Nikolai Suetin — a pupil of Malevich, a Soviet designer and reformer of Russian porcelain

Nikolai Suetin was one of the leading artists of the Russian avant‑garde and a devoted pupil of Kazimir Malevich. He was raised on the ideas of Suprematism and consistently embodied them in his work. The name of Nikolai Suetin is inextricably linked with the history of the State Porcelain Factory and the reform of fine ceramics.

Nikolai Suetin in his student years

Nikolai Suetin was born in 1897 near Kaluga, into the family of a railway stationmaster. After finishing gymnasium he studied at the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. Nikolai drew from an early age and enjoyed visiting museums and exhibitions. His favorite artists were Mikhail Vrubel and Mikalojus Čiurlionis. At the start of World War I Nikolai was mobilized and served in the Caucasus, and in 1915 he was sent to Vitebsk. In 1918 Suetin enrolled in the People's Art School and a year later joined Lazar Lissitzky's workshop. In 1919 he continued his studies with Kazimir Malevich, and in 1920 he joined the group UNOVIS (Affirmers of the New Art).

Artists: Nikolai Mikhailovich Suetin (1897–1954), Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879–1935), Ilya Grigoryevich Chashnik (1902–1929)

In 1922, after graduating from art school, Nikolai Suetin followed Kazimir Malevich and, together with his classmate Ilya Chashnik, moved to Saint Petersburg. At the same time, the artistic director of the State Porcelain Factory, Nikolai Punin, invited Kazimir Malevich to collaborate. Suetin and Chashnik were added to the factory staff as artist-composers and were given the opportunity to work on Suprematist forms and the painting of tableware. Malevich's teapot and cups became monuments of the Russian avant‑garde that shattered ideas about how household objects could look and function. They were not intended for everyday use, and the famous half-cups by Malevich were jointly painted by Suetin and Chashnik.

Suprematist tea set with half-cups, created after Malevich's designs

In 1923 Kazimir Malevich became director of the Museum of Artistic Culture and organized four research departments, which later merged into the Institute of Artistic Culture (GINHUK). In 1925 Nikolai Suetin headed the department of material culture at the institute, where he developed issues of Suprematism applied to architecture, assisted Malevich in creating most of the models, and developed his own projects, which were distinguished by elegant rendering of architectural ornaments. Suetin's art was characterized by purity of construction, a balance of statics and dynamics, and varied permutations in the joining of geometric figures. The artist was interested in applying Suprematist principles in many different fields. During his work up to the 1930s Suetin created decorative projects intended for decorating flat surfaces: from walls and tabletops to cigarette cases and powder boxes. He was also part of architect Alexander Nikolsky's team and worked on the color schemes of buildings constructed in the Constructivist style.

In 1933 Suetin became the chief artist of the Leningrad Porcelain Factory and worked in that position until the end of his life. Despite his main employment, he continued to paint, developing in his work the ideas of Suprematism and figurative painting, and participated in various exhibitions. In 1935 Suetin took part in the arrangement of Kazimir Malevich's funeral, which was perceived as the last act of Suprematism. He created a coffin-architecton using the primary color scheme — white, black and green — and for the tomb created a monument in the form of a cube.

In 1936 Suetin headed a team of artists who worked on the decoration of the USSR pavilion for the International Exhibition in Paris. The pavilion's concept was awarded the Grand Prix of the exhibition. In 1939 the artist prepared and executed the project for the interior decoration of the USSR pavilion at the New York World's Fair. During this period Nikolai Suetin rightfully came to be regarded as a leading Soviet designer.

Exhibit of the Soviet pavilion at the World's Fair in Paris. 1937

During the Siege of Leningrad Suetin worked on camouflaging military objects. At the end of 1943 Suetin organized an exhibition dedicated to the heroic defense of Leningrad. The exhibition was transformed into the Museum of the Defense of Leningrad, but the museum shared the fate of the GINHUK institute and was closed in 1952 because, in the authorities' view, it unduly emphasized the city's special fate and the special role of its leadership during the Great Patriotic War. After the war Nikolai Suetin continued to work at the State Porcelain Factory, where he developed small architectural forms in fine ceramics. His vase 'Crocus' is one of the masterpieces of Soviet porcelain design. There are a great number of variations in the decoration of this vase form, which represents a peculiar combination of Suprematist rigid lines with the smoothness of porcelain. Other well-known works by Suetin include the plate 'Invalid' (1920), the cup and saucer with an orange disc (1923), the inkwell and dish 'Suprematism' (1923), a Suprematist-painted tea set (1923), the inkwell 'Pskov Temple' (1929), 'Planit on an Orange Plane' (1930), the 'Black Silhouette' service (1931), 'Babi' ('Bread') (1931), a tea set with Suprematist painting (1932), the 'Tractor' service (1932), and the cup with saucer 'Sitchik' (1935).

Nikolai Suetin died in 1954 at the age of 56. In 2018, in memory of the artist, Suetin Street was opened in the Danilovsky District of Moscow.

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