Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879 – 1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist. His pioneering work and writing profoundly influenced the development of non-objective or abstract art in the twentieth century. Born in Kyiv into an ethnic Polish family, his concept of Suprematism sought to develop a form of expression that moved as far away as possible from the world of natural forms (objectivity) to access "the supremacy of pure feeling" and spirituality. His most famous work, Black Square (1915), is a black canvas called "painting's ground zero" for its connection between abstract and figurative painting.