Kazimir Malevich's geometric 1916 "Suprematist Composition'' sold for $60 million at Sotheby's

Auction's top lot, "Suprematist Composition"  (1916, oil on canvas, 88cm x 70,5 cm) by Kazimir Malevich, showed that iconic works still command high prices. The artwork features floating black, yellow, orange and green rectangles painted against a crisp-white background.

 

Kazimir Malevich, a world-renowned founder of Suprematist and one of the originators of the Russian avant-garde and geometric abstract art, taught at the Vitebsk Art School (Vitebsk, Belarus) in 1919-1922. He is one of the most brilliant innovators who founded new trends of the Modern art. He is a world-famous theorist of avant-gardism and an initiator of a revolutionary artistic education.

 

The work had been estimated to sell for about $60 million, and just one phone bidder vied for it. The sellers were the artist's heirs, who gained ownership of the painting and four others after a court battle with the city of Amsterdam. The canvas had been part of the Stedelijk Museum collection since 1958 and was returned earlier this year.

 

 
Kazimir Malevich. Suprematist composition (blue rectangle over purple beam),
1916. Oil on canvas. 88cm x 70,5cm

 

 

According to Bloomberg