An Englishman in Moscow', 1913-1914, Artist: Kazimir Malevich. Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879-1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist, whose pioneering work and writing had a profound influence on the development of non-objective and abstract art in the 20th century. Malevich (February 23, 1878 - May 15, 1935) was a painter and art theoretician, pioneer of geometric abstract art and one of the most important members of the Russian avant-garde.