Malevich and the word "sputnik"

Fri Jul 25 16:56:19 UTC 2014

Apart from your central question, you might consider the possibility of Tsiolkovsky being the source and originator of the word’s usage for both Malevich (perhaps via his student) and the later scientists. By the 50s, Malevich would have been out of the official picture for a couple of decades, but the scientists would certainly have been familiar with Tsiolkovsky as a celebrated pioneer of their particular field.

Best,
Kenneth Allan

University of Lethbridge

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Robert Chandler [kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM]
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 9:17 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Malevich and the word "sputnik"

Dear all,

I'm grateful to everyone who has responded to my question, and I shall look into all these interesting suggestions - but I'd like to repeat that my central question is not the extent of Malevich's interest in the cosmos and space travel.  Of that there is no doubt.  What I would love to know is whether any of the Soviet scientists working on the space programme in the 1950s knew of Malevich and whether it is he who inspired them to choose the word "sputnik".

All the best,

Robert

On 25 Jul 2014, at 16:05, "Allan, Kenneth" <kenneth.allan at ULETH.CA> wrote:

> Here’s a short quote from Ross Wolfe’s blog The Charnel House on Ivan Kudriashev: “From 1913 to 1917 Kudriashev attended the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, and from 1918 to 1919 studied with Kazimir Malevich at the SVOMAS [Free State Art Studios]; there he met Ivan Kliun, Antoine Pevsner, and Naum Gabo. From 1918 on, under the influence of the ideas of the space scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovskii (conveyed to Kudriashev by his father, a carpenter who made rockets and other devices for Tsiolkovskii), he turned to the problems of cosmic abstract painting, as filtered through Suprematism.”
>
> http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/02/20/ivan-kudriashevs-interplanetary-dynamic-abstractions-1917-1928/
>
> Michael Holquist in his essay “Tsiolkovsky as a Moment in the Prehistory of the Avant-Garde” in “Laboratory of Dreams: The Russian Avant-garde and Cultural Experiment,” eds. John E. Bowlt & Olga Matich, writes about Tsiolkovsky at more length:
>
> http://books.google.ca/books?id=JT2sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=Kudriashev,+an+important+member&source=bl&ots=USWH5_TqL7&sig=di9jh290WRFHc5DvPXof4_wpuqE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=923SU_y_EYbZoASgjoG4Bg&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Kudriashev%2C%20an%20important%20member&f=false
>
> Best,
> Kenneth Allan
>
> University of Lethbridge
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Robert Chandler [kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 11:27 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Malevich and the word "sputnik"
>
> Dear all,
>
> In 1920, in his article
> http://kazimirmalevich.ru/bsp16/
> Malevich wrote the following:
>
> Супрематический аппарат, если можно так выразиться, будет едино-целый, без всяких скреплений. Брусок слит со всеми элементами подобно земному шару, несущему в себе жизнь совершенств, так что каждое построенное супрематическое тело будет включено в природоестественную организацию и образует собою нового спутника; нужно найти только взаимоотношение между двумя телами, бегущими в пространстве. Земля и Луна — между ними может быть построен новый спутник, супрематический, оборудованный всеми элементами, который будет двигаться по орбите, образуя свой новый путь.
>
> The word спутник had been used for natural satellites, but it had not previously been used for any kind of manmade spacecraft.  I am wondering if it is possible that anyone involved in the Soviet space programme, perhaps someone at a centre of intellectual activity like Akademgorodok, might have known (even at second-hand) of Malevich's article.  Does SEELANGS include among its members anyone with a good knowledge of the development of the Soviet space programme?!
>
> All the best,
>
> Robert
>
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
>
>
>
>
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Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD

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