The result of any drawing is a painting. This statement would be true if Kazimir Malevich had not proven the opposite. In 1915, he painted "Black Square on a White Background" and made a shocking confession: "This is not painting, this is something else."
A little later artist and art theorist El Lissitzky stated that “Black Square” is a complete opposition to everything that is meant by the concepts of “art”, “painting” and “picture”. And that Malevich reduced all forms and all painting to absolute zero.
More than 90 years have passed since the appearance of "Black Square", but it still excites minds and imagination, and still causes heated debate. An absolutely black square image, painted in oil and framed with white canvas. In Malevich's scandalous masterpiece there is nothing of traditional signs masterpiece.

However, as the artist himself predicted, this drawing, made unconsciously, or rather under the influence of " cosmic consciousness", became the most important event in the world history of art. He freed the concept of painting from all its traditional laws, reduced it to the zero form, designated the square as a new, basic “first figure” of the new art, which Kazimir Malevich called Suprematism, which means superiority, dominance.
He calls the "Black Square" a "naked icon without a frame" and himself the Chairman of the Space. He openly declares his intention to “slaughter the art of painting, put it in a coffin and seal it with a Black Square.”

In 1882, young French writer and publisher Jules Lévy founded the group "The Salon of the Inconsistents," which consisted of artists, writers, poets and other representatives of the Parisian bohemians of the late 19th century. This association did not pursue any political goals. The group's slogan was the phrase "Art is inconsistent", coined by Levy in defiance of the common phrase "les arts decoratifs". The Salon of the Inconsistents mocked official values ​​through satire, humor, and sometimes crude jokes. The paintings that were shown at the Salon exhibitions were not “paintings” in the traditional sense at all. These were funny cartoons, absurd nightmares, drawings as if drawn by children. On October 1, 1882, the “Salon of the Inconsistents” opens an exhibition in Paris with the whimsical title “The Art of the Inconsistents.” The exhibition featured works by six authors who can be considered the forerunners of surrealism, which emerged 40 years later. The most provocative of the paintings was a single-color, pitch-black image by the poet Paul Bilhaud, called Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night. Such a black rectangle.

No statements about the conceptual meaning of the painting. No suggestion to look closely and find hidden meaning a black rectangle framed by a playful vignette. Just a funny picture. Moreover, the joke is not even in the picture, but in its title. Indeed, when blacks fight in the basement at night, you can’t see anything and everything is black!
Bilford's humorous idea was developed by the artist Alphonse Allais. At the Incoherent shows of 1883, he exhibited the painting “Pale Young Girls Going to their First Communion in the Snow,” which is a white rectangle.

At the 1884 exhibition, he shows another monochrome drawing - a red rectangle entitled Apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes by the Shores of the Red Sea.

Then Alphonse Allais expanded his collection with Blue, Green, Gray Rectangles and published a book with these works, supplementing them with a blank musical score called “Funeral March for the Deaf.” It must be admitted that Alla was a great dreamer and humorist.
In the monochrome works of French jokers, the concept of absence was belittled by a humorous title. In the monochrome works of Kazimir Malevich, the same concept was reinforced by a meaningless title. After all, “Black Square” is not a name, it’s just a statement.
The most important thing is that the inconsistent Parisian humorists of the late 19th century did not tell the world anything about sacred sense their works. Maybe because he wasn't there. Malevich was much more serious. He tirelessly sculpted the reputation of his masterpiece using every possible means. As a result, only specialists know the names of the “inconsistent” today, but the whole world knows the name of Malevich. Currently, there are four “Black Squares” in Russia: in Moscow and St. Petersburg there are exactly two “Squares” each: two in the Tretyakov Gallery, one in the Russian Museum and one in the Hermitage. One of the canvases belongs to the Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, who purchased it from Inkombank in 2002 for 1 million US dollars (32 million rubles) and transferred this very first, and therefore the most important of the existing versions of the canvas depicting “Black square" by the founder of Suprematism.

Here are some more of his works.

On May 15, 1935, one of the world's most famous avant-garde artists, Kazimir Malevich, died. We remember him and offer to find out 5 interesting facts about the artist’s biography.

A brilliant artist, one of the most misunderstood (or incomprehensible?), endlessly discussed (and condemned), but certainly recognized (especially abroad), innovators of Russian fine art - Kazimir Malevich, was the first of 14 children of the nobleman Severin Malevich, living with his wife Ludwiga Galinovskaya in Vinnitsa province.

And until the age of 26 of his life, he was no different from many people, combining work as a draftsman with his passion for painting in free time.

But the passion for creativity eventually prevailed and Malevich, who had managed to get married by that time, left his family and went to Moscow in 1905 to enroll in a painting school (where he was not accepted!).

From here begins his path to the domestic Olympus of great names, which was interrupted on May 15, 1935 by the death of Kazimir Severinovich - philosopher, teacher, theorist, renowned Soviet artist, who left his descendants a revolutionary legacy that had a huge impact on modern architecture and art; the founder of a whole movement in painting - Suprematism (the primacy of one primary color over other components: for example, in some of Malevich’s works figures bright colors immersed in a “white abyss” - white background).

Let's today, remembering the brilliant giant artist who once blew up the world with his works and ideas, let's get acquainted with the most interesting facts from his difficult and colorful life.

The most famous work Kazimir Malevich. There are only four paintings created in different time. The very first one, written in 1915, is in the Hermitage, where it was transferred by billionaire V. Potanin for indefinite storage (purchased for $1 million from Inkombank in 2002. It is surprising that low price immortal, the most famous Russian painting in the world, difficult to compare with prices for other works by Malevich, for example, “Suprematist Composition” was sold on November 3, 2008 for $60 million).

Two more versions of “Black Square” are in the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) and one in the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).
In addition to the Suprematist “Black Square” (first invented by Malevich as a setting for the opera by M.V.

Matyushin “Victory over the Sun”, 1913) “Black Circle” and “Black Cross” were created.

Career

Never entered any educational institution the great self-taught Kazimir Malevich became the author of a number of scientific works, propagandist own direction in art, the creator of the group of like-minded avant-garde artists "UNOVIS" and the director of the Leningrad state institute artistic culture!

Wives

Having married at a young age (his wife bore the same name as him - Kazimira Zgleits), Malevich was forced to dissolve the marriage after moving to Moscow. Having taken two children, his wife left for the village of Meshcherskoye, got a job as a medical assistant in a psychiatric hospital, and then ran away, getting mixed up with a local doctor, dropping off the young children with one of her colleagues, Sofya Mikhailovna Rafalovich.

When Kazimir Malevich found out about this and came to pick up the children, he also took Sofya Mikhailovna to Moscow, who after some time became his second wife.

Jail

In 1930, an exhibition of the artist’s works was criticized, after which he was arrested and spent many months in an OGPU prison, accused of espionage.

grave

Malevich's body was cremated in a coffin made according to his design. An urn with ashes was lowered under an oak tree, near the village of Nemchinovka (Odintsovo Moscow district region), placing above it wooden monument: cube with a black square (made by Kazimir Malevich’s student - Nikolai Suetin).

A few years later, the grave was lost - during the war, lightning struck the oak tree and it was cut down, and a road for heavy military equipment passed through the artist’s grave.

Unlike "Black Square", " White square» Malevich is less popular in Russia famous painting. However, it is no less mysterious and also causes a lot of controversy among experts in the field. pictorial art. The second title of this work by Kazimir Malevich is “White on White.” It was written in 1918 and belongs to a direction of painting that Malevich called Suprematism.

A little about Suprematism

It is advisable to start the story about Malevich’s painting “White Square” with a few words about Suprematism. This term comes from the Latin supremus, which means “highest.” This is one of the trends in avant-garde art, the emergence of which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century.

It is a type of abstract art and is expressed in the depiction of various combinations of multi-colored planes, representing the simplest geometric outlines. This is a straight line, square, circle, rectangle. Using their combination, balanced asymmetrical compositions are formed, which are permeated with internal movement. They are called Suprematist.

At the first stage, the term “Suprematism” meant superiority, the dominance of color over other properties of painting. According to Malevich, paint in non-objective canvases was freed for the first time from its auxiliary role. Paintings painted in this style were the first step towards “ pure creativity", which equalizes the creative powers of man and nature.

Three paintings

It should be noted that the painting we are studying has another, third name - “White Square on a White Background”, Malevich painted it in 1918. Already after the other two squares were written - black and red. The author himself wrote about them in his book “Suprematism. 34 drawings." He said that the three squares are associated with the establishment of certain worldviews and world-building:

• black is a sign of economy;
• red represents the signal for revolution;
• white is seen as pure action.

According to the artist, the white square gave him the opportunity to explore “pure action.” Other squares indicate the way, white carries white world. He affirms the sign of purity in creative life person.

From these words one can judge what Malevich’s white square means, according to the author himself. Next, the points of view of other specialists will be considered.

Two shades of white

Let's move on to the description of Kazimir Malevich's painting "White on White". When painting it, the artist used two shades of white, close to each other. The background has a slightly warm tint, with some ocher. The square itself is based on a cool bluish tint. The square is slightly inverted and is located closer to the upper right corner. This arrangement creates the illusion of movement.

In fact, the quadrangle depicted in the picture is not a square - it is a rectangle. There is evidence that at the beginning of the work the author, having drawn a square, lost sight of it. And after that, after taking a closer look, I decided to outline its borders, as well as highlight the main background. For this purpose, he drew the outlines with a grayish color, and also highlighted the background part with a different shade.

Suprematist icon

According to researchers, when Malevich worked on the painting, which was later recognized as a masterpiece, he was haunted by a feeling of “metaphysical emptiness.” This is precisely what he tried to express with great force in “White Square”. And the color, local, faded, not at all festive, only emphasizes the eerie mystical state of the author.

This work seems to follow and is a derivative of “Black Square”. And the first, no less than the second, lays claim to the “title” of an icon of Suprematism. Malevich's "White Square" shows clear and straight lines, outlining a rectangle, which, according to some researchers, is a symbol of fear and the meaninglessness of existence.

The artist poured all his spiritual experiences onto the canvas in the form of some kind of geometric abstract art, which actually carries a deep meaning.

Interpretation of whiteness

In Russian poetry, the interpretation of the color white comes close to the Buddhist vision. For them, it means emptiness, nirvana, the incomprehensibility of existence. Painting of the 20th century, like no other, mythologizes white people.

As for the Suprematists, they saw in it primarily a symbol of multidimensional space, different from Euclidean. It plunges the observer into a meditative trance, which purifies the human soul, similar to Buddhist practice.

Kazimir Malevich himself spoke about this as follows. He wrote that the movement of Suprematism is already moving towards the pointless white nature, towards white purity, towards white consciousness, towards white excitement. And this, in his opinion, is the highest level of the contemplative state, be it movement or rest.

Escape from life's difficulties

Malevich's "White Square" was the pinnacle and end of his Suprematist painting. He himself was delighted with it. The master said that he managed to break through the azure barrier dictated by color restrictions and emerge into whiteness. He called on his comrades, calling them navigators, to sail after him towards the abyss, since he erected beacons of Suprematism, and infinity - a free white abyss - lies before them.

However, according to researchers, behind the poetic beauty of these phrases their tragic essence is visible. The white abyss is a metaphor for non-existence, that is, death. It is suggested that the artist cannot find the strength to overcome the difficulties of life and therefore retreats from them into white silence. Malevich completed two of his last exhibitions with white canvases. Thus, he seemed to confirm that he preferred going to nirvana to real reality.

Where was the painting exhibited?

As mentioned above, “White Square” was written in 1918. It was shown for the first time in the spring of 1919 in Moscow at the exhibition “Objectless Creativity and Suprematism.” In 1927, the film was shown in Berlin, after which it remained in the West.

It became the pinnacle of non-objectivity that Malevich strove for. After all, nothing can be more pointless and plotless than a white quadrangle against the same background. The artist admitted that White color attracts him with its freedom and limitlessness. Malevich’s “White Square” is often considered the first example of monochrome painting.

This is one of the few paintings by the artist that is in US collections and is available to the general American public. Perhaps it is for this reason that this picture is superior to his others famous works, not excluding “Black Square”. Here it is considered as the pinnacle of the entire Suprematist movement in painting.

Encrypted meaning or nonsense?

Some researchers believe that all kinds of interpretations about the philosophical and psychological meaning of Kazimir Malevich’s paintings, including his squares, are far-fetched. But in fact, there is no high meaning in them. An example of such opinions is the story of Malevich’s “Black Square” and the white stripes on it.

On December 19, 1915, a futuristic exhibition was being prepared in St. Petersburg, for which Malevich promised to paint several paintings. He had little time left; he either did not have time to finish the canvas for the exhibition, or was dissatisfied with the result that he rashly covered it with black paint. This is how the black square turned out.

At this time, a friend of the artist appeared in the studio and, looking at the canvas, exclaimed: “Brilliant!” And then Malevich came up with the idea of ​​a trick that could be a way out of the current situation. He decided to give the resulting black square some mysterious meaning.

This may also explain the effect of cracked paint on the canvas. That is, there is no mysticism, just a failed picture covered in black paint. It should be noted that numerous attempts have been made to examine the canvas in order to discover the original version of the image. But they were not successful. Today they have been stopped so as not to damage the masterpiece.

Upon closer inspection, hints of other tones, colors and patterns, as well as white stripes, can be seen through the craquelure. But this is not necessarily the painting located under the top layer. This may well be the bottom layer of the square itself, which was formed during the process of writing it.

It should be noted that there are very many similar versions regarding the artificial excitement around all Malevich squares. a large number of. But what really? Most likely, the secret of this artist will never be revealed.

February 23 marked the 140th anniversary of the birth of avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich. Over his 56 years, he managed to invent a new direction in art, abandon it, and most importantly, create one of the most scandalous paintings in the history of painting.

Kazimir Malevich. Photo moiarussia.ru

10 amazing facts from the life of Kazimir Malevich

1 . Three countries are debating for the right to call Kazimir Malevich their own. In addition to Ukraine, where the artist was born, Poland and Russia “claim” him.

The Polish side justifies this by the fact that Malevich’s family was Polish. Kazimir was the first of 14 children of the nobleman Severin Malevich. Representatives of Ukraine emphasize that the artist was born in Kyiv and managed to live in Podolia, Chernigov region, and Kharkov region until he was 17 years old. Besides, professional education Malevich began at the Kyiv Art School.

The Russian side notes that the artist lived for many years on the territory of their state. Here he created a lot and left his creative legacy.

2 . Until the age of 26, Kazimir was no different from many people, combining work as a draftsman with the hobby of painting in his free time. But the passion for creativity eventually prevailed, and Malevich, who had managed to get married by that time, left his family and went to Moscow to study.

The future genius of Cubism and Suprematism entered the capital’s school of painting, sculpture and architecture four times in a row, and was rejected each time.

3 . In February 1914, Malevich participated in a shocking “futurist demonstration”, during which artists walked along the Kuznetsky Bridge with wooden Khokhloma spoons in their coat buttonholes.

“Black Square” by Malevich at the exhibition at the Art Bureau of N. Dobychina. Photo malevich.ru

4 . In December 1915 in Petrograd, at the exhibition “0.10”, the “father of Suprematism” for the first time showed “Black Square”, placed among other abstract compositions not like a painting on the wall, but like an icon - in the red corner.

5 . At the invitation of Marc Chagall in 1919, the artist moved to Vitebsk to teach at Narodny art school, on the basis of which Malevich creates. Its symbol was a black square, which was worn sewn onto the sleeve.

UNOVIS Group. 1920. Vitebsk. Photo malevich.ru

6 . Malevich, like many avant-garde artists, was favored by the Soviet regime. In November 1917, he was appointed Commissioner for the Protection of Monuments and a member of the Commission for the Protection of artistic values, then he worked at Narkompros (People's Commissariat of Education).

7 . Over time, Kazimir Malevich, who never entered any educational institution, became the author of a number of scientific works, a promoter of his own direction in art (Suprematism) and director of the Leningrad State Institute of Artistic Culture.

“Let the overthrow of the old world of art be traced on your palms” Kazimir Malevich. Photo malevich.ru

8 . By the early 1930s art course Soviet power changes, and Malevich is arrested. With the help of influential friends, he manages to justify himself, but his authority in the Soviet artistic community is irrevocably undermined, and the artist’s work is subjected to harsh criticism. Throughout Soviet period official art criticism recognized only one abstract work by the master - the painting “Red Cavalry Galloping”.

Kazimir Malevich "The Red Cavalry is Galloping". Photo malevich.ru

9 . IN last years life, the artist returns to realism. This is usually explained by the fact that Malevich gave in to the demands of the authorities, but perhaps this was only a natural continuation of his earlier ideas.

10 . In 1933 it became known that the artist had cancer prostate gland. Sensing death approaching, Malevich designed his own Suprematist coffin in the shape of a cross. Kazimir Malevich died on May 15, 1935.

As the artist bequeathed, his funeral was filled with Suprematist symbolism. The image of the “Black Square” was everywhere - on the coffin, in the hall of the civil funeral service, and even on the train carriage that carried the artist’s body to Moscow.

Malevich in the Suprematist coffin. 1935. Photo malevich.ru

The artist’s ashes were buried in the village of Nemchinovka near Moscow. After the Great Patriotic War the exact location was forgotten and lost.

These are just a few moments from the life of Kazimir Malevich. A .

If you are even slightly interested in the world of painting or fine arts, then you must have heard about Malevich’s black square. Everyone as one is perplexed at how mediocre one can be modern Art, supposedly artists paint whatever they like, and at the same time become popular and rich. This is not a completely correct idea of ​​art, I would like to develop this topic and tell you the history and even the background of the painting « .

Quotes from Malevich about « Black square »

If humanity painted the image of the Divine in its own image, then perhaps the Black Square is the image of God as a being of his perfection

What did the artist mean when he said these words? Let's try to find out about this together, but we can immediately say that there is clearly a meaning in this picture.

It is worth considering the fact that this picture loses all its value if you remove the history and the huge symbolism intertwined with the manifesto with which it is charged. So let's start from the very beginning, who drew the black square?

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich

Malevich against the background of his works

The artist was born in Kyiv into a Polish family and studied painting at the Kyiv Drawing School under academician Nikolai Pymonenko. After some time, he moved to Moscow to continue his studies in painting for more high level. But even then, in early years, he tried to put ideas into his paintings and deep meaning. In their early works mixed styles such as cubism, futurism and expressionism.

The idea of ​​creating a black square

Malevich experimented a lot, and got to the point where he began to interpret alogism in his own way (to deny logic and the usual sequence). That is, he did not deny that it is difficult to find echoes of logic in his works, but the absence of logic also has a law, thanks to which it can be absent meaningfully. If you understand the principles of the work of alogism, as he also called it “abstruse realism,” then the works will be perceived in a completely new key and meaning higher order. Suprematism is the artist’s view of objects from the outside, and the usual forms to which we are accustomed are no longer used at all. The basis of Suprematism includes three main forms - a circle, a cross and our favorite square.

A black square in the place of the icon, in the corner. Exhibition 0.10

The meaning of the black square

What is the black square about, and what did Malevich want to convey to the viewer? With this painting, the artist, in his humble opinion, opened a new dimension of painting. Where there are no familiar forms, no golden ratio, color combinations and other aspects traditional painting. All the rules and foundations of art of those years were violated by one daring, ideological, original artist. It was the black square that marked the final break with academicism and took the place of the icon. Roughly speaking, this is something on the level of the matrix with its science fiction proposals. The artist tells us his idea that everything is not at all as we imagined. This picture is a symbol, after accepting which everyone should know new language V fine arts. After painting this picture, the artist, according to him, was in real shock and could neither eat nor sleep for a long time. According to the idea of ​​the exhibition, he was going to reduce everything to zero, and then even go a little negative, and he succeeded. The zero in the title symbolizes the form, and ten - the absolute meaning and the number of participants who were supposed to exhibit their Suprematist works.

That's the whole story

The story turned out to be short, due to the fact that there are more questions about the black square than answers. Technically, the work is done simply and banally, but its idea fits into two sentences. There is no point in giving exact dates or Interesting Facts- many of them are made up or very inaccurate. But there is one interesting detail that simply cannot be ignored. The artist dated everything to 1913 important events from life and my paintings. It was in this year that he invented Suprematism, so the physical and actual date of the creation of the black square did not bother him at all. But if you believe art critics and historians, then it was actually drawn in 1915.

Not first "H black square »

Don’t be surprised, Malevich was not a pioneer; the most original was the Englishman Robert Fludd, who created the painting “The Great Darkness” back in 1617.

After him, a number of different artists created their masterpieces:

• "View of La Hogue (Night Effect)" 1843;
• "The Twilight History of Russia" 1854

Then two humorous sketches are created:

• "Night fight of blacks in the basement" 1882;
• "Battle of the Negroes in the Cave" late at night» 1893

And only 22 years later, at the exhibition of paintings “0.10” the presentation of the painting took place « Black Suprematist Square"! It was presented as part of a triptych, which also included “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”. As you can see, Malevich’s square is an absolutely understandable and ordinary picture if you look at it from the right angle. A funny incident happened to me once: once they wanted to order a copy of a painting from me, but the woman did not know the very essence and intent of the black square. After I told her, she was a little disappointed and changed her mind about making such a dubious purchase. Indeed, in artistic terms, a black square is just a dark figure on the canvas.

Cost of Black Square

Oddly enough, this is a very common and trivial question. The answer to it is very simple - the Black Square has no price, that is, it is priceless. Back in 2002, one of the richest people in Russia bought it for Tretyakov Gallery, for a symbolic sum of one million dollars. IN this moment, no one will be able to get him into theirs private collection, not for any money. The Black Square is on the list of those masterpieces that should belong only to museums and the public.

Entry published in . Bookmark.