Kazimir Malevich, the creator of Black Square on a White Ground—long since a Modernist icon—brought out his vision of a “world as objectlessness” through the Bauhaus publishing arm in 1927. For a long time it was Malevich’s only publication in a Western language, and the title then, somewhat imprecisely translated, was The Non-Objective World.

This volume offers a new translation of the artist’s illustrated text along with fundamental research on the preliminary drawings, now in the possession of the Kunstmuseum Basel, made for the Bauhaus publication. The rigorous exploration of these works of art provides new insight into the history of the creation of the work: when and where were the illustrations done, and which juncture in Malevich’s artistic career do they reflect? Malevich’s The World as Objectlessness is a snapshot in time of a boundless artistic universe. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3730-2)

Exhibition schedule: Kunstmuseum Basel, March 1–June 22, 2014