IVAN KLIUN (1873-1943)
Untitled
gouache, watercolor, graphite and paper collage on paper, double-sided
10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.)
Executed circa 1930s.

Estate of the artist
George Costakis, Moscow and Athens
Acquired from the above by the late owner, 1982

A. Rudenstine, S. F. Starr and G. Costakis, eds., The George Costakis Collection, Russian Avant-Garde Art, London, 1981, p. 169, nos. 224 and 225 (illustrated).
S. Kliunkova-Soloveichik, Ivan Vasilievich Klin, New York, 1993, pp. 311-312 (illustrated).

Houston, Janie C. Lee Gallery, Cubist Drawings 1907-1929, November 1982-January 1983, pp. 88 and 93, no. 26 (illustrated).

We are grateful to Dr Aleksandra Shatskikh, art historian, for her assistance in cataloguing the present lots and for providing this note.

An exponent of the Russian Avant-Garde, Ivan Kliun was among the first artists to embrace Suprematism, the radical geometric abstraction pioneered by Kazimir Malevich. While rooted in Suprematist principles, Kliun rapidly embarked on an independent artistic trajectory, his analytical rigor evident in a sustained exploration of the dynamic interplay between form and color.

An erudite and perceptive artist, Kliun was deeply influenced in the 1920s by the French Purists Amédée Ozenfant (1886-1966) and Le Corbusier (1887-1965). He was captivated by their reduction of imagery to fundamental plastic forms, line, color, and planar relationships, favoring clarity, expressiveness, and formal economy.

This double-sided work exemplifies Kliun’s synthesis of Suprematist and Purist idioms, culminating in a compelling articulation of his experimental and aesthetic ambitions. Through the use of crisp linear silhouettes, rigorous compositional structure, and a harmonious palette of subdued, lightly whitewashed colors, Kliun achieves a meticulously balanced architectonic composition. The motif explored here was among Kliun’s most favored subjects, to which he returned in a series of variations.
The dual-sided nature of the work reflects Kliun’s rigorous compositional process, as he refined the motif in pursuit of an optimal and precise visual structure. Of particular note is the remarkable subtlety of the color harmonies present in both compositions.
On one side of the sheet is a composition that should be identified as the first, initial variation, which presents five geometric elements - four rectangles of varying scale and a trapezoid; at the centre, a white band overlays a black one, creating an ‘L’-shaped silhouette.

Two distinguishing features persist across all known variations of this motif: a rhythmically delineated transparent structure forming the apex of the geometric cluster, and a small black circle positioned in the upper center of the right-hand trapezoid. Together, these elements evoke an elusive yet discernible anthropomorphic presence, as if the pupil of an eye is gazing outward toward the viewer.

In the second composition on the other side of the sheet, which was later developed into a canvas painting, Kliun intensifies the anthropomorphic associations. The strict white stripe transforms into an element with flexible contours, resembling in silhouette both the soundboard of a musical instrument and the outline of a female figure.

Kliun masterfully deepened the multilayered imagery of this favored plastic motif, advancing it further in the painted canvas Composition (1932, oil on canvas, 90 x 56 cm, The State Tretyakov Gallery, gift of Georges Costakis), where the silhouette of the soundboard with a defined waistline is extended by the scroll of a violin’s neck, enriching the symbolic complexity.
This double-sided work, presenting variations of a striking abstract composition rich with associative possibilities, stands as one of Ivan Kliun’s most characteristic and revealing contributions to the Russian Avant-Garde.