The legacy of the suprematist square for a sensing pedagogy: A non-objective creative contemplation for education

Abstract

While Kazimir Malevich is widely known for his suprematist contributions to art, little attention has been granted to his articulated philosophical premise and methodological manifestation concerning the non-objectivity of thought and its relationship to feeling. This paper shows how Suprematist philosophy gives rise to the concept of pedagogical sensing that was first characterized by UNOVIS. Casting Suprematist aspersions on dominant educational practices that seek to reproduce what seemingly ‘is’, a non-objective collapse of all-too-certain frames is replaced by abstract essence. As with the painter, teachers may be correspondingly invited to represent learning without past prejudice, as a creative contemplation in constituted spaces comprised of thoughts and feelings, that are so beautifully manifested through Malevich’s pieces of art and his associated, hitherto unrecognized, suprematist call to arms in education.

Keywords:

• Suprematism
• art
• creativity
• education
• non-objectivity
• Kazimir Malevich

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 See Hans Richters Rhythmus 23 (1923/2008) which provided a new genre for Malevich to explore key concepts of motion and continuity that were so central to his philosophy.

2 As Brady (2003) explains “We are able to “see” such movement between the forms only by a distribution of sameness and difference between them. We intend the dynamic context because by it the lawful relation between the forms is made manifest. All this usually happens tacitly, as an unnoticed aspect of ordinary perception, but the fact that it is normally unnoticed does not hinder our analysis of it now. And it is at this point in the analysis that we shall begin to recover Goethe’s meaning (p. 14). Such a metamorphic force “cuts all ties to its ontologic core, it reveals itself not only to be capable of banishing the figure itself from the sphere – the ‘what’ of painting – but invites force of negation, as an immaterial structure, it cannot be halted by the bounds of painting as historical activity” (p. 70).

3 Painterly culture is described by Railing (2014) as i) “objective characteristic of artistic value defined as professional value” and ii) “a creative moment… invention of the new… artistic invention” (2014, p. 533).

4 In August 1923 The State Institute of Artistic Culture (GINKhUK) opened its doors in Petrograd (Sankt-Petersburg). According to Kovtun (2007, p. 40), it was the first research centre in the world where one studied contemporary and living art through new displays and exhibitions, instead of the art of the past. Malevich became the director of the Institute and managed the Pictorial Culture department. Malevich’s pupils from the UNOVIS group from Vitebsk, Lev Yudin and Vera Ermolaeva, managed The Laboratory of Form and the Laboratory of Colour respectively.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

E. Jayne White

E. Jayne White ([email protected]) has a long-standing interest in education, with emphasis on early years pedagogy now spanning over thirty years - most of which she spent in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her interest in various aspects of teaching and learning spans the domains of infant and toddler education, educational philosophy, play & creativity, democracy, environmental education, classroom education, assessment, and evaluation. As Associate Dean ECE@PoPLab at RMIT and Editor-in-Chief of Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy, Jayne’s work focuses on the complex processes and practices of meaning making in contemporary ‘open’ societies that are focused on pedagogical possibilities for proto learners. She critically engages with a variety of methods to support her work, including the extensive and original use of ‘polyphonic video’ - and other means of visual ethnography and digital tools for pedagogical practice. At the heart of her practice lies a strong emphasis on dialogic pedagogy, and the ways in which teachers can best engage within complex learning relationships - regardless of the age of the learner. To this end, Jayne explores philosophical ideas and their potential contribution to pedagogy. She also engages in empirical projects that bring these ideas to life, in partnership with young learners, industry partners and other disciplines who orient her inspiration.

Mikhail Gradovski

Mikhail Gradovski has an interest in Social Pedagogy. After graduation from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology as doctor rerum politicarum in 2008, with the thesis devoted to the Norwegian Dialogue Pedagogy, Gradovski has participated in both national and international research projects on postgraduate supervision, professional supervision, use of dialogue in education, educational philosophy, and mental skills development. He engages in empirical and theoretical projects that focus on the development of PhD candidates’ skills, higher graduate and postgraduate education. As a teaching practitioner he is using a dialogical approach based on an understanding of teacher and learner as partners with equal rights to make judgements on what is relevant, important and true.