Kasimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying was exhibited in 1915 at “The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10” in St. Petersburg, Russia. Malevich’s work developed a new language of painting known as “Suprematism” which abandoned all references to the outside world to focus on colored geometric shapes against white backgrounds.
Although most of his paintings were not given representational titles, “Airplane Flying” is one of the few recognizable works he presented with a name that winks at subject matter. His works progressively refused to use more than number naming though, distancing himself from presenting content and form even further through strict numerical identification.
One important term for understanding Suprematism itself is Faktura – the physicality and texture of the paint’s surface created by pigment application techniques such as brushwork or palette knife strokes – another way for Malevich to distance himself from previous ways of art-making.
In summary, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying represents the influence Malevich had in developing an entirely new school and language in painting that disregarded representation and nature altogether.
