Artwork
Γυναίκα στη γέννα
Γυναίκα στη γέννα is an unspecified painting by the Realist artist Kazimir Malevich. It dates from 1908 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki – MOMus.
About this work
Overview
Created in the early phase of Kazimir Malevich’s career, this image portrays a postpartum scene in a modest interior. A woman reclines on a low bed after childbirth, attended by two caregivers—one older, one younger—who assist both mother and infant. The composition is rendered in muted, earthy reds and browns, giving the room a subdued, intimate atmosphere.
Subject & Meaning
The work captures a private, domestic moment rather than a grand historical narrative. By focusing on the ordinary act of caring for a newborn, the artist emphasizes human vulnerability and the quiet dignity of everyday life, reflecting a broader interest in the lives of ordinary people during a period of social upheaval.
Technique & Style
Executed with a relatively tight brushwork, the painting employs a modest impasto that gives texture to the figures’ faces and hands, drawing the viewer’s eye to these focal points. The palette is restrained, and the forms are simplified, anticipating the formal concerns that would later dominate the artist’s abstract experiments.
Context
The piece belongs to the era of Russian avant‑garde experimentation, roughly between 1910 and 1930, a time marked by rapid technological change, urban development, and growing social unrest following the 1905 revolution and World War I. Artists responded to these conditions by seeking new visual languages, often turning to folk traditions and everyday subjects as sources of inspiration.
History & Provenance
Painted before Malevich’s shift toward pure abstraction, the work remained relatively obscure until later scholarship linked it to his early figurative period. It has since entered public collections that document the transitional phase of Russian modernism, illustrating the artist’s movement from representational to non‑representational art.
Artist & collection
Artist
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (23 February 1879 – 15 May 1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist, whose work and writings pioneered the development of abstract painting in the 20th century.
Museum
Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki – MOMus
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