What is Malevich's painting "Black Square" known for? "Black Square" by Malevich. What's the point? “Black Square” - a brilliant painting or quackery

23.06.2020

Culture

Experts have revealed the secret famous work art, discovering two hidden paintings under the work of Kazimir Malevich "Black Square".

The artist himself was puzzled by the end result of his work. " I could neither sleep nor eat, and tried to understand what I had done - but I could not", he said.

The meaning of the painting "Black Square" by Malevich

The meaning of the "Black Square" was also revealed. Researchers said they were finally able to decipher the inscription on the painting, which is believed to have been made by the artist's hand.

It reads: " Battle of blacks in a dark cave"However, they added that they were almost sure of this, despite the fact that three letters between the “n” and “ov” remained undeciphered.

Apparently this is a link to more early work black square" Battle of blacks in a dark cave in the dead of night"by the French writer and humorist Alphonse Allais, painted in 1897. If this is so, then Malevich's painting is a kind of dialogue with a French painting.

Kazimir Malevich, who was the founder of geometric abstract art at the beginning of the 20th century, founded the art movement known as Suprematism in 1913.

The painting "Black Square", which is presented in the Tretyakov Gallery, was painted in 1915. Later Malevich created two more versions.

The second “Black Square” is a triptych, which also includes “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”.

For the fifth time, Malevich’s “Black Square” has been stolen from the museum! And now for the fifth time the watchman Uncle Vasya manages to restore the painting by morning...

- Anecdote

“Black Square” is the only bright spot in Malevich’s work.

- Vladimir Yakushev

Kazimir Malevich "Black Suprematist Square", 1915.

Approximate cost: two megadollars.

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich(Lash. Kazimierz Malewicz, bulb. Kazimer Malevich, also Kazimier Malevič) - a racial Pole, a believing Catholic, an avant-garde artist, and also, according to the assurances of pedagogy, a writer, which gives another reason to remember the fairy tale about naked king.

The “Black Square” he wrote became something of an icon of supermatism. A lot of parodies were made, all kinds of black triangles and rectangles, white squares on a white background, etc. Many comedians have fun wondering what is depicted in the picture. The most popular one is “blacks steal coal at night.” This is where the alternative name for the masterpiece, “African-American Square,” comes from.

According to one version, the artist was unable to complete the painting on time, so he had to cover the work with black paint. Subsequently, after public recognition, Malevich painted new “Black Squares” on blank canvases. ICHS, the results of fluoroscopy carried out in 2015 confirmed these guesses - two earlier images were discovered under the top layer. К довершению всего, смехуёчки про ниггеров внезапно оказались вещими — найденная под квадратом надпись гласит: «Битва негров в тёмной пещере».

Not everyone knows that Malevich’s “Red Square” also exists, deep meaning which is that it is not even a square at all, but a very rectangular trapezoid - this square has two angles - straight, one acute and one obtuse. In addition, in nature, more precisely in the Russian Museum, there is also a Black Circle with a Black Cross, but even fiction knows nothing about them.

The secret of the Black Square of Kazimir Malevich

On December 19, 1915, at the “Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10,” which opened in Petrograd, 39 paintings by Kazimir Malevich were presented to the public. In the most prominent place, in the so-called “red corner”, where icons are usually placed, hung the painting “Black Square”. Kazimir Malevich, who spoke at the exhibition, announced the advent of a new pictorial realism - Suprematism. The term “suprematism” (from the Latin supremus - the highest, overcoming) Malevich called the highest and last stage art, the essence of which is to go beyond traditional boundaries, beyond the limits of the visible, intelligible world.

You don't have to be a great artist to draw a black square and place it on a white background. A square is the most elementary geometric figure, black and white are the most elementary colors. Probably anyone can draw this. But here’s a riddle: “Black Square” is the most famous painting in the world. It excites the minds of millions of people, causes heated debate, and attracts a lot of researchers and art lovers. Why is this happening? Until now, the answer to this question has not been found.

Many researchers have tried to unravel the mystery of the “Black Square”. What conclusions did they come to? There are many of them. Here are the five main ones.

"Black Square" is:

1. A gloomy and absolutely incomprehensible revelation of a brilliant artist.
2. An example of wretchedness, complete hopelessness, despair from one’s mediocrity.
3. An artificially inflated fetish, behind which there is no secret.
4. The act of self-assertion of the satanic principle
5. Jewish symbol.

Unfortunately, none of the researchers went beyond a superficial understanding of the picture. They saw only what lay on the surface of the picture, that is, only a black square.

Kazimir Malevich himself has repeatedly stated that the painting was made by him under the influence of the unconscious, or rather, under the influence of “cosmic consciousness.” Consequently, the picture should be perceived not by consciousness, but by the subconscious. “Black Square” is not just a painting, “Black Square” is a symbol of cosmic consciousness.

All researchers did not take into account the simplest truth, namely the law descriptive geometry, which says this: only a plane can really be displayed on a plane. The painting is a plane, which means that only a flat figure can really be depicted on it: a square. People with underdeveloped imagination see in the “Black Square” only a square, and nothing more. But Malevich made it clear to everyone that this was not just a black square, but a Suprematist black square. That is, when considering this picture, one should go beyond traditional perception, go beyond the visible.

Go beyond the visible, and you will understand that in front of you is not a black square, but a multi-colored cube. This is the secret famous painting. The secret meaning embedded in the “Black Square” can be briefly formulated as follows: the world around us, only at the first, superficial glance, looks flat and black and white. If a person perceives the world three-dimensionally and in all its colors, his life will change dramatically. Millions of people who were instinctively drawn to this painting subconsciously felt the volume and colorfulness of the “Black Square”, but they lacked the imagination to take the last step towards understanding the brilliant canvas.

Let's take this final step together. Look at the picture. There is a black square before your eyes. Flat one-color figure. But maybe this is the front side of a multi-colored cube? After all, we know that if you look strictly frontally at a three-dimensional object, you may get a false impression of its plane. Shift your point of view. Go beyond the visible. Try to see the top side of the cube with cosmic vision. If you succeed, you will see that the top side is blue color. It symbolizes the sky and heights. Now let's look at the underside of the cube. This side is green. Green is the color of spring, nature and youth. If you were able to see the top and bottom sides of the cube, see sides it will be easier. The two sides of the cube are yellow and red. Right side- yellow, the color of the sun and summer. The left side is red, the color of fire, warmth and love. The hardest thing is to see the back of the cube. To do this, it is not enough to look a little higher, a little lower, or a little from the side. To do this, we must mentally move to the opposite side. We must change our point of view 180 degrees. If this works, then behind the front black side we will see the back white side. White is the color of wisdom, truth and purity. Black is the color of death, evil and emptiness.

Black color absorbs all other colors, so it is quite difficult to see a multi-colored cube in a black square. And to see the white behind the black, the truth behind the lies, life behind death is many times more difficult. But the one who manages to do this will discover a great philosophical formula.

“Black Square” is not a painting in the generally known sense of the word. “Black Square” is an encrypted message from the great philosopher Kazimir Malevich, not the artist. Having understood true essence this message, this formula of harmony, you will be able to take a different look at the world around you. Look at everything from different points of view, and all the beauty of the COLORFUL world will be revealed to you.

Is the famous painting by Kazimir Malevich quackery or an encrypted philosophical message?

The famous painting divided not only the artist’s life, but also the history of art into two periods.

On the one hand, you don’t have to be a great artist to draw a black square on a white background. Yes, anyone can do this! But here’s the mystery: “Black Square” is the most famous painting in the world. Already 100 years have passed since it was written, and disputes and heated discussions do not stop.

Why is this happening? What is the true meaning and value of Malevich’s “Black Square”? Let's try to figure it out.

1. “Black square” is a dark rectangle

Let's start with the fact that “Black Square” is not black at all and not square at all: none of the sides of the quadrangle is parallel to any of its other sides and to any of the sides of the square frame that frames the picture. A dark color- this is the result of mixing various colors, among which there was no black. It is believed that this was not the author’s negligence, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, mobile form.

2. "Black Square" is a failed painting

For the futuristic exhibition “0.10”, which opened in St. Petersburg on December 19, 1915, Malevich had to paint several paintings. Time was already running out, and the artist either did not have time to finish the painting for the exhibition, or was not happy with the result and rashly covered it up, painting a black square. At that moment, one of his friends came into the studio and, seeing the painting, shouted: “Brilliant!” After which Malevich decided to take advantage of the opportunity and came up with some higher meaning for his “Black Square”.

Hence the effect of cracked paint on the surface. There is no mysticism, the picture just didn’t work out.

Repeated attempts were made to examine the canvas to find the original version under the top layer. However, scientists, critics and art historians believe that irreparable damage may be caused to the masterpiece, and in every possible way prevent further examinations.

3. “Black square” is a multi-colored cube

Kazimir Malevich has repeatedly stated that the painting was created by him under the influence of the unconscious, a kind of “cosmic consciousness”. Some argue that only the square in the “Black Square” is seen by people with underdeveloped imagination. If, when considering this picture, you go beyond the traditional perception, beyond the visible, you will understand that in front of you is not a black square, but a multi-colored cube.

The secret meaning embedded in the “Black Square” can then be formulated as follows: the world around us, only at the first, superficial glance, looks flat and black and white. If a person perceives the world in volume and in all its colors, his life will change dramatically. Millions of people, who, according to them, were instinctively attracted to this picture, subconsciously felt the volume and multi-colored “Black Square”.

4. "Black Square" is a riot in art

At the time the painting appeared in Russia, there was a dominance of artists of the Cubist school. Cubism reached its apogee, all the artists were already quite fed up, and new artistic directions began to appear. One of these trends was Malevich’s Suprematism and the “Black Suprematist Square” as its vivid embodiment. The term "suprematism" comes from the Latin suprem, which means “dominance, superiority of color over all other properties of painting.” Suprematist paintings are non-objective painting, an act of “pure creativity”.

At the same time, the “Black Circle” and “Black Cross” were created and exhibited at the same exhibition, representing the three main elements of the Suprematist system. Later, two more Suprematist squares were created - red and white.

"Black Square", "Black Circle" and "Black Cross".

Suprematism became one of the central phenomena of the Russian avant-garde. Many have experienced his influence talented artists. Rumor has it that Picasso lost interest in cubism after seeing Malevich's "Square".

5. “Black Square” is an example of brilliant PR

Kazimir Malevich understood the essence of the future of modern art: it doesn’t matter what, the main thing is how to present and sell.

Artists have been experimenting with the color “all black” since the 17th century. Robert Fludd was the first to paint a completely black piece of art called The Great Darkness in 1617, followed by Bertal in 1843 with his work View of La Hougue (Under the Cover of Night). More than 200 years later. And then almost without interruption - “The Twilight History of Russia” by Gustave Doré in 1854, “Night Fight of Negroes in the Cellar” by Paul Bealhold in 1882, and completely plagiarized - “Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” by Alphonse Allais. And only in 1915 Kazimir Malevich presented his “Black Suprematist Square” to the public. And it is his painting that is known to everyone, while others are known only to art historians. The extravagant trick made Malevich famous throughout the centuries.

Subsequently, Malevich painted at least 4 versions of his “Black Square”, differing in design, texture and color, in the hope of repeating and increasing the success of the painting.

6. "Black Square" is a political move

Kazimir Malevich was a subtle strategist and skillfully adapted to the changing situation in the country. Numerous “black squares” painted by other artists during Tsarist Russia remained unnoticed. In 1915, Malevich’s “Square” acquired a completely new meaning, relevant to its time: the artist proposed revolutionary art for the benefit of a new people and a new era.
"Square" has almost nothing to do with art in its usual sense. The very fact of its writing is a declaration of the end of traditional art. A cultural Bolshevik, Malevich met the new government halfway, and the government believed him. Before Stalin's arrival, Malevich held honorary positions and successfully rose to the rank of people's commissar IZO Narkompros.

7. “Black square” is a refusal of content

The painting marked a clear transition to awareness of the role of formalism in the visual arts. Formalism is the rejection of literal content for the sake of artistic form. An artist, when painting a picture, thinks not so much in terms of “context” and “content”, but rather in terms of “balance”, “perspective”, “dynamic tension”. What Malevich recognized and his contemporaries did not recognize is factual for modern artists and “just a square” for everyone else.

8. “Black Square” is a challenge to Orthodoxy

The painting was first presented at the futurist exhibition "0.10" in December 1915, along with 39 other works by Malevich. The “Black Square” hung in the most prominent place, in the so-called red corner, where icons were hung in Russian houses, according to Orthodox traditions. There art critics “stumbled upon” him. Many perceived the painting as a challenge to Orthodoxy and an anti-Christian gesture. The greatest art critic of that time, Alexander Benois, wrote: “Undoubtedly, this is the icon that the Futurists are putting up to replace the Madonna.”

Exhibition "0.10". St. Petersburg, December 1915.

9. “Black Square” is a crisis of ideas in art

Malevich is called almost the guru of modern art and is accused of death traditional culture. Today, any daredevil can call himself an artist and declare that his “works” have the highest artistic value.

Art has outlived its usefulness, and many critics agree that after “Black Square” nothing outstanding was created. Most artists of the twentieth century lost inspiration, many were in prison, exile or emigration.

“Black Square” is total emptiness, a black hole, death. They say that Malevich, after writing “Black Square,” told everyone for a long time that he could neither eat nor sleep. And he himself doesn’t understand what he did. Subsequently, he wrote 5 volumes of philosophical reflections on the topic of art and existence.

10. "Black Square" is quackery

Charlatans successfully fool the public into believing something that is not actually there. They declare those who do not believe them to be stupid, backward, and uncomprehending dullards who are inaccessible to the lofty and beautiful. This is called the "naked king effect". Everyone is ashamed to say that this is bullshit, because they will laugh.

And the most primitive design - a square - can be ascribed with any deep meaning; the scope for human imagination is limitless. Not understanding what the great meaning of “Black Square” is, many people find themselves having to invent it for themselves, so that they have something to admire when looking at the picture.

The painting, painted by Malevich in 1915, remains perhaps the most discussed painting in Russian painting. For some, “Black Square” is a rectangular trapezoid, but for others it is a deep philosophical message encrypted by the great artist. In the same way, looking at a piece of sky in a square window, everyone thinks about their own. What were you thinking?

A hundred years ago, these two words acquired a meaning that haunts a great many people.

For any foreign art lover, the painting “Black Square” is the most famous Russian work of art, a symbol of an idea that was long ahead of its time even in the rapid 20th century.

Artist of the Age of Cataclysms

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich lived a life that is least similar to the fate of a clever art charlatan, who set the goal of getting rich by selling abstruse theories, the symbol of which many “experts” see is Malevich’s painting “Black Square”. He was born in 1879 in Kyiv, in large family production manager at a sugar factory. I had a desire to draw from childhood, but low income did not allow me to get systematic art education, forced him to start his working life early as a draftsman.

In Kursk, where the Malevich family moved, he organized a circle of painting lovers and began preparing to enter the Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture, which he unsuccessfully tried to enroll in 1905 - he lacked formal education. Although Kazimir was already family man, he moved to Moscow, studied at the private school of a graduate of the Imperial Academy of Arts F.I. Rerberg and actively participated in the activities of artistic associations, sometimes the most radical, such as “Jack of Diamonds”, “Donkey’s Tail”, “Blue Rider”, etc. .d.

Search time

New times abolished old values. The meaning of the pictorial function was lost pictorial art, photography and the emerging cinema began documenting the time, forcing artists to experiment with form. Social and economic revolutions made familiar themes irrelevant, actively influencing the search for new content in paintings.

Malevich lived in the thick of it artistic life, was influenced by the most advanced trends: he painted impressionistic landscapes, participated in shocking actions of the futurists (for example, he walked along the Kuznetsky Bridge with wooden spoons in his buttonholes), painted paintings in the style of cubism, developed his own style - “abstruse realism”, designed the publications of the most avant-garde poets such as A. Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov. Together with Mayakovsky, he published “Today’s popular print,” which reflected the events of the outbreak of the First World War.

"Victory over the Sun"

Back in 1913, events took place that largely determined Malevich’s creative destiny. The “First All-Russian Congress of Futurists” took place in St. Petersburg, in which three people took part: the inventor of the new language - “zaumi” - Alexey Kruchenykh, a supporter of musical dissonance Mikhail Matyushin and an active opponent of figurative painting Kazimir Malevich. The result of this inspired work was two performances of the opera “Victory over the Sun,” which went down in the history of avant-garde art. It is from here that Malevich’s painting “Black Square” comes from - a similar motif appeared in the form of a backdrop in the scenery for the 1st act of the opera.

The main theme of the opera was the birth of a new, machine future, which can only arise with the complete destruction of the old world. This theme was embodied by non-professional actors in fantastic costumes based on Malevich’s sketches, who uttered an obscure but expressive “zaum”, moving among amazing scenery to the sharp atonal sounds extracted from the performances ended in scandal, i.e. the goal was achieved.

Exhibition "0.10"

Contemporaries noted Malevich's ability to unite artists around himself and generate unifying ideas. But even for his like-minded people, the exhibition of 39 paintings prepared for the exhibition, which opened on December 19, 1915 in the N. Dobychina gallery in Petrograd, was a complete surprise. The title “Zero, Ten” meant zero object forms in the paintings and ten participants in the exhibition (although there were 14). It was on it that the painting “Black Square” first appeared - the photo captured it in the “red corner”, where icons were usually located.

The artist himself hung the paintings the night before the opening, wrote posters and signatures, and prepared the manifesto “From Cubism to Suprematism. New pictorial realism." Thus, he became the head of a new artistic movement, the symbol of which was the painting “Black Square”. The exhibition was designated as “The Last Futurist,” but his colleagues did not agree with its definition as a transition to Suprematism, as Malevich proposed; the artist proclaimed too radical ideas.

Suprematism

The name comes from the Latin supremus - highest - and Polish supremacja - superiority, supremacy. In the theoretical developments of the new style, Malevich spoke about the dominance of non-objectivity as the defining quality of true fine arts. Freed from figurativeness, painting becomes an act of pure creation, similar to the divine, and the painting “Black Square” in this sense has the quality of a first cell, the primary element of a new world.

Another meaning of the term Malevich derives from the critical importance for the created new reality of the main tools that he uses - color, line, simple geometric shape. The very first Suprematist motifs, including the painting “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich, had a special expressiveness based on compositions that were laconic in color, not distorted by linear and airy perspective, imitation of volume, etc. further development basic principles took the form of influencing various genres- compositions of human figures became Suprematist, even three-dimensional elements appeared - “architectons”, which became an expression of Malevich’s views on

The basis of the new world created by the artist had one main expression - “Black Square”. The meaning of the picture was determined by the meaning of the atom, from which not a reflection of the existing world is built, but a new, different reality, and the versatility of this world gave ambiguity to the “Black Square”. What is she wearing?

Apotheosis of pointlessness

Proclaiming the independence of truly pure art from the function of documenting the surrounding reality, the artist inevitably comes to the loss of any figurativeness, or to the search for an initial form that cannot be separated into its component elements. This is the primary element that Malevich found - “Black Square”. The meaning of the picture is that the impression it makes does not depend on semantic content, on associations with the object world, on specific references and allusions. The task set by the master is not easy; it requires the participation of the viewer, the strain of his mental strength, and the presence of some baggage. And most often it does not give obvious answers, but only denotes a new way of receiving impressions from existence, and isn’t this the goal of art?

Color is the basis of new painting

The master designated the full title of his most famous painting as follows: “Black Suprematist square on a white background.” For the artist and philosopher, every word was important here, because the primacy of color, its primacy lies at the basis of Suprematism. You can find a description of the painting “Black Square” by Malevich, where the color of the paint applied to the canvas appears to be a complex mixture various shades, among which there is no clearly black, and the white frame is called the shimmer of light cream shades.

It seems that this made sense for the master when he took further steps - in the famous “white on white” series, when the expressiveness of painting is built on the subtlest color relationships between planes. The painting “Black Square” is a declaration of the dominant color, the most significant, significant, and contrasting. Although understanding it as a result of mixing all primary colors (warm and cool, spectral and complementary), strengthens the meaning of this declaration.

Energy and light

It is not for nothing that the first mention of the black square is found in Malevich in his work on the design of the futuristic opera “Victory over the Sun”. The description of the painting “Black Square”, the explanation of the white background on which an opaque dense figure is placed, as light shining from behind an approaching curtain, is found both in the artist himself and in the audience, and is especially organic in the context of the events taking place in the opera.

It’s amazing how Malevich managed to predict picturesque directions that became relevant half a century later. Ad Reinhardt and Sol LeWitt undoubtedly followed the path indicated by Black Square. In Mark Rothko, the energy of color and vibration of a laconic form acquires cosmic proportions, and the means of expressing this energy are almost literally similar to the Suprematist.

It is not known how important the hand-made form, the slight non-parallelism of the sides of the square, the pulsation of the background and the shimmer of black color were for Malevich, but something makes you look closely at this picture and with every minute the mystical radiation from it becomes more noticeable.

Crisis of ideas, end of art?

It is trite to attribute prophetic qualities to an artistic genius, but in the case of Malevich the gift of foresight is obvious. The apocalyptic motifs that Malevich endowed with “Black Square” were also obvious to contemporaries. They saw the meaning of the painting as a dead end where art and especially painting and the development of social thought had led.

The usual function of fine art was declared obsolete, and the square was seen as a logical result of the creative searches of the formalists. It is not for nothing that there is a legend that, having seen the “Black Square”, Picasso lost interest in cubism - there was nowhere to move further... The wartime that had already arrived and the clear premonition of future revolutionary upheavals did not add optimism.

And yet, from the top of the past time, in the slogans proclaimed by Malevich, one can hear a call to look for new ways, and the denial of old methods of displaying the changing world does not seem dominant. This has been confirmed further creativity the master and his students, the vitality of his ideas.

Reference point

Malevich’s canvas still excites dense commentators who are excited by the artist’s name and the amount paid for the original painting - “critics” who have an infantile virgin intellect. They are confident in the zero significance of such art. absorbing the light matter of the true artistic values, is also seen by highly educated guardians of spiritual traditions and moral norms.

Meanwhile, the name of Malevich is known to every future artist, designer or architect all over the world; Suprematism influenced the most famous modern masters. For example, the author of ultra-modern forms in buildings and the human environment - Zaha Hadid - especially emphasizes the influence of the ideas of the Russian artist on all her work.

What is needed to paint the painting “Black Square”

You can live your whole life without thinking about a well-fed, comfortable life, and look at the world differently than others. argue with friends and enemies, raise disciples, try to convince the state authorities that you are right and end up in poverty and exile, die from a painful illness at a not yet old age and turn own funeral into the action of avant-garde art.

But why complicate things? A canvas, a little paint and a minimum of painting skills - a masterpiece of world significance is ready. And even better - computer graphic editor and a high-quality printer - it’s smoother, more correct, more beautiful... And the most important thing is not to make unnecessary mental efforts, because everything is so simple...

Curiosity is one of the most common human vices, and my friend Alexander and I also did not escape this “punishment.” When an exhibition of works by Kazimir Malevich opened at the Moscow House of Artists, we decided to go there. Firstly, to find out for yourself what Suprematism is, and, secondly, to finally see alive those smartest and most educated people who understood the essence of the Great Black Square and its prophet Casimir.

Despite the fact that Shurik and I, alas, belonged to a small but not very beloved group of homo sapiens in the country, called the indigenous Muscovites, and famous for bad taste and low culture, we, nevertheless, knew certain traditions of behavior in places a large crowd of cultured people. In order to imitate “our own people,” we wore not only decent suits, but also ties, and, characteristically, not Pioneer ties. But this did not make the mimicry very successful. Most of the leaders and cultural experts were wearing jeans, jackets and sweaters. Some even wore glasses, which, however, did not add a highly educational flair to their images. Both men and women were dressed approximately the same. Also at the exhibition there was even one creature without any obvious sexual characteristics, both primary and secondary. The creature was wearing wide Zaporozhye khaki trousers, a baggy sweater of indeterminate colors of knitting style, a black scarf chaotically wound around a long thin neck, with a “hedgehog in the fog” hairstyle, and the small bulging eyes of a mouse that had been suffering from constipation for at least a month. My friend Sasha, being a kind person at heart, took pity on the unfortunate creature and smiled kindly at him, but in response he received this...
As Shurik wrote many years later in his memoirs: “I was insulted in this way only one more time in my entire life. This was when I gave an old woman complaining of hunger a kulebyak from my own table.”
Meanwhile, the Exhibition continued, and we began to get acquainted with the exhibition. In addition to many squares, rectangles and other geometric shapes, there were also more recognizable plots. We approved the painting "The Reaper on a Red Background" because central character was very similar to our friend Ordanovich,

The painting “An Englishman in Moscow” evoked purely humorous emotions, but then we came to the conclusion that this, apparently, is Suprematism.

The self-portrait in general was very similar to an example of bourgeois realism, and I, having forgotten myself, even grumbled out loud, saying, why didn’t Malevich make himself out of squares, which earned a number of reproachful glances from the surrounding cultural figures.

And then, finally, it happened, or rather, it came. We come to the Painting "BLACK SQUARE".

The history of Malevich's "Black Squares"

From the life of the “Black Square”

IN early years Kazimir Malevich managed to work as a draftsman in the management of the Kursk-Moscow railway. Of course, to deduce from this his penchant for geometrization in painting would be - pardon the pun - too straightforward. But let’s state it anyway.

“Black Square” is Malevich’s most famous work. Even those who don’t remember any of his other paintings know him.

“Black Square” is the most famous work of the Russian artistic avant-garde. Even those who don’t even remember the author’s name know it.

Meanwhile, this is far from Malevich’s only geometric abstraction. “Square” (which the author himself called a “quadrangle” - and in fact he was right about this, because, strictly speaking, a “square” is not geometrically accurate) was only part of a large series - 39 paintings - the so-called “Suprematist” works And within this series itself, “Square” was part of a triptych, which also included “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”. The author prepared the entire series for an exhibition called “0.10,” which opened at the end of 1915 in St. Petersburg (its full title was “The Last Cube-Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10,” which suggested some summing up of the futurist stage in art). He worked on the series for several months in 1915.

By this time, Kazimir Malevich was 36 years old. He managed to study in his youth at the Kyiv drawing school of Nikolai Murashko (quite an academician in manner, but capable of appreciating such different students as, for example, Serov or Vrubel). To work, as mentioned above, as a draftsman in Kursk, while at the same time organizing an art group there with like-minded friends. Several times - unsuccessfully - he tries to enter the MUZHVZ (Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture). From 1906 to 1910 he attended classes in the Moscow private studio of Fyodor Rerberg. Exhibited in such different companies as the rather traditionalist Moscow Association of Artists and the dashing “Jack of Diamonds” with “Donkey’s Tail”. Pays tribute to impressionism, neo-primitivism, cubism and other “isms” of that era. He also comes up with his own - “Suprematism”.

Actually, this term itself appeared simultaneously with the exhibition “0.10”: Malevich timed the release of the brochure “From Cubism to Suprematism” to coincide with it. New pictorial realism." Here it was no longer just about simplification and geometrization of forms, which had previously been observed both in Malevich himself and in his contemporaries. Even those fragmented fragments of natural forms that were characteristic of futurism and cubism did not remain from nature. Pure geometric form, pure, without nuances, color, white background as a space that accommodates both dynamics and statics - these were the first Suprematist works.

The term itself was most likely influenced by Malevich's native language - Polish. The word “supremation” (supremacja) means “supremacy”, “dominance”. And we are talking here, first of all, about the primacy of color in painting, and not form as an imitation of natural forms. Suprematist compositions do not represent anything - they are the result of the artist’s creative will.

But it’s better to give a few quotes from Malevich’s brochure itself: “All the former and modern painting Before Suprematism, sculpture, words, music were enslaved to the form of nature and are waiting for their liberation in order to speak their own language and not depend on reason, meaning, logic, philosophy, psychology, various laws of causality.

The art of painting, sculpture, words - until now was a camel loaded with various rubbish odalisques, Egyptian and Persian kings Solomons, princes, princesses with their beloved dogs and fornication of Venuses. Until now, there have been no attempts at painting as such, without any attributes of real life.”

“Our Wanderers painted pots on the fences of Little Russia and tried to convey the philosophy of rags. Closer to us, young people took up pornography and turned painting into sensual, lustful rubbish. There was no realism of painting in its own right, there was no creativity.”

“Creativity is only where in paintings there is a form that does not take anything already created in nature, but which follows from the pictorial masses, without repeating or changing the original forms of natural objects.”

“I was transformed into the zero of forms and went beyond zero to creativity, that is, to Suprematism, to a new artistic realism - non-objective creativity.”

Well, in the end the style becomes very similar to his contemporaries-poets (with many of whom Malevich was friends, and some, like Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh, he illustrated):

“I tell everyone: give up aestheticism, throw away your suitcases of wisdom, because in the new culture your wisdom is ridiculous and insignificant.

Quickly take off the rough skin of centuries, so that it will be easier for you to catch up with us.

I overcame the impossible and made abysses with my breath.

You are in the nets of the horizon, like fish!

We, Suprematists, are throwing your way.

Hurry up!

“For tomorrow you won’t recognize us.”

But texts are texts and theories are theories, and the general public is usually interested in two questions:

How many “Black Squares” were there in total? - when were they written?

The very first one - along with the entire “Suprematist” series - was written in 1915. But then a reasonable question arises: why are 1913 mentioned in many sources?

But because this is how Malevich himself dated this painting. Meaning not its physical execution, but the birth of an idea.

The forerunner of the picturesque “Black Square” was the design elements of the production of Mikhail Matyushin’s opera “Victory over the Sun”. The dissonant music of the composer, the “abstruse” texts of the libretto by Alexey Kruchenykh - all this logically required non-standard visualization. Malevich's style not only came in handy - he actually creates another single score from grotesquely distorted forms of costumes and scenery. And here in some paintings a prototype of the “Square” appears - still fractional, divided into parts by diagonals, composed of fragments of different colors. Rethinking and final simplification of the form will come later - but it turned out to be important for the author himself to set exactly the date to which his first Suprematist steps relate.

Malevich's brochure

This first square, measuring 79.5 by 79.5 cm, was purchased in 1918-1919 by the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat for Education (by the way, the purchasing commission was then headed by Wassily Kandinsky). The work ended up in the short-lived Museum of Painting Culture, and from there it went to the Tretyakov Gallery, where it remains to this day. This work differs from others in the cracks in the paint layer - craquelures.

The second “Black Square” was born in 1923. The reason turned out to be banal: the museum did not want to provide the painting for display at the exhibition (and it was not much about the Venice Biennale). And Malevich repeats his Suprematist triptych - a square, a circle, and a cross - and in an enlarged format: 106 by 106 cm. (There is a version that Malevich’s students had a hand in the production of these paintings - which is not entirely excluded). Subsequently, these works were kept by the author, and after his death in 1935 they were transferred by his widow to the Russian Museum, where they are again located.

The third “Square” was born in 1929 at the urgent request of the Tretyakov Gallery at the time of preparation of Malevich’s personal exhibition there. The author repeated the original, first work in the same format - the cracked first one, in the opinion of the management, was not suitable for exhibition. Thus, there are two “Squares” in the Tretyakov Gallery. (The author put the same date on the back - 1913. In general, Malevich’s author’s dating is not easy - you shouldn’t really trust them without double-checking). And it would seem that’s all. But no. Already in the 90s, another “Black Square” emerged, smaller than all the previous ones: 53.5 by 53.5 cm.

This “Square” attracted the attention of the general public after the 1998 crisis, when the property of the bankrupt Inkombank was to be auctioned off. Which (property) included the corporate collection. And that, in turn, is several works by Malevich.

What, where? The details that were revealed were completely bewildering. No, the work itself in this format actually existed - together with its paired “Red Square” it was exhibited at the exhibition “Artists of the RSFSR for 15 Years”, held in Leningrad. Photographs of the exhibition have been preserved. Various examinations also confirmed the authorship.

But here's the story... The work appeared in the early 90s in Samara, where a certain owner offered it to Inkombank - either for sale, or as collateral for a loan. The exotic details were later recounted by art critic Georgiy Nikich, who was invited as an expert: a certain young man brought the painting, and brought it in an ordinary sports bag, wrapped in some kind of rag.

The Samara owners turned out to be distant relatives of Malevich’s widow, his third wife Natalya, who died much later than her husband, in 1990. They also received a number of the artist’s works, as well as part of the family archive - and they did not attach such importance to all this that, in addition to the deal, they gave the archive to Inkombank for free. Not to mention the fact that the paintings were stored for some time in a box with potatoes.

So, the works were prepared for sale at auction - and later the head auction house Gelos admitted that the bidding could become very hot: several serious contenders expressed preliminary interest. But here comes a new twist: the state intervened in the matter, and the work was removed from the auction.

The Ministry of Culture decided to exercise the right to purchase a work for the state part of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation (this possibility is stipulated in one of the articles of the Law of the Russian Federation on Culture). True, they implemented the solution at someone else’s expense - the million dollars for “Black Square” number 4 was not laid out by the budget, but by businessman Vladimir Potanin (the auction could have brought much a large amount, so Inkombank’s creditors had every reason to be dissatisfied). The painting was transferred to the Hermitage, where it is now located.

Thus, there are four reliable “Black Squares”. Will there be more new ones? On the one hand, there seems to be no such thing. But is it possible to be sure of anything with an artist like Malevich?

Magazine "DILETANT" (first historical magazine) June 2013 Author - Tatyana Pelipeyko

Louise Drewsholt.

Malevich's black square is not black

« The author does not know the content of the picture!» read under a black square on white by surprised and shocked visitors to an exhibition of avant-garde artists in Petrograd, at the beginning of the 20th century. Not many were able to accept and feel the moment of humanity’s transition to a new stage of development, expressed in the fine arts by Kazimir Malevich in abstract forms. And to this day« Black square» Malevich is the artist’s most scandalous painting, which never ceases to excite the minds of anyone who touches it. The consciousness of the overwhelming majority of earthlings is not capable of attributing« Black square» Malevich to works of art. They are increasingly calculating its commercial value.

Indeed, it is not easy for a person to understand that a simple« Black square» Malevich can serve as the beginning of a new direction in art. I will try to reflect in the article my feeling and understanding of this huge step forward made by humanity through the transition to new forms of fine art, where« black square» the creative genius of Kazimir Malevich occupies a central place.

Everyone knows, for example, that the Russian artist Alexander Ivanov worked on the painting for about 20 years.« The Appearance of Christ to the People» and didn't complete it. This is clear to everyone. A complex philosophical plot, a large multi-figure composition, a huge canvas. The work of an artist is perceived as a feat. And in this regard, is it possible to assume that« Black square» Is Malevich worth the artist’s years of searching and thinking? Meanwhile, Kazemir Malevich began his creative journey, like everyone else.

Black square. How it all began

In his youth, he liked the paintings of Ivan Shishkin and Ilya Repin. Then it seemed to him that the main thing was to learn to believably depict the surrounding visible world, which he did, developing more and more and delving into the secrets of fine art. For many thousands of years, starting from the time cave paintings, people tried to display the physical visible world on a plane, as close as possible to visible visual images so that it was easier to recognize. By the end of the 19th century, in this direction, the art of depiction had developed to unprecedented heights, honed by the experience of generations.

Considerable progress has been achieved in the realistic display of objects in the physical world, in forward and backward perspectives. In creating a reflection of space on a plane, the so-called direct perspective is often used, the theory of which appeared in the 14th century, depicting the convergence of parallel lines at infinity. Developing from simple to more complex, much later, discoveries of geometric perspectives were made in the so-called. reverse linear perspective. The famous “Trinity” icon by Andrei Rublev is written in reverse perspective, as if from the point of view of God, standing behind the icon and looking at the man in front of the icon.

Images-images-images through which visual measure developed, honed and transferred to the other 7 measures visual series, the ability to distinguish and designate objects with the same symbols visible world. We perceive over 90% of information with our eyes, any person, from the moment of birth to departure. And for people who carry a visual vector, as system-vector psychology reveals, these are different volumes of perception,the ability to see hundreds of shades of the same color. Without a visual vector, a person does not have the ability to aesthetically and artistically perceive the world of shapes, colors and composition.

Malevich's black square. Looking for a way out

As is commonly believed, by the middle of the 20th century, mastery had been achieved that made it possible to depict anything very accurately and recognizable on a plane. For example, who has not been fascinated by the smallest details of the lace robes of majestic nobles from the paintings of great artists, painted by many hundreds of painters! As you know, the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were also marked by great changes in all other areas of life. The camera was invented in late XIX century, an achievement of thought, driven by skin component humanity, took upon himself the task of accurately depicting reality. No matter how hard he tries, the artist will not be able to depict the geometry of the surrounding space more accurately than a camera. It's also possible, but it's not better. If so, why should a person compete with technology?

It's time for artists to look for other paths. They began to reflect not so much the surrounding reality itself, but their own idea of it. This is how new directions of abstract art arose, such as impressionism (Impressionnisme) - the external impression of what was seen, expressionism (Eksprissionizm) - the expression of internal experiences that arise when looking at objects of the visible world, etc. In addition, various experiments began. For example, not displaying an object as it looks, but searching for the simplest geometric shapes of which it consists.

This movement was called cubism, and its most famous representative is Pablo Picasso. There were many other formal delights. The new forms of art that arrived turned out to be beyond the control and incomprehensible of visual artists; they consider this new pretense or falsehood, admiration for the works of Kandinsky and Malevich, Mondrian and Picasso. Why? System-vector psychology also reveals this veil of misunderstanding. All abstract artists are owners sound And visual vectors.

According to system-vector psychology, the author of the Black Square - Kazimir Malevich possessed visual And Sound from the top vectors, cutaneous And anal from the lower ones. Finding himself at the forefront of times, he begins to look for his path in art. The work of the Impressionists led Malevich to the idea that the plot was just an excuse for a pictorial statement. He was faced with the question of whether it was possible to find a form of expression for painting that was not related to the objective world. He wrote that the time has come for man to be liberated from hard work, through the machine, through liberation from the shackles of imitating nature in art. The time has come to build a new society, through the creation of a form that purely belongs to man.

The result of the search for this question was the Suprematist black square. Malevich writes his deep thoughts and arguments on this topic in his manifesto “God will not be thrown off.”

The random non-randomness of the Black Square

In 1913, the history of the creation of the painting began. While making sketches for the design of the futuristic opera “Victory over the Sun,” Malevich created an unusual piece of scenery, namely, a huge black square obscuring the sun. This discovery turned out to be the first step towards the so-called “pure artistic creativity.” He foresaw and foresaw that the drawing H A black square made unconsciously will have great significance in art. The idea of transforming man, through transforming the world, by creating his own forms, stood at the origins of Malevich’s black square.

For the first time« Black square» Malevich was presented to the public at the scandalous futurist exhibition in Petrograd in 1915. Among the artist’s other outlandish paintings, with mysterious phrases and numbers, with incomprehensible shapes and a jumble of figures, a black square in a white frame stood out for its simplicity. Initially, the work was called« black rectangle on white background». Later the name was changed to« square», despite the fact that, from a geometric point of view, all sides of this figure are of different lengths and the square itself is slightly curved. Despite all these inaccuracies, none of its sides are parallel to the edges of the painting.

In 1915, 1924,1929 and 1932, the artist painted four versions of the painting. Each of the paintings has its own proportions of conventional white and black. Another Malevich square, red, is written with deformations, which makes it seem as if it is in continuous movement. If you look closely at the background of the scandalous first picture, it is not white, but the color of baked milk. Thin and dense layers of paint alternate in the abrupt layers of the background.

The black plane of the square is smooth and uniform. The illusion of bottomlessness that occurs when black is inserted into white, with different techniques writing the figure and background, Malevich explained the essence of his paintings. He wrote like this: “ Black square - sensation, white background - nothing but sensation».

In addition to the black square, to convey the superiority of pure sensation, Malevich created non-objective works consisting of simple geometric figures, where main role color plays. In many paintings, it is the square that occupies a special place, attracting crosses, triangles, circles and, like a magnet, keeping them in balance and in motion at the same time, creating the illusion of a living organism.

Having painted several dozen canvases on the topic H black square, Malevich called the new direction of non-objective art the term suprematism from the Polish supremacy, superiority, domination. Indeed, according to system-vector psychology, sound vector and is dominant over all others. In his full development, a person with a sound vector is able to penetrate into the very essence of the psychic person and he is the only one who is in connection with the divine plan of what is happening on earth.

Malevich doesn’t stand still, he continues to experiment. In 1918, he paints white on white. White forms seem to melt into boundless whiteness, creating the purity and infinity of the universe.He writes:« I am transported into a bottomless abyss. Disembodied geometric elements floating in unknown space».

Malevich designed prototypes of future space stations, being influenced by the theory of interplanetary flights. To achieve a complete feeling of weightlessness and being part of the universe, he rejected the concept of up and down in his works.

There are known facts that Malevich’s paintings were often hung upside down, but they did not lose their expressiveness. People who do not have abstract thinking, who do not have in their vector set sound vector, still cannot accept or understand Malevich’s paintings. This explains the impossibility of their perception of works created by man from the depths of his« sound» worldviews. There are only 5 percent of people with a sound vector in nature.

Sound root of the Black Square

The abstract intelligence of a sound engineer is, in its potential, the most powerful, the only one capable of comprehending abstract intangible concepts. Those with a sound vector carry ideas that move the rest of humanity forward. They are the first and only ones who are capable of determining the direction of movement of social transformations and the global general development of humanity.

Malevich's works, alien to the ideals of socialist realism, were rejected by Soviet propaganda. Job« Red Cavalry», which Soviet art critics claimed praised the revolution and the Red Army, turned out to be the only recognized painting by the disgraced artist. But there is evidence that, following an order from above, the artist simply added cavalry to a ready-made Suprematist composition. And Malevich’s inscription on the back of the picture proves his ironic attitude towards what is happening:« Red cavalry gallops from the October capital to defend the Soviet border».

The dispute over the Suprematist paintings of Kazimir Malevich is still not over.He wrote:« I didn’t invent anything, I just felt the night in me, and in it I noticed something new that I called Suprematism». How else can a sound artist with a specific role« night guard in the pack » And« feedback from the First Cause» express yourself?

It took the artist about 10 years to come to the idea of Suprematism, transforming the world of art according to his new philosophical concept. Screen« black» The artist closed the physical world of the objective forms of art history. The entire spectrum of colors includes white and black. The areas of the background and the figure are equal, with the same square shape, but with different meanings. White, consisting of a fusion of the entire spectrum of colors, is a frame for black, in which there is no light. Filled whiteness is torn by the gaping emptiness of black, turning white into a frame of infinite space.

Breakthrough of Malevich's Black Square

The beginning of the 20th century marked an era of great upheavals, a turning point in people's worldview and their attitude to reality. The world was in a state when the old ideals of beautiful classical art had completely faded and there was no return to them, and the birth of a new one was predicted by great revolutions in painting. There was a movement from visual realism and impressionism, as a transfer of sensations about it, to sound abstract painting. those. First, humanity depicts objects, then sensations and, finally, ideas.

Malevich's black squareturned out to be a timely fruit of the artist’s insight, who managed to create the foundations of the future language of art with this simplest geometric figure, which conceals many other forms. By rotating the square in a circle, Malevich received geometric shapes cross and circle. When rotating along the axis of symmetry, I got a cylinder. A seemingly flat, elementary square contains not only other geometric shapes, but can create three-dimensional bodies.

A black square, dressed in a white frame, is nothing more than the fruit of the creator’s insight and his thoughts about the future of art.. The geometric shape of the square is not drawn with a ruler, but painted with a brush. The composition itself literally fits into a mathematical formula. In search of volumetric meanings embedded in simple planar forms, if you separate a square into geometric shapes and imagine them in space from a certain point of view, how they are reconnected, they return to a planar figure.

Malevich also believed that it was time for art to break away from everyday life, from external reality, not by imitating this reality, but by designing it. Why not sound ideas!!!

In his other works, Malevich, in his own words, expressed the sensations of life, such as soaring, flying, harmony, disharmony, hovering, etc. These same sensations are capable of being perceived only by the other few owners of the sound and visual vectors, who understand and are specially developed in the perception of abstract phenomena.

Only people with abstract thinking are close and understandable to the ideas of Malevich and his Black Square about the principles of free form formation in space, where one form-figure flows into another, enlivening this endless chain of transitions. Malevich was well aware of the universality of the discovery of Suprematism, which dictated changes in all spheres of human creativity. He personally created Suprematist architectural projects, calling them architectons. Geometric bodies, built on the basis of the simplest geometric shapes, take on new life. Postmodern architecture is entirely based on these ideas.

For example, the center in Los Angeles, built in the 1980s, fully corresponds to what Malevich said that Suprematist forms will coexist with other forms of life on equal terms. It was created in a special color, rhythmic composition, from many simple geometric shapes. Depending on the point of view, the building complex appears to be a complex single organism, perceived from different points of view, as a moving, growing and changing structure, as if it were alive.

The discovery of the system of Suprematism, made at the beginning of the twentieth century by Kazimir Malevich, thanks to the simplest thing, at the glance of those not dedicated to the black square, predetermined the image of the urban structure of the distant future.

The search for new, still unknown in art, ways of self-expression was carried out by the artist through multiple experiments for the sole purpose of instilling in the viewer certain feelings, perceptions and ideas, an offensive new era significant changes in human consciousness.

Upon completion of painting the black square, Malevich, as the artist himself describes, could neither sleep nor eat. So great was the inspiration of the significance of the changes revealed by him for all humanity. And art, like all other spheres human life and activities are subject to global changes. Especially in transitional moments of history, it goes far ahead.

Karl Marx also said that the price of a good work of art includes paying many thousands. bad works, which someone still needs to write, so that with the accumulated experience, someone writes one good thing. To know and feel the whole meaning laid down by the artist in« Black square», anyone needs to know and feel not only the meaning of the work itself, but also the entire history of painting, which implies the history of all humanity.

Malevich writes a lot about this in his publications. Following the idea of Karl Marx, Black Square absorbed the colossal experience of many thousands of other paintings.

Black square. Gift to humanity

System-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan provides a clear explanation and the possibility of understanding why people, the overwhelming majority, still cannot understand and accept the deep meaning laid down by Malevich in « Black square».

Everything in the universe works according to common principles and natural laws, like black - absorbing and white - reflecting, as the main principle of the nature of receiving and bestowing. And in order to live according to the true balanced laws of nature, every confused person needs to turn to his nature. There he will reveal everything. There is a tool - system-vector psychology by Yuri Burlan. I hope that the mystery of the black square is not a mystery at all, but there is a meaning or design that we managed to reveal and understand.

Kazimir Malevich died in December 1935. An unusual funeral procession proceeded along Nevsky Prospekt in Leningrad, with a sarcophagus created according to the design of the deceased, installed on the open platform of a truck. There was a black square attached to the hood. So Malevich turned his own funeral into the last creative manifestation.

According to the will, after death, the body of Malevich, the parent of the Black Square, was cremated in a Suprematist coffin, and then the urn was buried under his favorite oak tree artist near the village of Nemchinovka.

The article was written based on materials system-vector psychology Yuri Burlan a

　
P.S. the Suprematist painting by Kazimir Malevich below is from the collection of Yu.B.

The painting "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) is one of the most famous works art of the last century. It was written in 1915 and became a turning point in the development of the Russian avant-garde. The author of the painting is considered the creator of a new direction in painting - Suprematism, which became a real challenge to everything that had existed before in the fine arts.

A picture that attracts attention

Despite its apparent simplicity, the painting “Black Square” always attracts great attention and occupies a special place in the exhibition space. Malevich wrote that Suprematism can be divided into three stages, in accordance with its three squares - black, red and white. The most remarkable of the three was the painting "Black Square". It was written neatly, in a single black tone, without strokes or streaks.

Malevich's philosophy was based on everything that had accumulated in the literature and art of that period, and at the same time went against what he had tried before. The result of this was the emergence of a new pictorial religion, in which the starting point, zero, was reflected on the dial. A whole concept was created - from cubism to suprematism.

Daring challenge

The painting "Black Square" with its harsh simplicity and open challenge to other visual forms caused a real storm in the art world. The purity and clarity of Kazimir Malevich's work became a revolutionary new way of perception and sowed confusion among the ranks of the intelligentsia, which adhered to the traditional way of thinking. This was an attempt to establish a new world order, which sets itself the difficult task of recoding the world and beginning to communicate in a previously unknown cosmic language. Malevich later even called himself the president of the space.

Clear sense of space

The author's Suprematist paintings embody a clear sense of space. Thick local colors fight among themselves in a state of complete plastic harmony. White background always pure and undiluted, and the non-objective pictures depicted on it are filled with chastity and lightness. The absence of heavy frames enhances the feeling of lightness and flight in space.

Malevich's painting "Black Square" was a key moment in his painting and became the subject of endless conversations and debates. The artist's students and like-minded people accepted his revelation with delight and understanding, and soon they themselves began to create works reflecting the overwhelming influence of the master. Malevich's painting "Black Square" on a white background became a symbol, a main element in the system of Suprematism, a step into new art.

The author about his work

Malevich said that in 1913, in a desperate attempt to free art from the ballast of objectivity, he took refuge in a square form and showed a painting that consisted only of a black square on a white canvas. The critics and the public just sighed, because everything they loved was being lost, they felt like they were in the desert... In front of them there was only a black square on a white background!

Malevich lamented that the square turned out to be incomprehensible and dangerous for critics and the public... But he expected this: the contours of the objective world disappeared more and more, and so on, step by step, until, finally, the world and everything that they loved and lived, lost sight of. But the desert is filled with the spirit of a biased feeling that permeates everything. The blissful feeling of liberation of bias attracted the artist back to the desert, where there is nothing real except feeling... So feeling became the main thing in his life.

Black square is a feeling

This is not just an empty square, it is, according to the author, rather a feeling of bias. Suprematism is the rediscovery of pure art, which became noticeable over time due to the accumulation of things. But the nature and meaning of artistic creation continue to be misunderstood, because feeling, after all, is always and everywhere the sole source of all creation. Emotions that ignite in a person stronger than the person himself.

Paintings by Kazimir Malevich: "Black Square"

Titles such as "Dead Square" and "Void" were given by critics. For Malevich, however, this square symbolizes feeling, and the complete emptiness is represented by the white field around the figure. The author does not concentrate on a specific subject and refers to the purity of mathematical geometry.

However, "Black Square" is not as simple as it seems. Even accepting art of the zero degree, Malevich aims for an intense perception of the drawing, which can be read in two ways, either it is a black square on a white background, or it is a black hole surrounded by a white border. Each object has a static facade and internal dynamics. This is the description of the painting “Black Square”.

Revolutionary symbol and dynamic suprematism

So what is Suprematism? The concept created by Malevich primarily reflects the superiority of color in painting. The artist took geometric shapes and a limited palette and created a special emphasis on painted forms that exist on canvas in their pure form, without scenes, landscapes or people.

The painting “Black Square” by Malevich (the photo can be seen in the article) is not the first in the new movement; here a completely different type of object was chosen than before. Despite the author's assertions that this was the first Suprematist painting, the so-called pure zero, pure beginning, modern science and X-rays can shed light on this dark history.

The history of the painting "Black Square"

This was in the middle of the First World War, after the 1905 revolution, during a time of ongoing unrest. Just a few years after the painting was painted, in 1917, the Bolshevik uprising and the Great October Revolution would break out.

The painting "Black Square" (the photo can be seen later in the article) appeared at a time when Russian society, although familiar with cubism and futurist works, had not encountered works like this. It was difficult to imagine Malevich's artistic revolution separately from the social revolution that was taking place in society at that time. The artist did not intend to depict any specific and real thing - it was a sign of the New Age.

At the exhibition of futuristic painting

When Malevich presented his black square at an exhibition of futurist painting that took place in Petrograd in December 1915, he was interested in demonstrating Suprematism and his new idea. The work was placed high on the wall in the corner of the room, where Malevich's Black Square meant more than just a painting. It was the most sacred place, where an Orthodox icon was hung in a traditional Russian home, people in Petrograd were no exception. Malevich wanted to give his work a special spiritual meaning, to make it the center of the exhibition and the most important emblem of his new style.

In his further activities the artist returned to figurative painting more than once; he signed many of his works with a small black square. At his funeral, mourners held flags decorated with this symbol. One of the flags was attached in Suprematist style to the coffin of the deceased. His monument, not far from his lost burial site, depicts a black square.

The black square became not only the calling card of its creator, but also an icon of twentieth-century art.

Strange picture

More than a century has passed since the work was written, but people still find it a little strange. What is the meaning of the painting "Black Square"? Some see it as a window into the night or into the afterlife, others see just a black figure on a white canvas. Malevich intended to change the idea of painting forever, to present reality in a more intriguing light, to make something simple and unprepossessing, but at the same time revolutionary. Legendary work, which marked the beginning of non-figurative art, was exhibited for the first time on December 7, 1915.

Where is the painting "Black Square" today? There were several of them, the first work (1913) and the third (1923) are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and the second (1923) in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Everything secret becomes clear

Why is the work that Kazimir Malevich wrote - "Black Square" - so mysterious? For some, the meaning of the picture seems infinitely deep, while others don’t see it at all. It turns out that two whole images are hidden under the famous masterpiece. In November 2015, it became known that not only one, as previously thought, but two color paintings were hidden under a black square.

Scientists have deciphered an inscription believed to have been left by Kazimir Malevich. There were these words: "The battle of blacks in a dark cave." Surprisingly, but true, a painting with the same name was already painted by the French artist Alphonse Allais (1854-1905). It is likely that Malevich painted his creation on top of other images, but “Black Square” was more of a manifesto than a painting, so everything connected with it looks like one big, dark secret.

Kazimir Malevich: the man who liberated painting

The famous artist was born in Ukraine, but was of Polish origin. As a teenager, he taught himself to draw, trying on folk art methods. In 1907 he moved permanently to Moscow. He studied realism, impressionism and symbolism, gradually delving into the history of art.

Two collections of Western art were important to its development. The works of Monet, Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso further inspired him in his pursuit of avant-garde style, and he was especially attracted to cubism and futurism. Then followed a period of isolation, which the First gave him world war. It was then, cut off from external irritation, that he was able to take a big step, which resulted in the emergence of a new direction - Suprematism.

New understanding of empirical reality

His own compositions have a complex theoretical basis, which is why he uses such bold abstract language with such ease.

The artist's work has often been associated with mysticism due to his literary interests. His books were often philosophical in nature. He was fascinated by ideas about the fourth dimension. However, his perception of art decisive influence influenced by the views of the Russian formalist Roman Yakobson and the poetic innovations of Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov. He shared with these poets his desire to explode conventional logic in order to arrive at a new understanding of empirical reality.

He was also indebted to his fellow artists Natalya Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, who kindled his passion for folk art and instilled an interest in the power of icons. As an artist, teacher and revolutionary, Malevich sought to overturn centuries of painting rooted in Renaissance ideals. This art, he stated, was simply aesthetic, in contrast to Suprematism. It is alleged that the author of the black square went further than Picasso or Matisse.

Kazimir Malevich was the founder of the artistic and philosophical school of Suprematism. His ideas about form and meaning in art represent theoretical foundations non-objective or abstract art. Malevich worked in different styles, but its most important and famous works focused on the exploration of pure geometric shapes (squares, triangles and circles) and their relationship to each other in pictorial space.

"Black Square" - an icon of the Russian avant-garde

Suprematism was one of the most influential movements in abstract art of the twentieth century. It was characterized by simple geometric shapes: a straight line, a rectangle, a circle, a square on a light background meant the infinity of space. The ideas of Suprematism were successfully implemented in architecture, scenography, graphics and industrial design. Unlike many other "...isms", the names for which were invented after the fact by art critics, Suprematism owes its birth, existence, development, theoretical justification, promotion to the masses and even speculative cosmic prospects to just one person - Kazimir Severinovich Malevich.

Suprematism is an art that struggles to break free from natural forms in the direction of geometric abstraction. The birth of the "Black Square" was not an act of rational consciousness or the result of a carefully planned strategy - its appearance was unexpected and mystical even for the artist himself. As one of his students recalls, he could neither eat nor sleep for a whole week since he painted the picture.

Even a child could paint such a simple picture, although children would not have the patience to fill such a large area with one color. Any draftsman could do this work, but draftsmen are not interested in simple geometric shapes. A similar painting could be made by a mentally ill person, but if he did this, it is unlikely that he would have the slightest chance of getting to the exhibition and being at the right time and in in the right place. It was Malevich who became the author of "Black Square", one of the most famous, mysterious and frightening works of art in the world.