Standing figure (Aviator)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: the State Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki (Greece).

One of the two standing figures (the second is almost the same but with a scythe), called “The Aviator”, recalls the famous characters of Malevich’s paintings ” Haymaking”, “Athletes”, and others, created, however, much later – mainly after 1930. The motif of the strip coming from below and going nowhere glorified Olga Rozanova in 1917 (her “The Green Stripe” became the beginning of Kostaki’s collection; then he purchased paintings by Morgunov). In the works of the pre-suprematist period of Aleksei, the large but light figures are pierced by several bright stripes, like a spectrum. The most massive in the composition is the tilted head of the character, painted in dark colours and the “bottom view” perspective.