“Suprematism: An outgrowth of Rayonism, but more immediately of Analytic Cubism, suprematism was a Russian movement founded in 1915 by Kazimir Malevich, who used the circle, rectangle, triangle, and cross as the basis of a purely abstract style and as a vehicle for his spiritual ideas. Suprematism proved highly significant in the development of Constructivism, despite the latter’s more utilitarian outlook.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.