Ivan Kliun (1870-1943)
Kliun I. Ozonizer. 1914
Ozonizer
1914
Oil on canvas. 75 x 66
Ivan Kliun was one of the first followers of Kazimir Malevich and perhaps his most stoic confederate. Kliun defines Ozonizer more precisely in the catalogue of the Tramcar V exhibition as a “portable electric ventilator.” The painting was first shown in Petrograd in 1915, alongside Malevich’s Aviator. The influence of Cubism can be clearly seen in both the restrained brown-grey colour gamut and the deliberately geometric volumes. Like many Russian artists, Ivan Kliun does not escape here the influence of Italian Futurism, with its cult of movement and aestheticisation of machinery. He also employs the effect of Cubist space, creating the illusion of three-dimensionalism.