Suprematist Relief-Sculpture

“An object (a world) freed from meaning disintegrates into real elements—the foundation of art,” Puni wrote in 1915. In tandem with many Russian Communist artists, Puni rejected the “meaning” easily conveyed by representational art and committed himself to working in an abstract mode. This work engages with real space: curving planes balloon out from their wooden ground, and three-dimensional shapes dynamically crisscross and stack up, as if they might break free from the panel.

Credit: The Riklis Collection of McCrory Corporation