The secret of Malevich's painting "The Black Square. Under the "black square" of Malevich found the original name of the painting Black Square

I predicted the appearance of a pixel. This is the monitor screen off. "Black square" marked the beginning of the war. In the picture lie the roots of "minimalism". Now it is already difficult to understand which versions are serious, and what grew out of simple jokes in response to a hackneyed question. However, all these assumptions are unnecessarily far-fetched, and "Black Square" actually means ... a black square.

Too easy? Too difficult? Let's go in order.

In history before Malevich, there were many black painted surfaces. The earliest known "square" was created in 1617, it belonged to the hand of Robert Fludd and was called "Great Darkness". Next in chronology is the Frenchman Bertal (real name Charles Albert d'Arnoux), who in 1843 created "View of La Hougue (under the cover of night)". The club of fans of black rectangles also included with his "Twilight History of Russia" and Paul Bielhold with "Night fight of blacks in the basement."

The main hero of the arguments against Malevich's originality is his closest predecessor - the eccentric Frenchman Alphonse Allais, who created in 1893 the famous work, which is no longer original even in name, "The Battle of the Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night."

Fuel was added to the fire by a recent discovery - the results of a technological study of the painting, which clarified the information about two layers of paint hidden under black. It's no secret that the square is not completely even, and most importantly, not completely black - colored streaks are clearly visible on the textured surface, but the content of the preliminary images was still unknown. Among the layers with colored strokes from different periods, an inscription was found, which was considered lost. Contrary to expectations, the words turned out not to be the signature of the artist, but the beginning of a scandalous sensation. Among the layers of the "Black Square" is written: "Battle of the Negroes at night."

Checkmate, defenders of Malevich's originality. Square is a joke. Square is plagiarism. All values ​​are exaggerated" one could say, but... no. Everything is the opposite.

What makes Malevich's Black Square original is not its visual image, but the name itself.

The same Alphonse Allais created a bunch of other witty images suitable for the pages of satirical magazines. "Anaemic damsels going to the first communion in a snowstorm" - a white rectangle.

Anyone can also paint over the surface with gray, and call it, for example, "Hedgehog in the Fog", and on the modern Internet there are a lot of funny riddle pictures with symbolic designations of simple plots.

It's all - games only with meanings. The work of Fludd and Bertal also has a contrived plot, perhaps not as witty as Bielhold and Allais, but still playing with the story, creating a visual edge.
The main difference between Malevich's paintings and others is the lack of a plot. Whatever is written among the layers, only a black square is shown on top, which is called for what it is - a black square.

Kazimir Malevich was the first who did not play with the meanings of painted surfaces, but quite seriously created a work unique at that time, exactly coinciding with himself in everything. We see exactly what we read in the title. Any further paintings with colored geometric shapes and titles identical to the images were and will be only a repetition of the original idea.

Yes, Kazimir Malevich was not the first to paint over a geometric figure with black, but he was the first to call this image what it is.

And “Black Square” means a black square and is a reference painting in which the image, the image and the name completely coincide without any plot distortions and additional meanings.

The latest methods of tomographic scanning have helped experts to discover a hidden image under a layer of paint that explains the mystical magnetism of the Black Square. According to Sotheby's registers, the value of this painting is estimated today. in 20 million dollars.

In 1972, the English critic Henry Veits wrote:
“It would seem that it could be simpler: a black square on a white background. Anyone can probably draw this. But here's the riddle: a black square on a white background - a painting by the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, created at the beginning of the century, still attracts both researchers and art lovers as something sacred, as a kind of myth, as a symbol of the Russian avant-garde. What explains this mystery?
And continues:
“They say that Malevich, having painted Black Square, told everyone for a long time that he could neither eat nor sleep. And he does not understand what he did. Indeed, this picture is the result, apparently, of some complex work. When we look at the black square, we see under the cracks the lower colorful layers - pink, lilac, ocher - apparently, there was some kind of color composition, recognized at some point as failed and recorded with a black square.

Tomographic scanning in infrared radiation showed the following results:

The discovery excited art historians and culturologists, forcing them to turn again to archival materials in search of explanations.

Kazemir Severinovich Malevich was born in Kyiv February 23 18 79 years old. He grew up as a capable child, and in a school essay he wrote: “My dad works as a manager at a sugar factory. But his life is not sweet. All day he listens to the workers swearing when they get drunk on sugar mash. Therefore, returning home, dad often swears at mom. So when I grow up, I will be an artist. This is good work. No need to swear with the workers, no need to carry heavy things, and the air smells of paints, not sugar dust, which is very harmful to health. A good picture costs a lot of money, and you can paint it in just one day.”.
After reading this essay, Kozi's mother, Ludwiga Alexandrovna (nee Galinovskaya) presented him with a set of paints for his 15th birthday. And at the age of 17, Malevich entered the Kyiv drawing school of N.I. Murashko.

In August 1905, he came to Moscow from Kursk and applied for admission to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. However, the school did not accept him. Malevich did not want to return to Kursk, he settled in an artistic commune in Lefortovo. Here, in the big house of the artist Kurdyumov, about thirty "communards" lived. I had to pay seven rubles a month for a room, which was very cheap by Moscow standards. But Malevich often had to borrow this money too. In the summer of 1906, he again applied to the Moscow School, but he was not accepted for the second time.
From 1906 to 1910, Kazimir attended classes at the studio of F.I. Rerberg in Moscow. For this period of his life, the letters of the artist A.A. Exter to the musician M.V. Matyushin. One of them describes the following.
To improve his finances, Kazimir Malevich began work on a series of paintings about a women's bath. The paintings were not sold expensively and required additional expenses for the models, but it was at least some money.
One day, after working with the models all night, Malevich fell asleep on the couch in his studio. In the morning his wife came in to take money from him to pay the grocer's bills. Seeing the next canvas of the great master, she boiled with indignation and jealousy, grabbed a large brush and painted over the canvas with black paint.
Waking up, Malevich tried to save the painting, but to no avail - the black paint had already dried up.
Art critics believe that it was at this moment that Malevich had the idea of ​​the "Black Square".

The fact is that many artists long before Malevich tried to create something similar. These paintings were not widely known, but Malevich, who studied the history of painting, undoubtedly knew about them. Here are just a few examples.

Robert Fludd, "Great Darkness" 1617

Bertal, View of La Hogue (night effect), Jean-Louis Petit, 1843

Paul Bilhod, Night Fight of the Negroes in the Basement, 1882

Alphonse Allais, Philosophers Catching a Black Cat in a Dark Room, 1893

Alphonse Allais, a French journalist, writer and eccentric humorist, author of the popular aphorism “Never put off for tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow” succeeded most in such creativity.
From 1882 to 1893, he painted a whole series of similar paintings, not at all hiding his humorous attitude to these "creative studies of extra-material realities."
For example, the stark white canvas in a frame was titled "Anaemic Girls Walking to First Communion in a Snowstorm." The red canvas was called "Apoplectic cardinals picking tomatoes on the shores of the Red Sea", etc.

Malevich undoubtedly understood that the secret of the success of such paintings lies not in the image itself, but in its theoretical justification. Therefore, he did not exhibit Black Suprematist Square until he wrote his famous manifesto, From Cubism to Suprematism, in 1915. New pictorial realism".

However, this was not enough. The exhibition was rather sluggish, since by that time there were quite a lot of various “Suprematists”, “Cubists”, “Futurists”, “Dadaists”, “Conceptualists” and “Minimalists” in Moscow, and the public was already rather tired of them.
Real success came to Malevich only after Lunacharsky appointed him "People's Commissar of IZO Narkompros". Within this position Malevich took his "black square" and other works to the exhibition "Abstract and Surrealistic Painting and Plastic" in Zurich. Then there were his personal exhibitions in Warsaw, in Berlin and in Munich, where his new book "The World as Non-Objectivity" was also published. The fame of Malevich's Black Square spread throughout Europe.

The fact that Malevich used his position not so much for the international propaganda of Soviet art as for the promotion of his own work did not hide from his Moscow colleagues. And upon returning from abroad in the autumn of 1930 Malevich was arrested by the NKVD on a denunciation as a "German spy".
However, thanks to the intercession of Lunacharsky, he spent only 4 months in prison, although he parted ways with the post of "People's Commissar of Fine Arts" forever.

So the firstThe "Black Suprematist Square", which was discussed here, is dated 1915, now it is in the Tretyakov Gallery.
The second Black Square was painted by Malevich in 1923 especially for the Russian Museum.
The third - in 1929. He is also in the Tretyakov Gallery.
And the fourth - in 1930, especially for the Hermitage.

These museums also store other works by Malevich.

Kazemir Malevich, " Red Suprematist Square, 1915

Kazemir Malevich, "Black Suprematist Circle", 1923

Kazemir Malevich, "Suprematist Cross", 1923

Kazemir Malevich, "Black and White", 1915

However, it should be noted that the name of Malevich is forever inscribed in the history of art and deservedly so. His “creativity” is the most vivid illustration of the laws of psychology, according to which the average person is not able to think critically and independently distinguish between “art” and “non-art”, and in general truth from untruth. In their assessments, the mediocre majority is guided mainly by the opinion of generally recognized authorities, which makes it easy to convince public opinion of the truth of any, even the most absurd, statement. In the theory of "mass psychology" this phenomenon is called the "Black Square effect". On the basis of this phenomenon, Goebbels formulated one of his main postulates - "A lie repeated in the newspapers a thousand times becomes the truth." A sad scientific fact widely used for political PR both in our country and today.

Kazemir Malevich, self-portrait, 1933,
State Russian Museum

Kazimir Malevich. Black suprematist square. 1915, Moscow.

Everyone thought about the paradox of Malevich's Black Square.

You can't think of anything simpler than a black square. There is nothing easier than drawing a black square. Nevertheless, it is recognized as a masterpiece.

If today it gets to open auction, it will be ready to buy for 140 million dollars!

How did this "misunderstanding" come about? A primitive image is recognized by all art historians of the world as a masterpiece. Did they speak?

Obviously, there is something special about Black Square. Invisible to the ordinary viewer. Let's try to find this "something".

1. "Black Square" is not as simple as it seems.

It only at first glance seems that anyone could create such a masterpiece. Both a child and an adult without art education.

A child would not have the patience to paint over such a large surface with one color.

But seriously, even an adult could hardly repeat the “Black Square”, because not everything in this picture is so simple.

The black square is NOT actually black

The “black square” is not actually a square. Its sides are NOT equal to each other. And opposite sides are NOT parallel to each other.

In addition, the “Black Square” is NOT completely black.

Chemical analysis showed that Malevich used three homemade paints. The first is a burnt bone. The second is black ocher. And the third is another natural component ... of a dark green hue. Even Malevich added chalk. To remove the glossy effect inherent in oil paints.

That is, the artist did not just take the first black paint that came across and painted over the drawn square. At least he spent a day preparing materials.

There are four "Black Squares"

If it was a randomly painted picture, the artist would not copy it. Over the next 15 years, he created 3 more “Black Squares”.

If you have seen all 4 paintings (two are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, one in the Russian Museum, and one more in the Hermitage), then you probably noticed how NOT similar they are.

Yes Yes. Despite their simplicity, they are different. The first "Square" of 1915 is considered the most energetically charged. It's all about the successful selection of shades of black and white, as well as in the composition of paints.

All four paintings are not similar in size or color. One of the "Squares" is larger (1923, kept in the Russian Museum). The other one is much blacker. In color, it is the most deaf and all-consuming (also stored in the Tretyakov Gallery).

Below are all four "Squares". The difference in reproductions is difficult to understand. But suddenly it will inspire you to watch them live!

From left to right: 1.Black square. 1929 79.5 x 79.5 cm Tretyakov Gallery. 2. Black square. 1930-1932 53.5 x 53.5 cm. 3. Black square. 1923 106 x 106 cm. Russian Museum. 4. Black square. 1915 79.5 x 79.5 cm Tretyakov Gallery.

“Black Square” closes two more paintings

On the "Square" of 1915, you probably noticed cracks (craquelure). The bottom layer of paint is visible through them. These are the colors of another picture. It was written in the proto-Suprematist style. Something like "The Lady at the Lamppost".

Kazimir Malevich. The lady at the lamppost. 1914 Stedelek City Museum, Amsterdam

That's not all. Below it is another image. Already the third in a row. Written in the style of cubo-futurism. This is what the style looks like.

Kazimir Malevich. Grinder. 1912 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

Therefore, craquelures appeared. Too thick layer of paint.

Why such difficulties? As many as three images on one surface!

Perhaps this is an accident. It happens. The artist has an idea. He wants to express it immediately. But there may not be a canvas at hand. But even if there is a canvas, it needs to be prepared, primed. Then insignificant pictures come into play. Or those that the artist considers unsuccessful.

It turned out a kind of picturesque matryoshka. Evolution. From Cubo-Futurism to Cubo-Suprematism and to Pure Suprematism in the Black Square.

2. Strong personality theory

“Black Square” was created as part of a new direction in painting invented by Malevich. Suprematism. Supreme means "superior". Since the artist considered it the highest point in the development of painting.

It's a whole school. How . Like academia. Only this school was created by one person. Kazimir Malevich. He attracted many supporters and followers to his side.

Malevich knew how to speak clearly and charismatically about his offspring. He zealously campaigned to completely abandon figurativeness. That is, from the image of objects and objects. Suprematism is an art that creates, and does not repeat, as the artist said.

If we remove the pathos and look at his theory from the outside, then we cannot but recognize its greatness. Malevich, as befits a genius, felt which way the wind was blowing.

The time for individual perception was over. What did it mean? Previously, only a select few admired works of art. The ones who owned them. Or could afford to walk to the museum.

Now the age of mass culture has arrived. When simplified forms and pure colors are important. Malevich understood that art should not lag behind. And maybe even able to lead this movement.

He invented, in fact, a new pictorial language. Proportionate to the coming time, which is about to come. And the language has its own alphabet.

“Black Square” is the main sign of this alphabet. “Zero forms,” as Malevich said.

Before Malevich, there was another alphabet, invented at the beginning of the 14th century. This alphabet was the basis of all art. This is perspective. Volume. Emotional expression.

Giotto. Kiss Judas. 1303-1305 Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy

Malevich has a completely different language. Simple color forms in which color is given a different role. It is not to convey nature. And not to create the illusion of volume. It is expressive in itself.

“Black Square” is the main “letter” in the new alphabet. Square, because it is a primitive. Black is the color because it absorbs all colors.

Together with the Black Square, Malevich creates the Black Cross and the Black Circle. Simple elements. But they are also derivatives of the black square.

The circle appears if the square is rotated on the plane. The cross consists of several squares.

Paintings by K. Malevich. Left: Black cross. 1915 Center Pompidou, Paris. Right: Black circle. 1923 Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

Paintings by K. Malevich. Left: Black square and red square. 1915 Museum of Modern Art, New York. Middle: Suprematist composition. 1916 Private collection. Right: Suprematism. 1916 Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

In the style of Suprematism, Malevich painted for several years. And then the incredible happened. He denied figurativeness for so long that ... he returned to it.

One could regard this as an inconsistency. Like, "played" in a beautiful theory and that's enough.

In fact, the language he created craved application. Applications in the world of forms and nature. And Malevich obediently returned to this world. But he portrayed him already with the help of the new language of Suprematism.

Paintings by Kazimir Malevich. Left: Athletes. 1932 Russian Museum. Middle: Red House. 1932 Ibid. Right: Girl with a comb in her hair. 1934 Tretyakov Gallery.

So the “Black Square” is not the end of art, as it is sometimes called. This is the beginning of a new painting.

Then came a new stage. Language wanted to serve people. And he moved into our lives.

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3. Huge impact on living space

Having created Suprematism, Malevich did everything so that it would not gather dust in museums, but would go to the masses.

He drew sketches of dresses. But during his lifetime he was able to “put them on” only on the heroes of his paintings.

Kazimir Malevich. Portrait of the artist's wife. 1934 Russian Museum

Left: Service from the Leningrad Porcelain Factory, designed by Malevich (1922). Right: fabric sample with a drawing by Malevich (1919).

The supporters of Malevich spoke in the language of the Black Square. The most famous of them is El Lissitzky, who invented typefaces, as well as new book designs.

He was inspired by the theory of Suprematism and Malevich's Black Square.

El Lissitzky. Cover of the book by Vladimir Mayakovsky "Good!". 1927

This kind of book design seems natural to us. But only because Malevich's style has firmly entered our lives.

Our contemporaries, designers, architects and fashion designers do not hide the fact that all their lives they drew inspiration from the works of Malevich. Among them is one of the most famous architects, Zaha Hadid (1950-2016).

Left: Dominion Tower. Architect: Zaha Hadid. Construction 2005-2015 Moscow (m. Dubrovka). In the center: Table “Malevich”. Alberto Llevore. 2016 Spain. Right: Gabrielo Colangelo. Collection spring-summer 2013

4. Why “Black Square” is puzzling and why it is still a masterpiece

Almost every viewer tries to understand Malevich with the help of the familiar language of the natural image. The same one that Giotto invented and developed Renaissance artists.

Many try to evaluate the "Black Square" according to inappropriate criteria. Like it - don't like it. Beautiful - not beautiful. Realistic - not realistic.

There is awkwardness. Discouragement. Because the “Black Square” remains deaf to such assessments. What remains? Just condemn or ridicule.

Daub. Nonsense. “The child will draw better” or “I can do that too” and so on.

That's when it becomes clear why this is a masterpiece. It is impossible to evaluate Black Square on its own. But only together with the space it serves.

PS.

Malevich was famous during his lifetime. But he did not receive material benefits from this. Going to an exhibition in Paris in 1929, he asked the authorities to let him go there ... on foot. Because he didn't have money to travel.

The authorities realized that Comrade Malevich, who came to Europe on his own two feet, would undermine their authority. Therefore, 40 rubles were allocated for the trip.

True, after 2 weeks he was urgently called back by telegram. And upon arrival he was immediately arrested. By denunciation. Like a German spy.

I am not an art critic, unfortunately, but recently I had the opportunity to show off my erudition about the famous painting by Kazimir Malevich "Black Square". It turns out that not everyone knows that there are several such squares, including not only black ones :) and that in addition to the square, there are also Malevich's circle and cross.

But let's go in order. So, "Black Square" was created by the artist in 1915. The idea of ​​creating this masterpiece was born while Malevich was working on the scenery for the futuristic opera Victory over the Sun. (The characters of the opera, defeating the merciless burning Sun, cover it with a black square, symbolizing the power of human reason, logic, analysis. The light edging on the sides of the square is the penetrating sun's rays.)

The original name of the "Black Square", under which it was listed in the catalog, was "Quadrangular". Not having strictly right angles, from the point of view of pure geometry, it really was a quadrilateral, it was a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, mobile form. . The imaginary movement of the black square - its rotation in space, or the rearrangement of black and white cells gave rise to new Suprematist forms. The "Black Circle" and "Black Cross" were created simultaneously with the "Black Square" and, together with the square, constituted the main block of the Suprematist system.

Suprematism (from lat. supremus - the highest) - a direction in avant-garde art, founded in the 1st half of the 1910s. K.S. Malevich. Being a kind of abstract art, Suprematism was expressed in combinations of multi-colored planes of the simplest geometric outlines (in the geometric forms of a straight line, square, circle and rectangle). The combination of multi-colored and different-sized geometric figures forms balanced asymmetric Suprematist compositions permeated with internal movement. (Wikipedia)

Subsequently, Malevich, for various purposes, performed several author's repetitions of the Black Square. Now four variants of the Black Square are already known, differing in pattern, texture and color.

The first painting "Black Square", with which the author's repetitions were subsequently made, is stored in the Tretyakov Gallery. The painting is a canvas measuring 79.5 by 79.5 centimeters, which depicts a black square on a white background.

The second "Black Square" became part of a triptych (together with it, duplicates of the "Circle" and "Cross" were created), executed around 1923, to be exhibited at the Venice Biennale. The dimensions of the second version are 106 by 106 cm. All parts of the triptych of 1923 differed from the original of 1915 both in size and proportions; these were completely new "Square", "Circle" and "Cross".
In March 1936, along with other 80 paintings by Malevich, these three works were transferred by his wife, N. A. Malevich, to the Russian Museum.

The third version was written in 1929 and is an exact repetition of the author's main work - the first "Black Square" (also measuring 79.5 by 79.5 cm) for his personal exhibition, which was being prepared at the Tretyakov Gallery. “According to legend, this was done at the request of the then deputy director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Alexei Fedorov-Davydov, due to the poor condition of the Black Square in 1915 (craquelure appeared on the painting). The artist wrote it directly in the halls of the museum; and during the work he allowed himself minor changes in proportions so that the paintings did not look like absolute twins.

The fourth version could have been written in 1932, its size is 53.5 by 53.5 cm. It became known much later, in 1993, when an unknown person brought it to the Samara branch of Inkombank as collateral for a loan. Subsequently, the picture became the property of the bank. After the ruin of Inkombank in 1998, Malevich's painting became the main asset in settlements with creditors. In 2002, by agreement with the Russian government, the Black Square was withdrawn from open auction and was purchased by businessman Vladimir Potanin for $1 million in order to transfer it to the Hermitage for permanent storage.

There are two more basic Suprematist squares - red and white.
"Red Square" was written in 1915. The title on the back is "Woman in Two Dimensions". It is a red quadrilateral on a white background, slightly different in shape from a square.

Here she is a two-dimensional woman of Malevich :)))

The painting "White Square on White" became a manifestation of the "white" period of Suprematism, which began in 1918 ("Suprematist composition" - "White on white").

The red and white squares were part of the artistic and philosophical triad defined by Malevich. The artist claimed: “The Suprematist three squares are the establishment of certain worldviews and world-buildings ... black as a sign of economy, red as a signal of revolution, and white as pure action.”

“Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich is an icon of the Russian avant-garde, one of the most famous paintings of Russian art. The worldwide fame of the painting and its author was brought by the deep meaning invested by the artist in the painting.

The meaning of Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square" is inseparable from its creation. The picture was painted by Malevich on June 21, 1915 - that was the time of the peak of the development of the avant-garde in Russian painting, the time of historical revolutions, collectively speaking - the time of great changes in all spheres of life.

In 1914-1915, one of the main trends in Russian abstract art appears and the term that defines it is “Suprematism” (from Latin supremus - the highest). The ideological inspirer, the main theorist and the brightest representative of Suprematism was K. Malevich, who united his followers in the art society "Supremus" to spread the ideas of Suprematism. The key to understanding Malevich's method is his theoretical work "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism" (1916), in which he substantiated his belief that the actual transmission of the physical world and drawing from nature "are characteristic of savages." According to Malevich's idea, Suprematism became the highest degree of development of art due to the allocation of the non-objective as the essence of any kind of art. The true creator must abandon the imitation of reality and intuitively discover the true reality, contained in simple geometric forms, the basis of all that exists. Suprematism in its content was a geometric abstraction and therefore was expressed in combinations of the simplest geometric shapes, devoid of pictorial meaning, painted in different tones. Having abandoned figurative art, Suprematist artists also abandoned "earthly" landmarks: in their paintings there is no idea of ​​"top" and "bottom", "left" and "right" - as in space, all directions are equal. The artists expressed their aesthetic ideas through compositions in which the construction of the form did not imply the need for color and figure: the knowledge of color and form occurred through the sensations not so much of the artist as of the one who looks at the picture. Feeling the energy of objects and images, the Suprematist artist worked with form and color within the framework of the laws of economy, which in his work became the fifth irrational dimension. The quintessence of such savings was Kazimir Malevich's Black Square.

Black Square (1915) Kazimir Malevich

Malevich unveiled the concept of Suprematism at the "Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10" in St. Petersburg (1915). At this exhibition, the artist presented 39 of his paintings depicting human figures in simple geometric forms. Among the paintings was the famous triptych, on which, in fact, the whole system of Suprematism was based: “Black Square”, “Black Cross” and “Black Circle”. Of this triptych, only the "Black Square" gained fame as the most famous work of the world avant-garde. It is quite possible that Malevich’s discouraging statement that with this work he completely completed the history of the development of world painting attracted attention to the painting. The artist himself considered the square to be the primary figure, the basic element of the world and being. Even the monument to the artist, according to his will, was made in the form of a square, a copy of his famous painting. “The square,” Malevich wrote, “is the creation of the intuitive mind. The square is a living, regal baby. The artist called the “Black Square” an icon, and at the exhibition he placed the painting high in the corner in the same way as icons are hung.

Exhibition "0, 10". Petersburg, December 1915

"Black Square" has neither top nor bottom. Deviations from pure geometry indicate that the artist painted the square "by eye", without resorting to compasses and a ruler. The painting was the final result of numerous experiments, as evidenced by the color compositions that appeared over time in the cracks of the black surface. Now the legendary "Black Square" is in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Malevich himself divided his Supremacist work into three periods according to the number of squares - black ("black period"), red ("color period") and white ("white period", when white forms are written in white). The works had complex, detailed names. So, "Red Square" was originally called "Picturesque Realism of a Peasant Woman in 2 Dimensions". In search of a new artistic language, Malevich was ahead of his time. Theorist and practitioner of art, he became a landmark figure for the 20th century, a symbol of the Russian avant-garde. K. Malevich stood at the origins of the new art, most vividly embodying the searches and paradoxes of his time. Having gone beyond the borders of Russia, Suprematism had a noticeable impact on the entire world artistic culture. Like no other direction of the avant-garde, Suprematism extended its system to all types of artistic creativity: painting textiles and porcelain, book graphics, design, and even decorating holidays.