►► “Supreme” on Vladimir’s hat
by Marcin Lodyga
text dedicated to Vladimir Umanets who is imprisoned in Maidstone prison, Kent, UK

“It was nothing other than a yearning for speed … for flight … which, seeking an outward shape, brought about the birth of the airplane. For the airplane was not contrived in order to carry business letters from Berlin to Moscow, but rather in obedience to the irresistible drive of this yearning for speed to take on external form.” - Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism

The feeling of speed (flight) required a form and thus we have airplanes. The function of the airplane is not to transport people from one place to another, but to express the desire of speed - an airplane is a shape of this feeling, it’s a “definition” of speed in a form of aeroplane. However, an aeroplane placed in the context of yellowism expresses yellow color instead of the feeling of speed. (The feeling of) yellow can take an outward shape, an external form of any object and being. Yellow in a form of aeroplane, yellow in a form of a chair, yellow in a form of Black Square by Malevich, yellow in a form of “Fountain” by Duchamp. 

In yellowism, in contrary to Suprematism philosophy, the diversity of feelings doesn’t exist. The following feelings “illustrated” by Malevich: the feeling of metallic sounds, the feeling of electric current, the impression of resound, the feeling of magnetic attraction, the impression of universe, the feeling of cosmos, the feeling of mystic wave from cosmos, the feeling of non-objectivity are reduced to one, to the feeling / definition of yellow. All suprematic compositions by Malevich express exactly the same yellowistic feeling/meaning.

“Our life is a theater piece, in which nonobjective feeling is portrayed by objective imagery” says Malevich. Feeling? Kazimir, be precise, you talk about many different feelings, not about one and you defined your Suprematism language (Suprematism forms) to express the various feelings. But yellowists can use all “languages” - the whole art (including Suprematism) and the whole reality to express only one feeling / meaning. Every piece of yellowism is a pure expression of yellow color.

Malevich called his Suprematism world: “nonobjective”. Paradoxically, yellowism is neither objective nor nonobjective because yellowism flattens (to one surface) the nonobjective world (all feelings and impressions) and the objective world (material forms, all objects with their utility) at the same time. You look at a chair and you perceive it as an expression of nonobjective yellow. You look at yellow which only looks like a dark brown wooden chair.

Yellowism is based on the supremacy of yellow and takes domination over Suprematism. 

text by Marcin Lodyga, London, 2013

The authors of manifesto and definition of yellowism Marcin Łodyga and Vladimir Umanets at The British Museum in London (January 2012). 
© Sylwester Kolton.

Vladimir Umanets
A1 / Simple Love (From Repetitive Series)
frame box (with transparent violet glass), mineral glass wool, prints
2012

Marcin Łodyga, Vladimir Umanets
I Wish They All Could Be Collective-Farm Girls
signed and dated 2011 on the back
magazine print, paper, masking tape
Executed in 2010.

"

Yellowism is so simple, so radical, too cheeky and too obvious that everybody just gets pissed off and angry. How fucking come? But you’ve got what you see. You’ve got the problem if you don’t accept it. It doesn’t depend from me how you feel knowing about yellowism existence. For those who are curious what I see, is that I can keep carrying on my works and selling them for extremely high prices, enjoying my life together with my friends and family.

To be honest I don’t really care about the world problems and I don’t make any political statements. I care about my own life and things which surround me. I’m interested in making money, not to be made by it. I don’t need fame and I was never worried about it. I don’t mind if I became famous and I wouldn’t mind if at some point I’ll be rich though. The Rothko incident, the reaction and the consequences are the funniest and probably the most absurd things I’ve experienced so far. One of the major reasons why I’ve signed the painting was the will to confront yellowism with the criticism it has recieved, to ensure once and for all how powerful is what we do and how powerful it’s going to be. I wouldn’t say that people don’t understand what yellowism is, because it has a very simple definition. I would rather say that people are not ready to get it yet so they don’t want to accept it. However, yellowism became our conclusion. We were working hard, struggling for long time to define this “dumb” thing. We’ve decided to leave art manifestly and become yellowists. Nothing less nothing more.

"

Vladimir Umanets
December 6, 2012

The prototype of the replica of the iconic Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ (1917) as an original piece of yellowism ‘Urinal’ signed by Vladimir Umanets and Marcin Lodyga.

Iniciated in December 2010, Cairo.
For public view in yellowistic chambers only.

Vladimir Umanets
Useless 8 / yellowistic draft
signed and dated 2/11/12 on the front
Black and white magazine print
29 by 38 cm.
Executed in 2012.

►► A mysterious place in the universe

On 7th of October 2012 yellowist Vladimir Umanets went to Tate Gallery and signed Mark Rothko’s painting “Black on Maroon” (from Seagram series).Tate Modern will remove (or removed already) Umanets signature and title: “A potential piece of  yellowism”. Unfortunately, Tate will not keep the inscription and therefore will “deface” something very special. But, regardless of what Tate will do with it, Rothko’s painting will be always remembered as a potential piece of yellowism.

Rothko’s work of art, placed in Tate and signed by Umantes, is still a work of art,  it is not a piece of yellowism. It is (only) a potential piece of yellowism which  means that  Rothko’s painting can stop being a work of art, and can become a piece of Yellowism – if Rothko’s painting was placed in a yellowistic chamber, then it wouldn’t be a work of art anymore, and would express yellow colour only; it would be a definition of yellow given in the form of Rothko’s painting. In other words: Rothko signed by Umantes is still in Tate Gallery therefore it is still a work of art - a work of art entitled: “A potential piece of yellowism”. This painting will be a piece of yellowism only in a yellowistic chamber, in the context of yellowism. It can (potentially) gain the new status. “A potential piece of yellowism” shows the possibility of transformation.

Rothko said his paintings begin an unknown adventure into an unknown space. I think that especially “Black on Maroon” with the title “A potential piece of yellowism” begins an unknown adventure into unknown space. The new context called Yellowism is still an unknown space for many people. Simon Schama (in “Simon Schama’s Power of Art - Rothko”) says about Rothko’s painting: “I felt I was being pulled through those black lines to some mysterious place in the universe.” Now, not the black lines painted by Rothko, but rather the black inscription on the Rothko’s painting: “A potential piece of yellowism” pulls the whole world, the whole public, and all people around the world, to the new “mysterious” place called “yellowism”. However, this new territory, this new intellectual field, is not so mysterious – it’s clearly defined. The definition of yellowism is not a secret.

You can look through “A potential piece of yellowism”to see the new context. If you resign from being an artist and you abandon the context of art - you don’t need to return to the context of everyday reality, because you have the possibility to discover the context of yellowism. You don’t have to step back, you have the opportunity to radically change your perception and see all and everything as expressions of yellow color only – including the beautiful “Black on Maroon” by Mark Rothko. 

text by Marcin Lodyga

Vladimir Umanets
A Potential Piece Of Yellowism
Black On Maroon 1958 II painted by Mark Rothko
Mixed media on canvas
2286 x 2070 mm
Executed in 2012