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Kasimir Malevich. Black Square
20 June, 2002 - 30 June, 2003
The Black Square of Kazimir Malevich is one of the most famous
creations of Russian art in the last century. The first Black Square
was painted in 1915 to become the turning point in the development of
Russian avant-garde.
Black Square against white background became the symbol, the basic
element in the system of the art of suprematism, the step into the new
art. The artist himself created several variants of the Black Square.
All four Squares painted by Malevich from 1915 to the early 1930s
developed the same idea. Different are not only the sequence and year
of creation, but also the color, design and texture. Malevich turned back
to the Black Square every time he needed to present his work in an assertive
and significant way, often in connection with the most important exhibitions.
However he always created a new version rather than copied the previous
one.
Malevich for the first time showed his Black Square (now at the Tretyakov
Gallery in Moscow) at the Last Futurist Exhibition 0,10 in Petrograd in
1915. A Black Square put against the sun appeared for the first time in
the 1913 scenery designs for the Futurist opera Victory over the Sun.
The second Black Square was painted about 1923 with Kazimir Malevich's
participation by his closest disciples, Anna Leporskaya, Konstantin Rozhdestvensky
and Nikolay Suyetin, for a triptych which also included Cross and Circle
(now at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg). Being one of the
elementary forms, the square as a part of the triptych was no longer unique.
Since the triptych embodied the idea of collective work which was of great
importance to Malevich, it is not as important by who exactly the idea
was realized.
Some believe that the third Black Square (Tretyakov Gallery) was painted
in 1929 for Malevich's one-man show, following request of Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov,
Assistant Director of the Gallery, because of the poor condition of the
1915 Square. This is the ''blindest'', most ''hopeless'' square, thickly painted
over black. It is as different from the first one, as Malevich's life
and work were different compared to 1915.
One more Black Square, smallest and, probably, latest, touches
upon the motif of red and black which was important to Malevich. It may
have been intended to make a diptych with the Red Square, though of smaller
size, probably for the exhibition Artists of the RSFSR: 15 Years, held
in Leningrad in 1932 which was to become the last important venue in the
history of Russian avant-garde. The two Squares, Black and Red, were the
centerpiece of Malevich's exhibition in the show. This Black Square
may have been a recapitulation when the artist worn by struggle and infirmity
reproduced his Victory over the Sun at a new stage. The last Square,
despite the author's note ''1913'' on the reverse, is believed to have
been created in the late twenties or early thirties, for there are no
earlier mentions of it. It was one of the few of Malevich's paintings
which were not handed over by the artist's heirs to the Russian Museum
but were kept by his family. As legend goes, it was carried behind Malevich's
coffin on the day when he was buried. When the artist's widow Natalya
Andreyevna Manchenko died, the last variant of the Black Square
along with Malevich's Self-portrait and Wife's Portrait passed
to her relatives who later sold them to Incombank.
After the 1998 crisis this collection except the Black Square was offered
for sale. The Culture Ministry of the Russian Federation used its privilege
to buy this precious work of art with the financial assistance of Vladimir
Potanin, President of Interros Holding, and hand it over to the State
Hermitage Museum.
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Black Square
Kazimir Malevich
Larger view
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