The first major retrospective of Soviet-era Russian artist Kazimir Malevich for almost 25 years opened Thursday at Tate Modern gallery.
The exhibition features works from galleries across the globe and examines Malevich's career from beginning to end.
Malevich, born in 1879, died in 1935 and was an influential figure in the 20th century art. He began his career as a conventional painter of workers, religious scenes, and landscapes.
But he is principally remembered for his invention of Suprematism, which is a bold visual language of abstract geometric shapes and stark colors, epitomized by his work 'Black Square', which is the centre piece of the exhibition.
This work, of an off-center black square against a white background, was painted in Moscow in 1915 and had a revolutionary effect on the world of art. The original is too fragile to join the exhibition, so Tate has used a later version which Malevich created.
Malevich believed that art could be just colors, with no need to represent objects. His painting was a gesture of the supremacy of overthrowing the old order, and was picked up by following generations of artists throughout the 20th century.
The Tate exhibition looks at Malevich's collaboration with architecture and theatre, including his designs for the avant-garde 1913 opera 'Victory over the Sun.'
The show also examines Malevich's temporary abandonment of painting when he turned to teaching and writing, and his return to figurative painting in later life.
The exhibition has been loaned paintings by the Khardzhiev Collection in Amsterdam, the Costakis Collection, SMCA-Thessaloniki and The State Russian Museum in St Petersburg.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. It runs until October 26.