How Kazimir Malevich created the "Black Square" and what does Suprematism have to do with it

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many have probably seen the image of Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square" a thousand times. This is by far one of the most controversial pieces of art ever created. But what does this picture mean and what is the square? Let's dive into the philosophy behind an art movement called Suprematism and take a look at the fascinating art created by its main genius.

1. Biography

Kazimir was born in 1878 near Kiev in a Polish family. Malevich became part of the movement known as the Russian avant-garde, in which not only artists participated, but also poets, designers, architects, writers and filmmakers. This movement defined the first decades of the 20th century in Russia. During this time, many political changes took place in the country, including the historically significant October Revolution of 1917.

Artistic movements such as Suprematism, Russian Futurism and Constructivism were part of the Russian avant-garde. Together with Kazimir, artists such as Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, Natalia Goncharova, El Lissitzky were known as Russian avant-garde artists. One of the most famous works of the Russian avant-garde is the monument to Vladimir Tatlin for the Third International.

Kazimir also worked as a teacher at the People's Art School in Vitebsk, founded by the artist Marc Chagall. In collaboration with his students in Vitebsk, Kazimir created a group called UNOVIS, whose goal was to develop new artistic theories promoted through the art of Suprematism. The group worked together for about three years, breaking up in 1922. One of his supporters in UNOVIS was the famous Russian artist El Lissitzky, known for his Prouns series.

2. What is Suprematism

So how did Casimir invent Suprematism? At one time a designer, he came up with the main Suprematist form - the black square, while working on the costume and set design for the opera Victory over the Sun. Thus, his work on this opera proved to be very important for the future of Suprematism, because it was at this time that the artist came up with geometric figures that were to define his artistic practice.

In 1913, the Russian artist teamed up with the composer Mikhail Matyushin and the poets Alexei Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov to work on the opera. Matyushin worked on music, Kruchenykh wrote the libretto, and Malevich created the visual identity of the opera. The costumes were created in a cubo-futuristic style. This style, as its name suggests, was inspired by Cubism and Futurism. The geometric shapes and color fields seen in Casimir's paintings were also present in his costumes. The scene was conceived as a square, which was to become a frequent motive in the artist's artistic practice. The artist later noted that his stage design for the opera Victory over the Sun was the first manifestation of Suprematism.

3. Philosophy of Suprematism

Suprematism as a movement is completely connected with the thought and work of Casimir. There is no Suprematism without a Russian artist. For him, Suprematism represented a new realism in painting, despite the fact that he did not show any scenes seen in everyday life. For the artist, the geometric shapes used in Suprematism were a new reality. They didn't mean anything but themselves. The visual language of Suprematism was abstract, focused only on simple geometric shapes and colors.

In his Manifesto, Malevich wrote:. Suprematism wanted to question art, its purpose and function. Suprematist art was considered pointless, Casimir himself even used this term to describe his art in the essay "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: New Painterly Realism in 1916".

He also viewed Suprematism not only as an artistic direction, but also as a philosophical way of thinking. For him, art was considered useless and was not intended to serve any political idea or ideology.

Casimir believed that an artist must be free and independent in order to create a real work of art. Through Suprematism, he also wanted to explore the idea of space in painting and how Malevich considered Suprematism to be spiritual, which for him was not the end of art, but a new beginning.

Another important term for understanding his art and Suprematism itself is texture. This term was first introduced by Vladimir Markov. He defined texture as a general concept in the field of sculpture, architecture and in all those arts where there is a certain amount of noise. For Malevich and his students at UNOVIS, texture was an idea, a new development. The Russian artist also wrote a lot about this term and tried to give it a philosophical definition.

4. Black square

Malevich's Black Square is most likely his most famous Suprematist work. So what makes Black Square so special? By painting a black square on canvas, Casimir wanted to do away with the traditional notion of art as something representative. He showed a new reality that was not the one that people could see in nature or society.

The black square showed no narrative. He denied the well-known conventions of painting and proposed something new. The artist even said that his "Black Square" is a new face of art. He occasionally used a tiny black square as a signature in other paintings, a testament to how important the original Black Square was to him.

It is very interesting that Casimir dated this painting to 1913, although it was painted in 1915. And here's why: the artist believed that the work should be dated to the time when the idea of the painting came to the artist's mind. Since Casimir believed that the famous "Black Square" arose from the sketches of the scenery for the opera "Victory over the Sun", he dated it to 1913.

In a letter to Matyushin in 1915, Casimir noted how important the square was for him in the sketch of the stage design. He wrote: “This drawing will be of great importance in painting. What was done unconsciously now bears extraordinary results.”In total, Malevich painted four paintings“Black Square”. The original was made in 1915 and copies were made in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The Black Square was first exhibited in December 1915 during an exhibition called the Last Exhibition of Futuristic Painting 0.10 (Zero-Ten) in Petrograd in Russia, then the capital of Russia. The zero in the title meant a new start in the history of art, which was supposed to represent Suprematism. Fourteen artists were included in the exhibition, and thirty-nine works of them were presented there. Casimir exhibited the painting by placing it in the upper corner of the walls, which was a way of displaying Russian Orthodox icons at home. This suggests that he thought of Suprematism as a spiritual movement, for him the "Black Square" was an icon. The significance of the "Black Square" in the history of art is undeniable. It represents a turning point, as does the finished work of Marcel Duchamp. It was mysterious, interesting and thought-provoking.

4. White on white

A few years after the "Black Square", in 1918, he drew a white square on a white background and called the work a Suprematist composition - "White on White". In this picture, thanks to its color and simplicity, the viewer can easily focus on the material aspect of the picture itself. You can also notice the structure of the paint and the various shades of white that the artist used here.

“White on white” was supposed to give the impression of a picture floating in space. For the artist, white personified the utopian and the pure. It was an endless color. In response to Malevich's White on White, Alexander Rodchenko wrote in 1918 a work known as Black on Black. This piece has also become an incredibly important piece of art. In it, Rodchenko wanted to explore such material qualities of painting as texture and form.

Malevich not only wrote Suprematist paintings and wrote philosophical essays on movement, he also created various objects inspired by Suprematism. In 1923, together with Ilya Grigorievich Chashnik, he created a number of beautiful tea cups. A year earlier, Kazimir had been invited by the Leningrad Porcelain Factory to design cups and teapots. Around the same time, the artist also created plaster models of Suprematist buildings, so it is obvious that he too was thinking about mixing Suprematism and architecture. He also designed patterns for textiles. Therefore, for Malevich, Suprematism represented a whole aesthetic universe. It was not just a way to paint, but also to fully understand the world.

Continuing the topic of art, read also about as the works of artists of the era of romanticism of the XIX century gained immense popularity, becoming a national treasure of the country.