UNOVIS — an acronym for "Champions of the New Art" — was founded by Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919, making it a Belarusian institution by geography even if Soviet by politics. The group's radical Suprematist program, including the famous redesign of Vitebsk's streets and buildings with geometric propaganda, lasted barely three years before Soviet authorities pushed Malevich and his followers toward Moscow and Petrograd. Belarus reclaiming that history through a commemorative issue a century later reflects a broader post-independence effort to attach the republic to an internationally recognized avant-garde movement.
UNOVIS — an acronym for "Champions of the New Art" — was founded by Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919, making it a Belarusian institution by geography even if Soviet by politics. The group's radical Suprematist program, including the famous redesign of Vitebsk's streets and buildings with geometric propaganda, lasted barely three years before Soviet authorities pushed Malevich and his followers toward Moscow and Petrograd. Belarus reclaiming that history through a commemorative issue a century later reflects a broader post-independence effort to attach the republic to an internationally recognized avant-garde movement.