Etnodim, in collaboration with Ukraine WOW, has recreated a pillow based on a sketch by Kazymyr Malevych.

This project is our way of reminding the world of the artist’s Ukrainian heritage and highlighting the role of Ukraine in shaping his distinctive artistic vision.

Kazymyr Malevych was an avant-garde artist and the founder of Suprematism, the art of non-objectivity and abstract geometric forms. His “Black Square,” painted in 1915, became the emblem of Suprematism. It remains one of the most controversial and yet one of the most significant works of twentieth-century art.

Malevych is also among the most renowned Kyivans worldwide. He was born in Ukraine’s capital and, until the age of seventeen, lived with his parents in villages and towns across the country. In the 1920s, he taught at the Kyiv Art Institute, inspiring students with bold ideas and “curing” them of realism in painting.

Malevych loved Kyiv deeply, and above all the Dnipro River. “Kyiv remained magical in my heart. The colorful brick houses, the hillsides, the Dnipro, the distant horizon, the steamboats. Every aspect of its life inspired me more and more,” he wrote.

He regarded Ukrainian folk artisans, particularly those from the village of Verbivka in the Cherkasy region, as his first teachers. They were the first to recognize his early Suprematist compositions, long before they reached a wider audience.

Malevych created unique sketches for the Verbivka Artel, which the artisans transformed into embroidered pillows and headscarves. The Artel’s work was first presented at an exhibition on November 6, 1915. Among the 280 exhibited pieces, the most remarkable was an embroidered pillow based on Malevych’s sketch. Its design originated from his “Suprematist Composition,” now housed in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice.

This design laid the foundation for our collaboration with NGO Ukraine WOW. Working closely with the project’s consultants, embroidery master Valentyna Kostiukova and art historian Tetyana Kara-Vasylieva, we recreated the pillow in its original dimensions of 60 × 84 cm. It is now on display at the Ukraine WOW exhibition, which runs until November 9. Once the exhibition concludes, we will return the pillow to its homeland at the Museum of History in Verbivka

A smaller version of the pillow is now available for purchase online and in Etnodim stores. We will donate 40% of the profit to the historical museum of the Kamianka State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Kamianka, Cherkasy region, to support the exhibition dedicated to the Verbiv embroidery artel.