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. 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.

"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 happy 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 a certain higher meaning to your “Black Square”.

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

Attempts were made repeatedly to examine the canvas to find 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 colorful 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) - modernist movement in fine arts, 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 had reached its apogee, all the artists were already quite fed up, and new ones began to appear artistic directions. 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 he saw Malevich’s “square.”

“Black Square” is an example of brilliant PR

Kazimir Malevich saw through the essence of the future contemporary 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.

First tight black work 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 the Cellar” by Paul Bealhold in 1882, completely plagiarized “Battle of Negroes in a Cave” late at 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 drawn by other artists during Tsarist Russia, and 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" to art in its the usual understanding has almost nothing to do with it. The very fact of its writing is a declaration of the end 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 in favor 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 contemporary 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 in Russian houses, according to Orthodox traditions hung icons. 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 the time Alexander Benois wrote: “Undoubtedly, this is the icon that the Futurists are putting up to replace 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 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, having written “Black Square”, for a long time told everyone 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 attributed to 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 that is encrypted 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 where the old ideals of beauty classical art faded completely 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 a 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 volumetric 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 .
__________________________________________________

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?

10 meanings of the “Black Square”

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

On December 5, the exhibition “Kazimir Malevich. Before and after the square." The famous painting divided not only the artist’s life, but also all modern art, into two segments.

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. 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

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 none of the sides of the square frame that frames the picture. 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, mobile form.

Kazimir Malevich “Black Suprematist Square”, 1915

"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 happy 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 considered 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 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. Robert Fludd was the first to paint a completely black work 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 two hundred 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, 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, 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 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.

Self-portrait. Artist. 1933

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?

Exactly 100 years ago, on December 19, 1915, Kazimir Malevich’s painting “Black Suprematist Square” was first presented to the public at the Last Futurist Exhibition “0.10” in St. Petersburg.

For the anniversary of the most recognizable painting of the Russian avant-garde, the Tretyakov Gallery exhibited rarely exhibited graphic works Malevich and artists of his circle.

Record "citation index"

At the beginning of the last century, a simple quadrangle attracted increased attention and was almost called a manifesto of new times. Art historians are still trying to explain the secrets of the painting’s popularity and its secret meanings, finding more and more evidence of the uniqueness of the work.

This is the embodiment of “absolute zero”, and the end of traditional objective thinking, and the transfinite beginning, and the zero expression of color, and the declaration of non-objectivity, and the mystical magnetism of Suprematism, and a challenge to society, and a project for the stylistics of the world - thank you for reading this phrase to the end. But in short, Malevich made a revolution in art.

If we collect everything that has been written about Malevich’s “Black Square” (and this is impossible, but let’s just assume), then the obvious uniqueness of the work will be precisely in the “citation index”.

1. Malevich’s square is not unique - it is at least secondary

20 years earlier, Alphonse Allais’s black painting “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” appeared. Eccentric French artist and a comedian into his canvas secret meanings I didn’t invest, explaining everything in the title.

And before that there was Robert Fludd's black quadrangle. The alchemical philosopher at the beginning of the 17th century illustrated with them " Great Mystery Great Darkness" - what was before the creation of the world.

In 1843, Bertal (real name DeHarnoux Charles Albert), a French portrait painter and illustrator, painted View of La Hogue at Night, a horizontal rectangle almost entirely covered in vague black characters. Later there was “The Twilight History of Russia” by Gustave Dore (in his view, the history of the birth of Rus' is lost in the darkness of centuries), the comic picture “Night Fight of Negroes in the Basement” by Paul Bilchod and the already mentioned “Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night”.

2. “Black Suprematist Square” is not actually black

Even, as they say, with the naked eye, it is clear that the canvas is not a uniform black color (this was discussed in detail above).

3. Malevich's square is not actually a square

It's not even a rectangle, but rather a trapezoid. There is no one strictly right angle. This is really a black quadrangle - as the author called it in the original version.

4. “Black Square” is the primacy of form, not content

Whatever hidden meanings we didn’t look for anything in the picture; in fact, there is almost nothing in it except dark color and some abstract lines under him. There is zero content, the main thing is the form that dominates everything. Moreover, at the same exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1915, other works by Malevich were shown (in the form of a black circle and a cross). However, the artist himself considered them secondary when years later he wrote works on the philosophy of the black square.

5. Malevich’s work is a revolution in painting

Again, a controversial thesis, but over a long time everyone has become so accustomed to it that this statement is taken for granted. At first, Malevich himself insisted on the idea of ​​his rebellion in art - in the famous manifesto “From Cubism to Suprematism. New pictorial realism.” 100 years ago, Malevich actually founded a new direction in painting - Suprematism (translated from Latin - “highest”). This movement was supposed to become the pinnacle of all creative searches of artists (according to Malevich, again). Decades later, art historians devoted numerous treatises to the study of this area.

"Black Square" is a simple but brilliant PR project

We remember that before Kazimir Malevich black rectangles had already been created, and in some cases it was presented not even as a joke, but as a completely conceptual work.

But only Malevich managed to remain for centuries the creator of the famous “Black Square”. Is it luck, or the ability to get into right time to the right place, to calculate the needs of revolutionary art - all this led to the fact that Kazimir Malevich, to put it modern language, found and launched new trend. And later he repeatedly spoke and wrote about the philosophy of his painting.

“Everyone says: square, square, but the square has already grown legs, it is already running around the world” (from a conversation between Malevich and his students). “I consider my square a door that opened a lot of new things for me” (from a letter from K. Malevich to M. Matyushin)

As a result, his creation is valued at tens of millions of dollars and is considered the most recognizable work not only of the Russian avant-garde, but of all Russian artistic creativity generally.

“Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich, written on June 21, 1915, in the holiday village of Kuntsevo (now the territory of Moscow) is the most mysterious picture last century - an “icon” of the world avant-garde. There is still controversy surrounding it. The most opposite opinions are expressed, judging by which, the picture evokes in viewers the whole range of feelings - from exalted delight to complete rejection. Why does “Black Square” excite art lovers so much?

"I wanted to understand what I did..."

“Black Square” was first seen at the “Last Cubo-Futurist Exhibition of Paintings “0.10”, held at the end of 1915 - beginning of 1916 in St. Petersburg. Malevich exhibited 39 paintings there. Among them was his main work, which was then called “Quadrangle”.

The declared futurism as an artistic movement did not last long: its first exhibition took place in March 1915, and in December the “Last Futurist Exhibition” took place. At the opening of “0.10,” disagreements arose between the participants: Malevich proclaimed Suprematism as the heir of futurism, but his colleagues did not want to stand under the new banner and give this name to the entire exhibition. Literally an hour before the start, the artist had to write posters “Suprematism of Painting” by hand and hang them near his paintings.

At the exhibition there was also a notice from the author that he did not know the contents of many of the paintings. Nevertheless, their names evoke very specific images in the viewer’s mind, although all of Malevich’s paintings at that exhibition were devoid of any objectivity, any figurative sign, or image that even remotely resembled anything. In general, this concept is usually defined by the term “alogism.”

The artist placed the painting in the “red corner”, likening it to an icon. Malevich's gesture did not go unnoticed.

Undoubtedly, this is the icon that the futurists put up in place of the Madonna,

- art critic Alexander Benois was indignant.

This is how “Black Square” began its very difficult life in world culture.

Despite the extreme simplicity of execution, the painting was the result of Malevich’s long internal work. As the artist himself recalled, the idea for “Square” came to him while working on the design of Matyushin’s opera “Victory over the Sun” in 1913. Indeed, the surviving sketches show that Malevich used a square as the basis for the composition of the curtain, but this square was not yet black. It was filled with forms characteristic of Cubism.

“Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich is an icon of the Russian avant-garde, one of the most famous paintings Russian painting. The painting and its author gained worldwide fame due to the deep meaning the artist put into the painting.

The meaning of Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square” is inseparable from its creation. The painting was painted by Malevich on June 21, 1915 - that was the time of peak development of the avant-garde in Russian painting, the time of historical revolutions, collectively expressed - the time big changes in all areas of life.

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

“Black Square” (1915) Kazimir Malevich

Malevich unveiled the concept of Suprematism at the “Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10” in St. Petersburg (1915). At this exhibition, the artist presented 39 of his canvases depicting human figures in simple geometric shapes. Among the paintings was the famous triptych, on which, in fact, the entire system of Suprematism was based: “Black Square”, “Black Cross” and “Black Circle”. Of this triptych, only the “Black Square” became famous famous work world avant-garde. It is quite possible that attention to the painting was attracted by Malevich’s discouraging statement that with this work he completely completed the history of the development of world painting. The artist himself considered the square to be the primary figure, the basic element of the world and existence. Even the monument to the artist, according to his will, was made in the shape of a square—a copy of his famous painting. “The square,” wrote Malevich, “is the creativity of the intuitive mind. The square is alive, a royal baby.” The artist called the “Black Square” an icon and at the exhibition he placed the painting high in the corner, just like icons are hung.

Exhibition "0, 10". St. Petersburg, December 1915

The “black square” has neither top nor bottom. Deviations from pure geometry indicate that the artist painted the square “by eye”, without resorting to a compass and ruler. The painting was the final result of numerous experiments, as evidenced by the color compositions that appeared over time in the cracks of the black surface. Now the legendary “Black Square” is located in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Malevich himself divided his Supremastic work into three periods according to the number of squares—black (“black period”), red (“color period”) and white (“white period,” when white forms are painted in white). The works had complex, detailed titles. Thus, “Red Square” was originally called “Pictorial realism of a peasant woman in 2 dimensions.” Looking for something new artistic language Malevich was ahead of his time. A theorist and practitioner of art, he became an iconic figure for the 20th century, a symbol of the Russian avant-garde. K. Malevich stood at the origins of new art, most vividly embodying the searches and paradoxes of his time. Having gone beyond Russia, Suprematism had noticeable influence throughout the world artistic culture. Like no other direction of the avant-garde, Suprematism extended its system to all types of artistic creativity: painting of textiles and porcelain, book graphics, design and even holiday decorations.