Malevich’s avant-garde shapes transformed into jewellery

A Moscow jewellery brand is turning Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist paintings into earrings, necklaces, and rings.

Inspired by the shapes and colours of Malevich’s work, the designers at jewellery label Leta have carved each detail from a mix of materials, including red onyx, deep blue sodalite, and sky-blue quartz stones, setting them in gold jewellery.

The collection’s name, Una, is an abbreviation of Unovis, the name of a short-lived Suprematist art group founded by Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School. (It also gave Malevich’s daughter her name, Una). The avant-garde group banded together between 1919 and 1922, under the shared principle that there should be no need for storyline or concrete imagery in art, reclaiming it as a medium for emotions and ideas. Its artists worked across painting, illustration, and set design, and included El Lissitzky, Ilya Chashnik, and Vera Ermolaeva, among its notable members.

Talking of Malevich’s paintings, Leta’s team say their collection was “driven by the impulse of love for colour and the energy it brings.” The label was founded in 2016, with production now operating from a workshop in one of the oldest manufacturers in the Urals.