Black rectangle on a white background. Optical illusions

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. Almost 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”?

"Black square" is a dark rectangle

Malevich's "Black Square" was first presented to the public at a 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 a white background.” The name was later 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. And the dark color 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, moving form.

"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 complete the painting for the exhibition, or was not satisfied with the result and, in the heat of the moment, covered it up by 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 believed that irreparable damage could be caused to the masterpiece and in every possible way prevented further examinations.

“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 traditional perception, go beyond the visible, then 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 colorfulness of the “Black Square”.

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 a riot in art

At the time the painting appeared in Russia, there was a dominance of artists of the Cubist school.

Cubism (fr. Cubisme) is a modernist movement in fine art, characterized by the use of emphatically geometrized conventional forms, the desire to “split” real objects into stereometric primitives. The founders and largest representatives of which were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The term “cubism” arose from a criticism of the work of J. Braque that he reduced “cities, houses and figures to geometric patterns and cubes.”

Pablo Picasso, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"

Juan Gris "Man in a Cafe"

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 talented artists experienced his influence. Rumor has it that Picasso lost interest in Cubism after he saw Malevich’s “square.”

“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 it and sell it.

Artists have been experimenting with the color “all black” since the 17th century.

The first is a tightly black work of art called "Great Darkness" wrote Robert Fludd in 1617

He was followed in 1843 by

Bertal and his work " View of La Hougue (under the cover of night)". More than two hundred years later. And then almost without interruption -

"The Twilight History of Russia" by Gustave Doré in 1854, “Night Fight of Negroes in a Cellar” by Paul Bealhold in 1882, a 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 four versions of his “Black Square”, differing in design, texture and color, in the hope of repeating and increasing the success of the painting.

"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 that was relevant for 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 the arrival of Stalin, Malevich held honorary positions and successfully rose to the rank of People's Commissar of the IZO NARKOMPROS.

"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 de facto for modern artists and “just a square” for everyone else.

“Black Square” is a challenge to Orthodoxy

The painting was first presented at the futuristic 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 picture 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, gentlemen, put in place of the Madonna.”

Exhibition "0.10". Petersburg. December 1915

“Black Square” is a crisis of ideas in art

Malevich is called almost the guru of modern art and is accused of the death of 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.

"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 simply limitless. Not understanding what the great meaning of “Black Square” is, many people need 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.

Alternative opinions worthy of attention (from various sources):

- "The simplest and most essential idea of ​​this work, its compositional and theoretical meaning. Malevich was a famous theorist and teacher of composition theory. The square is the simplest figure for visual perception - a figure with equal sides, therefore it is with it that novice artists begin to take steps. When they are given the first tasks in the theory of composition, on horizontal and vertical rhythms. gradually complicating tasks and shapes - rectangle, circle, polygons. So the square is the basis of everything, and black because nothing else can be added. "(WITH)

- Some comrades claim that this is a pixel(jokingly, of course). Pixel (English pixel - short for pix element, in some sources picture cell) is the smallest element of a two-dimensional digital image in raster graphics. That is, any drawings and any inscriptions that we see on the screen when enlarged consist of pixels, and Malevich was something of a seer.

- Personal "epiphany" of the artist.

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 realism and impressionism, as the transfer of sensations, to abstract painting. those. First, humanity depicts objects, then sensations and, finally, ideas.

Malevich’s black square turned 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 obtained the geometric figures of a cross and a 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... (C)

- This picture, undoubtedly, is and will be a mysterious, attractive, always living and pulsating object of human attention. It is valuable because it has a huge number of degrees of freedom, where Malevich’s own theory is a special case of explaining this picture. It has such qualities, is filled with such energy, that it makes it possible to explain and interpret it an infinite number of times at any intellectual level. And most importantly, to provoke people to creativity. A huge number of books, articles, etc. have been written about the “Black Square”, many paintings have been created inspired by this thing, the more time passes from the day it was written, the more we need this riddle, which does not have a solution or, conversely, has an infinite number of them .
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p.s. If you look closely, you can see other tones and colors through the craquelure of the paint. It is quite possible that there was a painting underneath this dark mass, but all attempts to illuminate this painting with something were unsuccessful. The only thing that is certain is that there are some figures or patterns, a long stripe, something very fuzzy. Which may well not be the painting underneath the painting, but simply the bottom layer of the square itself, and the patterns could have been formed during the drawing process :)

Which idea is closest to you?

In 1972, the English critic Henry Waites wrote:
“It would seem that it could be simpler: a black square on a white background. Anyone can probably draw this. But here’s a mystery: 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 he continues:
“They say that Malevich, having written “Black Square,” told everyone for a long time that he could neither eat nor sleep. And he himself doesn’t understand what he did. And indeed, this picture is apparently the result of some complex work. When we look at the black square, under the cracks we see the lower layers of paint - 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:

Kazemir Severinovich Malevich was born in Kyiv 23 February 18 '79. He grew up as a capable child, and in his school essay he wrote: “My dad works as a manager at a sugar factory. But his life is not sweet. All day long he listens to the workers swearing when they get drunk from the sugar mash. Therefore, when dad returns home, he often swears at mom. So when I grow up, I will become an artist. It's a good job. There is no need to swear at the workers, there is no need to carry heavy loads, and the air smells of paints, and not of sugar dust, which is very harmful to health. A good painting costs a lot of money, but you can paint it in just one day.”.
After reading this essay, Kozya’s mother, Ludviga Alexandrovna (nee Galinovskaya), gave him 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, he was not accepted into the school. Malevich did not want to return to Kursk; he settled in an art commune in Lefortovo. Here, in the large house of the artist Kurdyumov, about thirty “communards” lived. I had to pay seven rubles a month for a room—by Moscow standards, very cheap. But Malevich often had to borrow this money. In the summer of 1906, he again applied to the Moscow School, but he was not accepted a second time.
From 1906 to 1910, Kazimir attended classes in the studio of F.I. Rerberg in Moscow. Letters from the artist A.A. shed light on this period of his life. Ekster to 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 bathhouse. The paintings were not sold expensively and required additional expenses for models, but it was at least some money.
One day, after working with his models all night, Malevich fell asleep on the sofa in his studio. In the morning his wife came in to take money from him to pay the grocer's bills. Seeing another painting by the great master, she boiled with indignation and jealousy, grabbed a large brush and painted the canvas with black paint.
Waking up, Malevich tried to save the painting, but to no avail - the black paint had already dried.
Art historians believe that it was at this moment that Malevich’s idea of ​​“Black Square” was born.

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, "The Great Darkness" 1617

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

Paul Bilhod, "Night Fight of 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 until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow,” was the most successful in such creativity.
From 1882 to 1893, he painted a whole series of similar paintings, not at all hiding his humorous attitude towards these “creative explorations of extramaterial realities.”
For example, a completely white framed canvas was called “Anemic 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 to the success of such paintings lies not in the image itself, but in its theoretical basis. 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 quite tired of them.
Real success came to Malevich only after Lunacharsky appointed him in 1929 "People's Commissar of the IZO NARKOMPROS." Within this position Malevich took his “black square” and other works to the exhibition “Abstract and surrealist painting and plastic arts” in Zurich. Then he held personal exhibitions in Warsaw, Berlin and 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 international propaganda of Soviet art as for promoting his own creativity did not escape his Moscow colleagues. And upon returning from abroad in the fall of 1930 Malevich was arrested by the NKVD on a denunciation as a “German spy.”
However, thanks to Lunacharsky’s intercession, he spent only 4 months in prison, although he parted with the post of “People’s Commissar of Fine Arts” forever.

So the first oneThe “Black Suprematist Square”, which was discussed here, dates back to 1915, and is now in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Malevich painted the second “Black Square” in 1923 especially for the Russian Museum.
The third - in 1929. It is also located in the Tretyakov Gallery.
And the fourth - in 1930, especially for the Hermitage.

These museums also house 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

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

Our vision can very easily deceive our brain with simple color illusions that surround us everywhere. Some of these illusions await you further.

How many colors are there in the picture?

Blue and green spirals are actually the same color - green. There is no blue color here.

The brown square in the center of the top edge and the “orange” square in the center of the front edge are the same color.

Look carefully at the board. What color are cells “A” and “B”? Does “A” seem to be black and “B” white? The correct answer is below.

Cells “B” and “A” are the same color. Gray.

Does the lower part of the figure seem lighter? Use your finger to cover the horizontal border between the top and bottom of the shape.

Do you see a chessboard with black and white squares? The gray halves of black and white cells are the same shade. Gray color is perceived either as black or as white.

The horse figures have the same color.

How many color shades are there, not counting white? 3? 4? In fact, there are only two - pink and green.

What color are the squares here? Only green and pink.

Optical illusion

We look at the dot, and the gray stripe on the orange background becomes... blue.

In place of the disappearing purple spots, a green spot appears, moving in a circle. But in reality it doesn’t exist! And if you concentrate on the cross, the purple spots disappear.

If you look closely at a point in the center of a black and white image for 15 seconds, the picture takes on color.

Look at the center of the black dot for 15 seconds. The image will turn into color.

Look at the 4 dots in the center of the picture for 30 seconds, then move your gaze to the ceiling and blink. What did you see?

At the intersections of all white stripes, with the exception of the intersection where you are fixing your gaze at the moment, small black spots are visible that are not actually there.

Disappearance

If you look closely at the dot in the center for a few seconds, the gray background will disappear.

Concentrate your gaze on the center of the picture. After a while, the blurry color images will disappear and turn into a solid white background.

What attracts Malevich’s primitive suprematism? Precisely because it is primitive to the point of disgrace. An elementary, simplest image can give rise to the viewer’s own versions, guesses and additions with a minimum of imagination. This also applies to “The Black Circle,” which is no less interesting than its square brother, and for me, even more so.

Everyone knows the black square of Kazimir Malevich. What is his “Black Circle”?
Malevich wrote the second version of this brilliant, complex work (like the 2nd version of the Black Square) with the help of his students A. Leporskaya, K. Rozhdestvensky and N. Suetin. He couldn't have done it alone. Apparently, Rozhdestvensky was stretching the stretcher, Leporskaya was priming the canvas, and Suetin got hold of a compass. All Malevich had to do was take black paint and work as a painter for about five minutes. The first version was painted eight years earlier, but the circle came out crooked then; apparently Malevich did not yet have a compass, so he had to cover the canvas with a copper basin and somehow trace it around the edge.

What is this work about? It's hard to believe, but nevertheless, it's... about a black circle! It was not difficult for Malevich to present the concept of the work; he was an unsurpassed master of spreading noodles. Everyone can draw geometric figures; only a few can present them as something outstanding.

Malevich was born on February 23, which annually darkens the day of the Soviet Army, due to his evasion of military duty. He died on May 15, which annually overshadows my and Mikhail Bulgakov’s birthday. In total, he lived only 56 years, not having time to depict all the variants of geometric figures. Specifically, it has a black square on a white background, a white square on a white background, a black circle on a white background... but no "Black circle on a black background"! And I decided to fill this gap (if you can call this mob a gap). He is in front of you.

“Do you see the gopher? And I don’t see it. But it’s there!” (Hera Lieberman) Do you see the black circle? And I don't see. But he is. And a meticulous viewer will notice this. This is the whole point of the picture, that is, not everything you don’t see is not there. Another name is “Black hole in a black square, or Activated carbon in the ass of an African American sitting in a dark cave on a moonless night.” Is the title politically correct? Quite. But the novel "Ten Little Indians" is racist, it should be renamed "Ten African-American Children."

I don’t know about others, but I’m terribly bored contemplating these “masterpieces” by Malevich, so I’m exhibiting my variations of “The Black Circle.” How to “revive” a black circle with minimal means, to make a non-objective painting objective? Here are some examples. Here, extensive conceptual explanations are not required, everything is as clear as the white night in St. Petersburg. Not every viewer has limitless imagination, and when looking at Malevich’s masterpieces, not a single image comes to mind for many of them. So I decided to help such a viewer looking at the black circle.

"Black Balloon" I don't remember if there are black balloons? Well, for example, at a GOT meeting, or at an oil worker’s holiday, or you can tie him to a hearse, so that it won’t be so gloomy...

And this is a paradoxical version of the black ball: “Black weight”. She is unliftable and at the same time weightless, she floats. But if the thread breaks, then run away in all directions!

"Rockfall or Rolling Stones." Malevich's painting is untouched, but the image of a flying stone is there.

"Black smiley" Malevich was one step away from the invention of emoticons. At least black ones.

"Malevich's watch." There may be more options here, but many have probably already been used in watch design.

"Sewerage". And I remember that Malevich argued that he depicted the depths of the Universe. Unless the sewer system is also a kind of universe of deep worlds.

"Black Moon". A real negative photo of the Moon was used. Reminiscent of outlandish, decorative flowers in the manner of M. Vrubel; there is something to look at, unlike the original.

"Black Malevich under pink Picasso." This refers to the pink period of Pablo Picasso's work. "Girl on a Ball" was written ten years before Malevich's "ball", possibly influencing the latter.

"Core". If you remove the cannon, it will also pass for an athlete’s throwing projectile, both as a cannonball and as a disc.

Here is the Suprematist composition “Four white circles on a black circle in a white square.” However, if you have a white shirt with black buttons, you can watch many copies of this composition for hours.

Similar to the previous one, “White circle on a black circle on a white square.” Suprematism at its finest! If Malevich had painted it, it would have been a masterpiece for centuries! If it weren’t for one circumstance, this masterpiece is now displayed everywhere, at any tire shop you come across. It’s a pity, such a beautiful, elegant name, not to mention the stupid “Tire Fitting”!

"Black target" This version of the “Black Circle” will last much longer for any military man, not to mention biathletes. And if a place for a small shooting gallery is fenced off near the picture, then the profit from viewing such a “Malevich” will greatly increase.

And this composition is called "Crisis". It is already hanging and ready to burst. A crisis is never white or pink, it is always black.

How to get rid of a crisis? It's pretty simple. The crisis needs to be turned over and bitten off. Let's add a leaf - and now we are not faced with a crisis, but with an elegant, expensive Apple device. Now the main thing is not to turn it back, otherwise the crisis will return, but already broken out!

"Weapons of the proletariat." Composition of Suprematist symbolism. The circle, having acquired the cog-like appearance of a gear, symbolizes mechanical engineering and the sun of Soviet industry. Another object symbolizes a tool, a worker’s key, while at the same time resembling the crosshairs of a hammer and sickle - the weapon of a worker and a collective farmer. If only Malevich had painted such a picture in time, the coat of arms of the USSR would undoubtedly have looked different. Perhaps this is what it would look like, one to one. Well, for those snickering bourgeoisie who don’t like the symbols of the Soviet proletarian, there is a simpler name: “Beer.”

"Kutuzov Suprematist. Portrait of a Field Marshal." Someone will say: this is not a portrait - where is Kutuzov himself? I will answer: firstly, the bandage is specifically for Kutuzov’s right missing eye. Secondly, every second viewer will catch the connection with Kutuzov, which means the portrait is quite similar.

A minimum of actions with the previous picture - and we already have scrambled eggs for breakfast. Let's call it "Kutuzov's fried egg". If the classic fried egg has both “eyes,” then the Kutuzovsky fried egg must be made from one egg! Scientifically speaking: mono-fried eggs. For those who are on a diet.

"Sisyphus" Well, many people know this. This is such a hefty but stupid ancient Greek who did not think to use the lever. The ancient Greek shamefully failed to live up to the saying “you have strength, but you don’t need intelligence.”

The most important property of our eye is its ability to distinguish colors. One of the properties related to color vision can be considered the phenomenon of a shift in the maximum relative visibility during the transition from daylight to twilight vision.

With twilight vision (low light levels), not only does the sensitivity of the eye to the perception of colors in general decrease, but also under these conditions the eye has a decreased sensitivity to the colors of the long-wavelength part of the visible spectrum (red, orange) and increased sensitivity to the colors of the short-wavelength part of the spectrum (blue, violet) .

We can point to a number of cases where, when looking at colored objects, we also encounter visual errors or illusions.

Firstly, sometimes we mistakenly judge the color saturation of an object by the brightness of the background or by the color of other objects surrounding it. In this case, the laws of brightness contrast also apply: the color brightens against a dark background and darkens against a light one.
The great artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “Of colors of equal whiteness, the one that appears lighter will appear against a darker background, and black will appear gloomier against a background of greater whiteness. And red will appear more fiery against a darker background, and also all colors surrounded by their exact opposites."

Secondly, there is the concept of actual color or chromatic contrasts, when the color of the object we observe changes depending on the background against which we observe it. There are many examples of the effects of color contrasts on the eye. Goethe, for example, writes: “The grass growing in a courtyard paved with gray limestone appears to be an infinitely beautiful green color when the evening clouds cast a reddish, barely noticeable glow on the stones.” The additional color of dawn is green; This contrasting green color mixes with the green color of the grass and gives an “infinitely beautiful green color.”

Goethe also describes the phenomenon of so-called “colored shadows”. "One of the most beautiful cases of colored shadows can be observed during the full moon. Candlelight and moonlight can be completely equal in intensity. Both shadows can be made of the same strength and clarity, so that both colors will be completely balanced. Place the screen so that the light is full the moon fell directly on it, the candle is placed somewhat to the side at the appropriate distance; some transparent body is held in front of the screen. Then a double shadow appears, and the one that is cast by the moon and which is at the same time illuminated by the candle appears to be of a distinct reddish-dark color. color, and, conversely, the one that is cast by the candle, but illuminated by the moon, is of the most beautiful blue color. Where both shadows meet and unite into one, a black shadow is obtained."

Illusions associated with the structural features of the eye.

Look at the picture (below) close to the right edge of the monitor

Blind spot.

The presence of a blind spot on the retina of the eye was first discovered in 1668 by the famous French physicist E. Mariotte. Marriott describes his experience in verifying the presence of a blind spot as follows:

“I attached a small circle of white paper on a dark background, approximately at eye level, and at the same time asked to hold another circle to the side of the first, to the right at a distance of about two feet), but somewhat lower so that its image fell on the optic nerve of my I closed my right eye, while I closed my left one. I stood opposite the first circle and gradually moved away, keeping my right eye on it. When I was 9 feet away, the second circle, which was about 4 inches in size, completely disappeared from my field of vision. I could attribute this to his lateral position, for I could distinguish other objects that were even more to the side than he was; I would have thought that it had been removed if I had not found it again at the slightest movement of my eyes.”

It is known that Marriott amused the English king Charles II and his courtiers by teaching them to see each other without heads. The retina of the eye, where the optic nerve enters the eye, does not have the light-sensitive endings of nerve fibers (rods and cones). Consequently, images of objects falling on this place of the retina are not transmitted to the brain.

Here's another interesting example. In fact, the circle is perfectly smooth. We need to squint and we see it.

Optical effect of color.

This effect includes illusions or optical phenomena caused by color and changing the appearance of objects. Considering the optical phenomena of color, all colors can be divided into two groups: red and blue, because Basically, colors in their optical properties will gravitate towards one of these groups. The exception is green. Light colors, such as white or yellow, create an irradiation effect, they seem to spread to the darker colors located next to them and reduce the surfaces painted in these colors. For example, if a ray of light penetrates through a crack in a plank wall, the crack appears wider than it actually is. When the sun shines through the branches of trees, the branches appear thinner than usual.

This phenomenon plays a significant role in the design of fonts. While the letters E and F, for example, retain their full height, the height of letters such as O and G are reduced somewhat, further reduced by the sharp ends of the letters A and V. These letters appear lower than the overall height of the line. So that they appear to be the same height as the rest of the letters of the line, when marking them, they are moved slightly up or down beyond the aisles of the line. The irradiation effect also explains the different impressions of surfaces covered with transverse or longitudinal stripes. A field with transverse stripes appears lower than a field with longitudinal stripes, since the white color surrounding the field penetrates at the top and bottom between the stripes and visually reduces the height of the field.

Main optical features of the red and blue color groups.

Yellow visually, as it were, lifts the surface. It also seems more extensive due to the irradiation effect. The red color is approaching us, blue, on the contrary, is moving away. The planes, painted in dark blue, purple and black, visually decrease in size and move downward.

Green color- the most calm of all colors.

It should also be noted that the centrifugal movement is yellow and the centripetal movement is blue.

The first color pricks the eyes, the second color drowns the eye. This effect increases if we add to it the difference in lightness and darkness, i.e. the effect of yellow will increase when white is added to it, blue - when it is darkened with black.

Academician S.I. Vavilov writes about the structure of the eye: “How simple is the optical part of the eye, so complex is its perceptive mechanism. Not only do we not know the physiological meaning of individual elements of the retina, but we are not able to say how appropriate the spatial distribution of light-sensitive cells is to what needs a blind spot, etc. What we have before us is not an artificial physical device, but a living organ in which advantages are mixed with disadvantages, but everything is inextricably linked into a living whole.”

A blind spot, it would seem, should prevent us from seeing the entire object, but under normal conditions we do not notice this.

Firstly, because the images of objects falling on the blind spot in one eye are not projected onto the blind spot in the other; secondly, because the falling out parts of objects are involuntarily filled with images of neighboring parts that are in the field of view. If, for example, when examining black horizontal lines, some areas of the image of these lines on the retina of one eye fall on a blind spot, then we will not see a break in these lines, since our other eye will compensate for the shortcomings of the first. Even when observing with one eye, our mind compensates for the deficiency of the retina and the disappearance of some details of objects from the field of vision does not reach our consciousness.
The blind spot is quite large (at a distance of two meters from the observer, even a person’s face can disappear from the field of view), however, under normal vision conditions, the mobility of our eyes eliminates this “disadvantage” of the retina.

Irradiation

The phenomenon of irradiation is that light objects against a dark background seem enlarged compared to their actual size and seem to capture part of the dark background. This phenomenon has been known since very ancient times. Even Vitruvius (1st century BC), an architect and engineer of Ancient Rome, pointed out in his writings that when dark and light are combined, “light devours darkness.” On our retina, light partially captures the space occupied by shadow. The initial explanation for the phenomenon of irradiation was given by R. Descartes, who argued that an increase in the size of light objects occurs as a result of the spread of physiological excitation to places adjacent to the directly irritated area of ​​the retina.
However, this explanation is currently being replaced by a new, more strict one, formulated by Helmholtz, according to which the following circumstances are the root cause of irradiation. Each luminous point is depicted on the retina of the eye in the form of a small circle of scattering due to the imperfection of the lens (aberration, from Latin - deviation), inaccurate accommodation, etc. When we look at a light surface on a dark background, due to aberration scattering, the boundaries seem to expand this surface, and the surface seems to us larger than its true geometric dimensions; it seems to extend across the edges of the dark background surrounding it.

The effect of irradiation is more pronounced the worse the eye is accommodated. Due to the presence of light scattering circles on the retina, under certain conditions (for example, very thin black threads), dark objects on a light background can also be subject to illusory exaggeration - this is the so-called negative irradiation. There are a lot of examples when we can observe the phenomenon of irradiation; it is not possible to give them in full here.

The great Italian artist, scientist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci in his notes says the following about the phenomenon of irradiation: “When the Sun is visible behind leafless trees, all their branches located opposite the solar body are so reduced that they become invisible, the same will happen with a shaft placed between the eye and the solar body. I saw a woman dressed in black, with a white bandage on her head, the latter appearing twice as wide as the width of the woman's shoulders, which were dressed in black, when viewed from a great distance the battlements of the fortresses, separated. from each other by intervals equal to the width of these teeth, then the intervals seem much larger than the teeth...".

The great German poet Goethe points out a number of cases of observations of the phenomenon of irradiation in nature in his treatise “The Doctrine of Colors”. He writes about this phenomenon as follows: “A dark object seems smaller than a light one of the same size. If we simultaneously consider a white circle on a black background and a black circle of the same diameter on a white background, then the latter seems to us to be approximately 1/2 smaller than the first. If the black circle is made correspondingly larger, they will appear equal. The young crescent moon appears to belong to a circle of a larger diameter than the rest of the dark part of the moon, which is sometimes visible."

The phenomenon of irradiation during astronomical observations makes it difficult to observe thin black lines on objects of observation; in such cases it is necessary to aperture the telescope lens. Physicists, due to the phenomenon of irradiation, do not see the thin peripheral rings of the diffraction pattern. People appear thinner in a dark dress than in a light one. Light sources visible from behind the edge produce an apparent cutout in it. The ruler, from behind which the candle flame appears, is represented with a notch in this place. The rising and setting sun makes a hole in the horizon.

A few more examples.

The black thread, if held in front of a bright flame, seems to be broken at this point; the hot filament of an incandescent lamp seems thicker than it actually is; light wire against a dark background appears thicker than against a light one. The sashes in the window frames appear smaller than they really are. A statue cast in bronze appears smaller than one made from plaster or white marble.

The architects of Ancient Greece made the corner columns of their buildings thicker than others, taking into account that these columns from many points of view would be visible against the background of a bright sky and, due to the phenomenon of irradiation, would appear thinner. We are subjected to a kind of illusion in relation to the apparent size of the Sun. Artists, as a rule, paint the Sun as too large compared to other depicted objects. On the other hand, in photographic landscape photographs in which the Sun is depicted, it appears to us unnaturally small, although the lens gives a correct image of it.
Note that the phenomenon of negative irradiation can be observed in cases where a black thread or slightly shiny metal wire appears thicker on a white background than on a black or gray one. If, for example, a lacemaker wants to show her art, then it is better for her to make lace from black threads and spread it on a white lining. If we observe wires against a background of parallel dark lines, such as a tile roof or brickwork, the wires appear thickened and broken where they intersect each of the dark lines.

These effects are also observed when the wires are superimposed in the field of view on a clear outline of the building. Probably, the phenomenon of irradiation is associated not only with the aberration properties of the lens, but also with the scattering and refraction of light in the media of the eye (the layer of liquid between the eyelid and the cornea, the media filling the anterior chamber and the entire inside of the eye). Therefore, the irradiation properties of the eye are obviously related to its resolving power and radiant perception of “point” light sources. The ability of the eye to overestimate sharp angles is associated with aberration properties, and therefore partly with the phenomenon of irradiation.

Astigmatism of the eye.

Astigmatism of the eye is a defect of the eye, usually caused by the non-spherical (toric) shape of the cornea and sometimes the non-spherical shape of the surfaces of the lens. Astigmatism in the human eye was first discovered in 1801 by the English physicist T. Young. In the presence of this defect (by the way, not all people manifest it in a sharp form), there is no point focusing of rays falling parallel to the eye due to different refraction of light by the cornea in different sections. Severe astigmatism is corrected by glasses with cylindrical glasses, which refract light rays only in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder.

Eyes completely free from this defect are rare in people, as can be easily seen. To test the eyes for astigmatism, ophthalmologists often use a special table, where twelve circles have shading of equal thickness at equal intervals. An eye with astigmatism will see the lines of one or more circles blacker. The direction of these blacker lines allows us to draw a conclusion about the nature of the astigmatism of the eye.

If astigmatism is due to the non-spherical shape of the lens surface, then when moving from clear vision of horizontal objects to viewing vertical objects, a person must change the accommodation of the eyes. Most often, the distance of clear vision of vertical objects is less than horizontal ones.