malevich landscape with five houses c1932 Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935)
Kazimir Malevich – malevich landscape with five houses c1932
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Painter: Kazimir Malevich
Location: State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (Государственный Русский Музей).
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One of the paintings by Kazimir Malevich, painted by him in 1932, is entitled Landscape with Five Houses and is painted in oil in the abstract genre. An analysis of such paintings is always controversial and as a result subject to much controversy, but we will attempt to give the elements of the painting some justification. "Landscape with Five Houses" may be a work by which the author seeks to draw the viewer’s attention to the harmony of coexistence between man and nature, which should in no case be lost.
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Description of the painting "Landscape with Five Houses" by Kazimir Malevich
One of the paintings by Kazimir Malevich, painted by him in 1932, is entitled Landscape with Five Houses and is painted in oil in the abstract genre.
An analysis of such paintings is always controversial and as a result subject to much controversy, but we will attempt to give the elements of the painting some justification.
"Landscape with Five Houses" may be a work by which the author seeks to draw the viewer’s attention to the harmony of coexistence between man and nature, which should in no case be lost. We can assume that the five buildings without doors and windows, standing along the straight horizon, should not evoke gloomy associations, but only abstractly show the result of human activity.
They stand just at the junction between the dark blue sky, which turns blue, and the brick-red, turning yellow, and then pinkish-white hues of the ground (most likely a field of wheat or rye). The cloudless sky represents infinity and immensity of the universe, and the earth contrasting the sky represents reality and being.
In general, a special period in the life of the artist begins in 1932. After he was appointed head of the Experimental laboratory at the Russian Museum, some of his works were included in museum displays. Then he painted the fourth, or the last, version of the "Black Square," which was prepared by him for the exhibition "Artists of the RSFSR during XV Years. This version of the square is today kept in the Hermitage. And his next work, started in the same year, but never completed, was the painting "Socialist City". In these last years of the artist’s work, abstract images had already been replaced by realistic portraits. In 1933 he got cancer, from which he died in 1935.
Like many of Malevich’s paintings, Landscape with Five Houses is a very simple work and very controversial at first glance. But the hidden idea, its excellent realization in harmonious colors and shapes makes it a very valuable piece of world culture.
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Below the blue, a line demarcates a lower band rendered in warm tones – primarily reds and oranges – that evoke the feeling of earth or a field. The texture here is rough, built up with impasto that adds physicality to the surface. This ground appears somewhat uneven, hinting at natural undulations rather than a perfectly flat plane.
Arranged along this horizon are five structures, depicted as simple white blocks with dark, sharply defined roofs. Their uniformity and lack of ornamentation suggest an intentional reduction to essential form. They appear clustered together, yet maintain individual presence within the group. The placement of these buildings is central; they act as a visual anchor in the otherwise abstract scene.
The painting’s subtexts revolve around themes of simplification and abstraction. The artist seems interested not in replicating reality but in distilling it down to its most fundamental components – color, form, and spatial relationships. The contrast between the expansive blue sky and the grounded structures creates a sense of tension or dialogue. One might interpret the buildings as symbols of human presence within a larger, indifferent natural world. Their starkness could also be read as an exploration of architectural essence, stripping away any decorative elements to reveal the pure geometry of shelter.
The deliberate flatness of the composition and the lack of traditional perspective contribute to a sense of detachment and universality. The work seems less concerned with specific location or narrative than with exploring the potential of color and form to evoke emotion and convey abstract ideas.