Minneapolis Institute of Art

Suprematist plate

Nikolai Lapschin

Date

1909 (decorated c. 1923)

Medium

Porcelain

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Geometric forms float on a pure white surface. This plate by graphic designer and artist Nikolai Lapschin was an expression of Suprematism in Russian art, a movement seeking to lift art from the realm of the practical into the spiritual through the use of abstract form and bold color. Russian artist Kazimir Malevich had conceived Suprematism in 1915, while “trying desperately to free art from the dead weight of the real world.” The plate itself is Imperial porcelain made before the Russian Revolution in 1917; and although Lapschin’s aim was to create an artwork, not a serving piece, there is irony in using plates to convey art’s separation from the practical. A similar plate was shown as part of a display of Russian porcelain at the Art Deco exhibition in Paris in 1925. Europe

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