik k Lodzi | 1914 | Drawing |
| Pokhoronnoe byuro (Begrafeniskantoor) | 1914-1915 | Drawing |
| Porosiata | Saint Petersburg: 1913 | Book |
| Porosiata (Piglets) | 1913 | Book |
| Portrait of a Youth | 1933 | Painting |
| Portrait of M. V. Matyushin | 1913 in gallery-magazine object record; 1913–14 in Tretyakov education page | Painting |
| Portrait of the Artist’s Wife | 1933 | Painting |
| Portret M.V. Matyushina (Portret van M.V. Matyushin) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Portret stroitelya usovershenstvovan (Verbeterd portret van een bouwer) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Portret van de vader van de kunstenaar | ca 1902-1903 | Painting |
| Portret van een jonge vrouw (waarschijnlijk Sofia Rafalovitch) | 1908-1909 | Drawing |
| Portret van een man (Aleksei Morgunov?) | 1912 | Other |
| Portret van M.V. Matyushin | 1913 | Drawing |
| Prayer | 1913 | Drawing |
| Prayer | 1913 | |
| Prayer | Study for a fresco painting. 1907 | Painting |
| Prayer (plate, folio 19) from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Primitiv (Schuhmacher) | 1910 | Drawing |
| Prografachnik | 1916 | Drawing |
| Projekt einer kosmischen Anlage | around 1917 | Drawing |
| Quadrat und Oval | 1915/1916 | Drawing |
| Quadrat und Viereck | 1914-1915 | Drawing |
| Red Cavalry | c. 1932 | Painting |
| Red House | 1932 | Painting |
| Red Square | Undated | Drawing |
| Red Square. Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions | 1915 | Painting |
| Reicher Mann | around 1910 | Drawing |
| Relaxing (Society in Top Hats) | 1908 | Drawing |
| Reservist of the First Division | fall-winter 1914 | Painting |
| Roar!: Gauntlets of 1908-1914 (Riav!: Perchatki 1908-1914) | 1914 | Book |
| Rotes Quadrat auf Schwarz | around 1922 | Other |
| Samovar | 1913 | Painting |
| Schema I: Construction of Axes of a Model; Schema II: Cubist Structure (Construction); Schema III: Cubist Constructed Drawing from On New Systems in Art (O Novykh Sistemakh Visk Usstve) | 1919 | |
| Schets vooor de opera Voyna (Oorlog): Topor molodets ne brekhal (de jongeman Topor heeft niet gelogen) | 1918 | Drawing |
| Schets voor de opera Voyna (Oorlog): Bas, day stakan (Bas, geef me een glas) | 1918 | Drawing |
| Schets voor de opera Voyna (Oorlog): gekruisigde tegen een lichte achtergrond | 1918 | Drawing |
| Schets voor de opera Voyna (Oorlog): gekruisigde tegen een zwarte achtergrond | 1918 | Drawing |
| Schets voor de opera Voyna (Oorlog): interieur met figuur en hangend kruisbeeld | 1918 | Drawing |
| Schets voor de opera Voyna (Oorlog): Odin tikho (een stille) | 1918 | Drawing |
| Schets voor een architectonische structuur | 1920-1921 (versie 1923-1924) | Drawing |
| Schetsboekomslag | Drawing | |
| Schneider, Allogismus, Aushang | around 1915 | Drawing |
| Schnitter | 1909-1910 | Drawing |
| Schnitterinnen | 1909-1910 | Drawing |
| Schnitterinnen (Reapers) | 1909–1910 | Drawing |
| Schwarzes Viereck | 1914-1915 | Drawing |
| Scène uit Anathema | 1909-1910 | |
| Segodnyashnye sooruzheniya | 1920 (versie 1923-1924) | Drawing |
| Segodnyashnye sooruzheniya | 1923-1924 / 2010 | Other |
| Selected Verse, 1907–1914 (Izbornik stikhov, 1907-1914) | 1915 | Book |
| Self-Portrait | Study for a fresco painting. 1907 | Painting |
| Self-Portrait | 1910–1911 | Drawing |
| Self-Portrait (Artist) | 1933 | Painting |
| Shel avstriec v Radzivily | 1914 | |
| Sieg über die Sonne 1913-1973 | 1973 | |
| Sieg über die Sonne 1913-1973 | 1973 / 2010 | Other |
| Simultaneous Death in an Airplane and at the Railway | (1913) | |
| Simultaneous Death of a Man in an Airplane and on the Railroad (plate, folio 15) from Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Sketch for "Vertical Suprematist Construction»" | Undated | Drawing |
| Sketch for a Stage Curtain for the Opera Victory over the Sun | 1928 | Drawing |
| Sketch for Agit-Train | περ. 1918 | Drawing |
| Slovo Kak Takavoe (The Word as Such) | 1913 | Book |
| Slovo kak takovoe (The Word as Such) | 1913 | Book |
| Smert cheloveka odnovremmeno na aeroplane i zhel. doroge (De gelijktijdige dood van een man in een vliegtuig en op de spoorlijn) | 1913 | |
| Sportsmen | 1928–1932 | Painting |
| Square and Cone | 1915 | Drawing |
| Staande boer | 1928-1929 | Drawing |
| Staande boer met emmer | 1930-1932 | Drawing |
| Staande boer met zeis bij het hooien | 1928-1929 | Drawing |
| Staande duivel | 1913-1914 | |
| Staande figuur | 1927 | Drawing |
| Staande mannenfiguur | 1930-1931 | Drawing |
| Staande vrouw en man Kop en schouders Vijf figuren met twee suprematistische elementen | 1918 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Staande vrouw met de armen over elkaar | ca 1930 | Drawing |
| Standing Figure | 1913 | Drawing |
| Standing Woman | circa 1930 | Drawing |
| Stikhi V. Maiakovskogo. Vypyt (The Poetry of V. Mayakovsky. [Vypyt]) | 1914 | Book |
| Still Life | c. 1910 | Drawing |
| Stroyuschiysya dom [House under construction] | 1915–16 (museum); reverse inscription 1914 distinguished from execution date | Painting |
| Studie für das Gemälde 'Die Rote Kavallerie' | 1930 | Drawing |
| Studie nach Picasso. Entwurf für das Bauhausbuch 'Die Gegenstandslose Welt' | 1926/1927 | Drawing |
| Studie nach Picasso. Entwurf für das Bauhausbuch 'Die Gegenstandslose Welt' | 1926/1927 | Drawing |
| Study for the rear curtain for Victory over the Sun | 1913 | Drawing |
| Study for the rear curtain for Victory over the Sun | 1913 | Drawing |
| Summer Landscape (Zomerlandschap) | circa 1929 | Painting |
| Suprematicheskoe postroenie N 118 (Suprematistische constructie nr. 118) | 1917-1918 (versie 1920) | Drawing |
| Suprematisch kruis (klein kruis in zwart over rood op wit) | 1920-1927 | Other |
| Suprematism | 1915 | Drawing |
| Suprematism | 1915 | Painting |
| Suprematism | 1915–1916 | Painting |
| Suprematism (Supremus No. 56) | 1915-16 | Painting |
| Suprematism (Supremus No. 58) | 1916 | Painting |
| Suprematism, 18th Construction | 1915 (artist's reverse inscription reads 1914) | Painting |
| Suprematisme | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme van de geest | 1919 | Other |
| Suprematisme. Oplossende constructie, vorm 78 | 1918 (latere versie (1927)) | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: Compositie 5 c | 1915-1917 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: drie overlappende rechthoeken | 1916-1917 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: drie snijdende vlakken, vervagend | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: elementen in wisselwerking, vervagend | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: formatie van rechthoeken | 1916 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: formatie van rechthoeken en vierkanten van verschillende grootte | 1916 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: formatie van rechthoeken van verschillende grootte | 1916 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: gevoelens van angst | 1917-1919 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: in tweeën | 1917-1919 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: krommingen en bogen | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: magnetische rechthoeken in stervorm Vier kaderlijnen | 1917-1919 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: magnetische staven | 1917 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: ovaal en rechthoek Twee staande vrouwen in een landschap Man met hoed (zogenaamd portret van Larionov?) Boer Vier figuren | 1916-1917 (latere versie) | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: Ovaal, boog en rechthoeken | 1917 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: twee snijdende vlakken, vervagend | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: twee snijdende vlakken, vervagend Suprematisme: drie snijdende vlakken, vervagend | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Suprematisme: zwart vierkant en witte rechthoek met rode strepen | 1917-1919 | Drawing |
| Suprematismus | 1912-1913 | Drawing |
| Suprematist Composition | 1915 | Drawing |
| Suprematist composition | c. 1916 | Drawing |
| Suprematist Composition | 1916 | Photograph |
| Suprematist Composition | 1916 | Painting |
| Suprematist Composition with Plane in Projection | 1915 | Painting |
| Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying | 1915 (dated on reverse 1914) | Painting |
| Suprematist Composition: White on White | 1918 | Painting |
| Suprematist Diagonal Construction 79 | 1917 | Drawing |
| Suprematist Drawing | (c. 1916-17) | Drawing |
| Suprematist Drawing | (c. 1916-17) | Drawing |
| Suprematist Element: Circle | (1923) | Drawing |
| Suprematist Elements: Squares | 1923 | Drawing |
| Suprematist interior decoration | 1920-1921 | Drawing |
| Suprematist Painting | 1916-17 | Painting |
| Suprematistisch schilderij (met zwart trapezium en rood vierkant) | 1915 | Other |
| Suprematistische compositie | 1915 (versie 1920-1927) | Drawing |
| Suprematistische compositie (met acht rode rechthoeken) | 1915 | Painting |
| Suprematistische compositie (met blauwe driehoek en zwarte rechthoek) | 1915 | Painting |
| Suprematistische compositie (met gele, oranje en groene rechthoek) | 1915-1916 | Other |
| Suprematistische Elemente im Raum | 1914-1915 | Drawing |
| Suprematistische Komposition | 1915-1916 | Drawing |
| Suprematistische Komposition | 1915/1916 | Drawing |
| Suprematistische Komposition (Suprematist Composition) | 1915 | Painting |
| Suprematistische schets | 1915-1920 | Drawing |
| Suprematistische Zeichnung (Plan eines Erdflugplatzes) | 1927 | Drawing |
| Suprematistisches Architekton | around 1926 | Sculpture or object |
| Suprematizm. 34 risunka | 1920 | |
| Suprematizm. 34 risunka (Suprematism: 34 Drawings) | 1920 | Book |
| Supremus No. 18 | 1916–1917 | Drawing |
| Supremus nr 51 | 1916 (versie 1920-1927) | Drawing |
| Supremus Nr. 38 | 1916 | Other |
| Supremus nr. 50 | 1915 | Other |
| Supremus nr. 58 | 1916 (versie begin jaren 1920) | Drawing |
| Sushchestvuet énergiya v sushchestve kot | ca. 1923 | Other |
| Sämann | 1910/1912 | Drawing |
| Tenhemelopneming van een heilige | 1907-1908 | Drawing |
| The Triumph of Heaven | 1907 | Painting |
| The UNOVIS way (Put' Unovisa) | Ιανουάριος 1921 | |
| The Word As Such (Slovo kak takovoe) | 1913 | Book |
| Third State of Being | designed in 1915, made in the 1920s | Drawing |
| Three Female Figures | Early 1930s | Painting |
| Threesome (Troe) | 1913 | Book |
| Thèmes pour des monuments architecturaux dans des parcs et sur des places | 1927 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| Tizian | around 1930 | Drawing |
| Tochil’schik Printsip Mel’kaniia (The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering) | 1912–13 | Painting |
| Toekomstige planits voor Leningrad. Het huis van de vliegenier | 1924 | Drawing |
| Toekomstige planits, huizen voor aardbewoners | 1920-1921 (versie 1923-1924) | Drawing |
| Toneelontwerp voor akte 1, scène 4 van Overwinning op de zon | 1913 | Drawing |
| Toneelontwerp voor Overwinning op de zon | 1913 (versie 1915) | Drawing |
| Torse féminin | [1908 / avant 1930] | Drawing |
| Torso (Figure with a Pink Face) | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Torso (Prototype of a New Image) | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Torso in a Yellow Shirt (Complicated Premonition) | c. 1932 | Painting |
| Transrationele compositie: geluiden | 1913 | Drawing |
| Trees | circa 1904 | Painting |
| Triple Portrait | Study for Socialist City (unexecuted). 1933 | Painting |
| Troe (The Three) | 1913 | Book |
| Troe (The Three) | 1913 | Book |
| Trois croix | vers 1930 - 1932 | Drawing |
| Trois dessins : tête de femme, buste et visage | [1908 / avant 1930] | Drawing |
| Troye | 1913 | Other |
| Tvorchestvo ne mozhet byt' svobodno | ca. 1923 | Other |
| Tvorchestvo ne mozhet byt' svobodno | ca. 1923 | Other |
| Twee duivels die een vrouw doormidden zagen | 1913-1914 | |
| Twee mannen in beweging | 1917-1918 of ca. 1930 | Drawing |
| Twee naakte vrouwen peren plukkend | 1909 | Painting |
| Twee vrouwen en een man tegen een lage horizon | 1930 | Drawing |
| Two figures with a stretcher | ca. 1930-1931 | Drawing |
| Two Male Figures | Early 1930s | Painting |
| Tête noire | vers 1930 | Drawing |
| Universal Landscape | 1913 | |
| UNOVIS Questionnaire | 1920 | |
| Untitled | 1920 | Drawing |
| Untitled | c. 1920 | |
| Untitled | αχρονολόγητο | |
| Untitled | Undated | Drawing |
| Untitled | Undated | Drawing |
| Untitled | 1913? | Drawing |
| Untitled (Suprematist Composition) | circa 1919–1926 | Drawing |
| Untitled (Suprematist Composition) | circa 1919–1926 | Drawing |
| Untitled (Suprematist Cross) | 1920, printed 1973 | |
| Untitled, Illustration for the book by Aleksei Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov "Igra v Adu»" (2nd edition, Moscow 1914) | 1913 | |
| Verdwijnend geel vlak | 1917-1918 | Painting |
| Verdwijnende constructie (diagonale balk met drie bogen in wit) | ca. 1917 | Other |
| Verdwijnende witte vlakken | 1917-1918 | Other |
| Verklarende kaarten over de theorie van het additionele of toegevoegde element in de schilderkunst | 1927 | Drawing |
| Verticale constructie, suprematisme | 1919-1920 (versie 1920-1925) | Drawing |
| Vier figuren in een landschap | ca. 1928-1930 | Drawing |
| Vijf geketende figuren op de rug gezien, geflankeerd door twee bewakers | 1910-1911 | Drawing |
| Vil'gel'mova Karusel' (Wilhelm's Carousel) | 1914 | |
| Vloerboeners | 1911 | Drawing |
| Voorstudie voor het omslag van het programma van het Congres van Comités van Armoede op het Platteland | 1918 | Drawing |
| Voorstudie voor het omslag van het programma van het Congres van Comités van Armoede op het Platteland | 1918 | Drawing |
| Voorstudie voor het omslag van Sezd Komitetov Derevenskoi Bednoty (Congres van Comités van Armoede op het Platteland) | 1918 | Drawing |
| Voorstudie voor het omslag van Sezd Komitetov Derevenskoi Bednoty (Congres van Comités van Armoede op het Platteland) | 1918 | Drawing |
| Voyna (Oorlog) | 1914 | Drawing |
| Vozropshchem (Let's Grumble) | 1913 | Book |
| Vrouw bij tramhalte | 1913-1914 | Other |
| Vrouw in lange jurk met kind | 1930 | Drawing |
| Vrouw met de armen over elkaar | 1931-1932 | Drawing |
| Vrouw met krant op schoot | 1904 | Other |
| Vrouw omgeven door vruchten | 1909 | Painting |
| Vrouwelijke figuur met uitgespreide armen | 1930? | Drawing |
| Vrouwenfiguur | 1909 | Drawing |
| Vrouwenfiguur met gespreide armen | 1930-1931 | Drawing |
| Vrouwenfiguur, vis, cirkel, kruis | ca. 1928-1930 | Drawing |
| Vsemirny peyzazh (Universeel landschap) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Vzorval | 1913 | Book |
| Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913 | Book |
| Vzorval' (Explodity) | 1913–14, published 1914 | Book |
| Wachthuisje, drie kruisen | ca 1930-1931 | Drawing |
| What a Rattle | 1914 | |
| Wilhelm Carousel | 1914 | |
| Windmills | ca. 1909-1910 | Painting |
| Wit suprematistisch kruis | 1920-1921 | Painting |
| Woman Reaper (front cover) from Slovo Kak Takavoe (The Word as Such) | 1913 | Book |
| Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement | 1912-13 (dated on reverse 1912) | Painting |
| Woman Worker | 1933 | Painting |
| Women Bathers | Circa 1930 | Painting |
| Women Reapers (The Reapers) | 1928–1929; 1905 inscription separately documented by Gasper-Hulvat 2012 | Painting |
| Wraparound cover for the program S'ezd komitetov derevenskoi bednoty (Congress of Committees of Peasant Poverty) | 1918 | Book |
| Wäscherin | 1909-1910 | Drawing |
| Ya apostol novykh ponyaty b iskusstve (Ik, de apostel van nieuwe begrippen in de kunst | 1916 | Drawing |
| Zelfportret in twee dimensies | 1915 | Painting |
| Zeta | 1923 / 1978 | Sculpture or object |
| Zhnitsa (Maaiende vrouw) | 1913 | Drawing |
| Zittend naakt op de rug gezien | 1907-1908 | Drawing |
| Zwei Schwestern | around 1904-1906 | Drawing |
| «Живо заняли мы Галич...». | 1914 | |
| «Ну и треск же, ну и гром же...» | 1914 | |
| «Подошел колбасник к Лодзи...» | 1914 | |
| Весна – цветущий сад | 1928–1929 | Painting |
| Вильгельмова карусель | 1914 | |
| Голова крестьянина | Конец 1920-х | Drawing |
| Девочка под деревом. Этюд | 1932–1933 | Painting |
| Девушка с гребнем в волосах | 1932–1933 | Painting |
| Девушка с красным древком | 1932–1933 | Painting |
| Деревня. Три рисунка | 1928-1929 | Drawing |
| Динамический супрематизм | 1920 | Drawing |
| Динамический супрематизм. Аэроплан летит | 1920 | |
| Доктор Мабузо. Образец киноплаката | 1925–1926 | Painting |
| Ескіз розпису конференц-залу ВУАН в Києві (Sketch for the painting of the conference hall of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kyiv) | 1930 | Drawing |
| Женщина с граблями | 1930-1931 | Painting |
| Композиция с двумя прямоугольниками | 1920 | Drawing |
| Крестьянка | 1928-1929 | Drawing |
| Кубофутуризм. Динамическое ощущение натурщика. Авторская реплика композиций 1911 и 1919 года | Вторая половина 1920-х | Drawing |
| Кубофутуристический пейзаж | 1913 | Drawing |
| Лубок. «Вильгельмова карусель» | 1914 | |
| Лубок. «Глядь, поглядь, уж близко Висла» | 1914 | |
| Лубок. «Подошел колбасник к Лодзи» | 1914 | |
| Лубок. «Шел австриец в Радзивиллы» | 1914 | |
| На сенокосе | 1928-1929 | Painting |
| Пейзаж под Киевом | 1930 | Painting |
| Плащаница | 1908 | Drawing |
| Портрет А.А. Лепорской | Около 1933 | Painting |
| Портрет В.А. Павлова | 1933 | Painting |
| Портрет жены | 1934 | Painting |
| Портрет Н. Н. Пунина | 1933 | Painting |
| Портрет ударника (Краснознаменец Жарновский) | 1932 | Painting |
| Почтовая карточка «По утру из Львова вышли...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Ах ты, милый город Люблин...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Выезжали мы за Млаву...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Выезжали мы из Ковны...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Глядь, по глядь, уж близко Висла...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Как заехали за Лык..» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Не ходи австриец плутом...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Ну и треск, да ну и гром же...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Скоро, скоро будем в Краков...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовая карточка. «Шел австриец в Радзивилы...» | 1914 | |
| Почтовые карточки | 1914 | |
| Принцип росписи стены | 1919 | Drawing |
| Сестры | 1930 | Painting |
| Смерть конного генерала | 1914 | Drawing |
| Станция без остановки. Кунцево | 1913-1914 | Painting |
| Супрематизм | 1920 | Drawing |
| Супрематизм | 1919 | Drawing |
| Супрематизм. Композиция с кругом | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Супрематическая композиция | 1917-1918 | Drawing |
| Три супрематических композиции | Начало 1920-х | Drawing |
| Туалетная шкатулка | 1913-1914 | Painting |
| Чашка (получашка) | 1923 | Sculpture or object |
| Чашка (получашка) «Супрематизм» | 1923 | Sculpture or object |
| Черный квадрат | 1929 | Painting |
| Черный квадрат (Black Square) | 1913 / circa 1932 in formal field; circa 1930–32 in museum essay | Painting |
| Черный супрематический квадрат | 1915 | Painting |
| ‘aF’ forma obema (‘aF’ vorm van volume) | 1915, versie 1924 of 1926 | Drawing |
Frequently asked questions
What is the “Principle of Glittering”?
Is the picture abstract?
What date should be used?
Where is the painting?
It belongs to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, accession 1941.553. Check Yale's object page for current display information. [1]
Was it at the 1927 Berlin exhibition with Black Square?
Discussion
What part of the worker or machine becomes clear to you first?
How do the repeated hands and divided wheel change your sense of motion?
Reader Insights
Follow the blade horizontally across the middle and then trace the forms down to the wheel.
Which bright planes look like flicker, and which remain ambiguous rather than literal sparks?
Compare the human task here with the water carrier in Woman with Pails.
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation about the worker, wheel, colour or title in this exact Yale painting.
References
- Yale University Art Gallery/Société Anonyme catalogue record, Tochil’schik Printsip Mel’kaniia: exact title, 1912–13 date, medium, dimensions, Yale location and 1941.553; catalogue record indexed online, though its page was restricted to automated direct opening during this research. View source.
- Yale University Art Gallery publication featuring The Knifegrinder: official indexed listing of object facts and Cubo-Futurist movement; direct PDF fetch returned an access challenge. View source.
- Wikimedia Commons, The Knife Grinder Principle of Glittering by Kazimir Malevich.jpeg: exact Yale-image file for visual observations and documented public-domain mark, with Yale credited as provider. View source.
- Yale University Art Gallery educational publication, p. 74: official indexed analysis of wheel, hands, legs and square composition; direct PDF fetch returned an access challenge, so no verbatim passage is reproduced. View source.
- MoMA, The Machine, as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age: historical museum interpretation of the worker and machine and comparisons to Léger and Duchamp; the large PDF's relevant indexed passage was available, but the whole volume could not be opened in the web tool. View source.
- MoMA, Woman with Pails: Dynamic Arrangement, 815.1935: distinct 1912–13 Cubo-Futurist painting for comparison. View source.
- MoMA, Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack, 816.1935: distinct 1915 two-plane painting for comparison. View source.
- Jeremy Howard, University of St Andrews PhD thesis: indexed scholarly report of the 1913 Moscow Target exhibition; thesis PDF could not be directly opened during this research. View source.
- Yale University Art Gallery annual report, 2021–22: continued institutional identification of the 1912–13 painting. View source.
- Splash image: Kazimir Malevich, The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering, 1912–13. Oil on canvas, 79.5 × 79.5 cm. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (1941.553), gift of the Société Anonyme. Image: Yale University Art Gallery via Wikimedia Commons, public-domain marked faithful reproduction, resized full-frame for this page.
