Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) was a major art reformer and theorist of the 20th century and the developer of geometric abstractism. Malevich was born near Kiev, but at the beginning of the 20th century, moved to Moscow, then in the throes of violent upheaval, where he soon became the leader of the Russian avant-garde. Like other artists Malevich was interested in the new trends in continental art, initially in Symbolism, Neo-Impressionism, later in Fauvism- and Expressionism-inspired Primitivism and finally, at the beginning of the 1910s, in Futurism, Cubism and Cubo-Futurism.