부산대학교 도서관

This study aims to reveal the influence of aviation technology and aerial photography, which had long been neglected in visual media theory, on Malevich’s artistic approach of ‘Suprematism’ in the early 20th century. The study finds that, first, aeronautical technology had a great influence on the formation of Suprematism in terms of artistic ‘environment’. Every art movement is a product of the particular environment in which the artist belongs. Suprematism is a product of the metropolitan environment, and the technology that formed Suprematism was the latest technology at the time, aviation technology. Malevich drew upon aerial photographs as ‘the environment which stimulates the Supreamtist’. He tried to overcome the two limitations of Futurism, objectivism and slow speed, through aviation technology. Through aviation technology characterized by weightlessness, incredible speed, and free movement, Suprematism sought to expel objects from painting and reach a world of perfect non-objects. Second, aeronautical technology influenced Suprematism at the ‘visual perceptual’ level. The non-objectivity and geometric abstraction of Suprematism were influenced by the visual perception image triggered by the aerial view of the airplane or the abstract image of the aerial photograph. The reason Malevich was interested in this new reality revealed by the aerial view and aerial photography was that he was influenced by fellow avant-garde theorists’ techniques of defamiliarization and deconstructive literary theories. Finally, Supreamtism was decisively influenced by aeronautical technology in terms of ‘sensation’. The non-objectivity and geometric abstraction of Supreamtism were influenced by the sensation of non-objectivity, a new sensation that flight evoked through speed, movement, and weightlessness, which are characteristics of aeronautical technology. Christina Lodder suggested the visual similarity of the two images as a basis for the influence of aerial photography on Malevich’s work. However, his work does not express the actual object, but expresses the sensation of non-objectivity through the dynamic arrangement of figures.