This is the first study to investigate the sources of the creative
processes in the painting of Kazimir Malevich, from Neo-Primitivism to
Suprematism, 1911-1920. These sources are found in 19th century
scientific investigations into optics, especially those of Hermann von
Helmholtz, the artist adapting the laws of optical light and colour and
the laws of optical structures of seeing in space and in depth to his
painting. Malevich's creative processes culminated in his non-objective
canvases, Suprematism, between 1915 and 1920, the painting of pure
seeing.