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2002: The transfer of Kasimir Malevich's painting Black Square
to the State Hermitage
In 2002 the painting Black Square (oil on canvas;
53.5 x 53.5 cm) by Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) entered the
collection of the State Hermitage. Black Square is one of the most
famous works of Russian art from the century
which has just ended.
The first Black Square was painted in 1915 and became
a turning point in the development of
the Russian Avant-Garde art. This black square on a white background
became a symbol and the basic element in the
artistic system of Suprematism, a step in the direction of
à new art. Malevich painted four Squares between
1915 and the early 1930s, all developing a single theme.
They differ from each other not only in sequence and
date of creation but in colour, the way they are drawn
and texture. Malevich returned to the theme of the Black
Square when he needed to present his own work in
a weighty and substantial way. This was often linked to exhibitions
that were very important to him.
The creation of the smallest and, apparently, the last Black
Square is connected with the theme of red and black,
which was so important to Malevich. Perhaps it was painted
to be part of a matched pair with his
red square shown in the exhibition entitled Artists
of the RSFSR During the Past 15 Years, which took place
in Leningrad in 1932 and became the last significant
public appearance of the Russian Avant-Garde. Two squares
- black and red - were the central point of the showing of
Malevich's works in the exhibition. This Black
Square symbolically closed out the series: here the artist
once again repeated his "victory over the sun". (A black square
blocking out the sun first appeared in 1913
in sketches for the decorations to the
futuristic opera Victory over the Sun.)
Despite the author's inscription "1913" on the back
of the canvas, the last square is usually dated
to the end of the 1920s and beginning of the
1930s insofar as there is no evidence it existed earlier.
It turned up among the several paintings by Malevich which, following
his death, stayed in the family and were not given to
the Russian Museum by the artist's heirs. Following
the death in 1991 of the artist's widow, Natalya Manchenko, the final
version of the Black Square , together with Malevich's
Self-Portrait and Portrait of the Artist's Wife
were handed down to her relatives and then were sold
by them to the Inkombank collection.
In 2002 the corporate property of Inkombank was sold at auction.
However, the Black Square did not appear in
the auction. The painting was acquired for the State
Hermitage by the RF Ministry of Culture. The one million dollars needed
to purchase this work was donated by Vladimir Potanin, a
well-known benefactor of the arts and head of
the Interros holding company, who had already provided financial
support for the projects of the State Hermitage on
a number of occasions in the past. Thanks to the company's
assistance, restoration work has been done on the rooms of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the General Staff
building and on the Chariot of Glory atop the Arch
of the General Staff. This financial assistance
has also made possible the publication of the series
entitled Pages in the History of the Hermitage.
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Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State
Hermitage, Vladimir Potanin, Head of Interros, and
Mikhail Shvydkoi, RF Minister of Culture,
at the ceremony of transfer of the painting
Larger view
Black Square
Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich
Larger
view
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