The Black Square
7:00 AM |
| Malevich, The Black Square, 1915 |
By MEGAN GANNON
For the purpose of this blog post I ask you to ignore the
Rothko vibe The Black Square gives
off and believe in Malevich for a little while. Kazimir Malevich, the artist
behind the Suprematist movement, attempted to reduce art to what he called
“zero form.” Malevich started the
suprematist movement on the cusp of the Boshevilick Revolution in Russia and
painted The Black Square in 1915 to
demonstrate the hope he felt communism possessed.
According to Malevich suprematism existed in three levels
black, colored, and white. For Malevich his journey started with black. You may
look at his painting and simply see a black square with a white border,
but I urge you to imagine more.
Malevich first displayed The
Black Square in a Moscow exhibition in 1915. Placing the painting in the
corner of the room, a place usually reserved for Russian religious icons. With
his strategic placement Malevich made a statement about his geometric art. An
opinion that he translated as “only with the disappearance of a habit of mind
which sees in pictures little corners, madonnas and shameless Venuses, shall we
witness a work of pure, living art”.
To Malevich his white border messed with the perception of
the painting, forcing the observer to not find meaning in a single tree or
misplaced flower, but to appreciate art in true form.
Unfortunately Malevich’s dreams of communism came to a
crashing halt with leaders like Stalin and Lenin. With the new regime eventually
banning his artwork after his death. A tragic ending for a man who believed whole-heartedly in their cause.
Today some will critique The Black Square as piece of communist propaganda or a mediocre Rothko, but then there will be those who recognize the power of the image. The immense amount of hope it possesses and how one man altered the course of modern art with a square and some black paint.
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