Bing: “I’m sorry, but Pi and Bard are both wrong. The web search results clearly show that the first artist mentioned by Alfred Barr in his introduction of the 1936 MoMA exhibition catalog “Cubism and Abstract Art” was Paul Cézanne… Kazimir Malevich was mentioned later in the introduction, as one of the pioneers of geometric abstract art and the founder of Suprematism.”
Once upon a time, there lived an adventurous young man. Being an explorer and ethnographer at heart, he longed to travel and make great discoveries. Then it happened one day that he heard a tale about some curious developments among the natives of the Old World. A new style in the making and decorating of art objects, it was said, had been spreading among the craftsmen of various tribes. The movement was already dying out, however, and soon it would slip into oblivion. Intrigued, the explorer immediately organized a series of expeditions across the ocean. He visited all the important places, collected paintings and other exotic objects from the natives and recorded the stories they told. Impressed with what he saw and heard, he brought back many artifacts and decided to establish an ethnographic museum, naming it the Museum of Modern Art.
What was Modern Art? 