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| "The Black Square" inspiration |
During celebrating the opening of the new Model Agency UNITY Models who took part was requested to create a well known style as well as a well known real life work of art in any form to represent.
This was mine.
"The Black Square" of Kazimir Malevich 1915
One of the most famous paintings in Russian art, "Black Square" of Kazimir Malevich in 1915 becoming his work trademark. He called his new abstract approach to painting suprematism, It is all about the supremacy of colour and shape in painting. In "The Last Exhibition of Futurist Painting" held in St Petersburg in December 1915. He placed the painting high up on the wall across the corner of the room. Though this position might mean nothing to the average non-Orthodox viewer today, it was the same sacred spot that a Orthodox icon of a saint would sit in a traditional Russian home (also in some Greek homes). The audience didn't like it much at first. Malevich himself wanted to show the "Black Square" to be of a special symbolism at the same time, the idea of been taken away what you consider sacred & be replaced by the emptiness, giving to the art another side or reading. Most of his art got disappeared from public view during Stalin's era and came back to light at 1980s.
~ Styling ~
~JJ~ Branded Drow Male Skin
Creative Studio - CA BIKINI
CODE-5 Angel Crown
Sintikila - Shay hair
Several Custom self made items
Lets return back to our subject...
Who was that Kazimir Malevich dude? ….few will ask me
Fast Facts about Kazimir Malevich
Full Name: Kazimir Severinovich Malevich
Profession: Painter
Style: Suprematism
Born: February 23, 1879 in Kyiv, Russia
Died: May 15, 1935 in Leningrad, Soviet Union
Education: Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture
Selected Works: "Black Square" (1915), "Supremus No. 55" (1916), "White on White" (1918)
Notable Quote: "A painted surface is a real, living form."
Early Life and Art Education
Born in Ukraine in a family of Polish descent, Kazimir Malevich grew up near the city of Kyiv when it was part of an administrative division of the Russian empire. His family fled from what is currently the Kopyl Region of Belarus after a failed Polish uprising. Kazimir was the oldest of 14 children. His father operated a sugar mill.
As a child, Malevich enjoyed drawing and painting, but he knew nothing of the modern art trends beginning to emerge in Europe. His first formal art studies took place when he received training in drawing at the Kyiv School of Art from 1895 through 1896.
Following the death of his father, Kazimir Malevich moved to Moscow to study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. He was a student there from 1904 through 1910. He learned of impressionism and post-impressionist art from Russian painters Leonid Pasternak and Konstantin Korovin.
In his early work he followed Impressionism as well as Symbolism and Fauvism, and, after a trip to Paris in 1912, he was influenced by Picasso and Cubism. As a member of the Jack of Diamonds group, he led the Russian Cubist movement.
In 1913 Malevich created abstract geometrical patterns in a manner he called Suprematism, a term which expressed the notion that colour, line, and shape should reign supreme over subject matter or narrative in art. From 1919 to 1921 he taught painting in Moscow and Leningrad, where he lived the rest of his life. On a 1927 visit to the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, he met Wassily Kandinsky and published a book on his theory under the title Die gegenstandslose Welt (“The Nonobjective World”). Later, when Soviet politicians decided against modern art, Malevich and his art were doomed. He died in poverty and oblivion.
Malevich was the first to exhibit paintings composed of abstract geometrical elements. He constantly strove to produce pure cerebral compositions, repudiating all sensuality and representation in art. His well-known White on White (1918) carries his Suprematist theories to their logical conclusion.
The True Importance of Black Square Painting
If “Black Square” was not really a first, why was is important? To discover the answer to that question, we need to look beyond its marketing campaign. A painting is not important just because the artist, or a critic, or a dealer, says it is. The importance of “Black Square” must be contained within the painting itself. For me, the painting is important because of the simplicity of the image. I see in it something that I recognize as elemental. It looks simultaneously symbolic and meaningless. It is representative of geometric thought, aesthetic thought, and architectural thought. It is a balanced image. It allows color and form to speak for themselves. To me, “Black Square” is equivalent to hearing a single perfect note played on a violin, or feeling a light breeze on my skin on an otherwise still day. It is an expression of something universal, which has more to do with experience than with aesthetics.
But was it seminal? I do not know if I would use that word. Nowadays, words like seminal are overused to the point where they have little meaning. Every artist is described by their gallerist as important. Every big exhibition is called monumental. Every new thing an artists does is called a discovery. To call “Black Square” painting seminal might be just like so much puffery. Malevich was just an artist—a very thoughtful one, nonetheless, who wrote a lot of interesting things for us to consider. “Black Square” may not be seminal, but it is a painting that I feel like I want to be close to. It is undeniably attractive, both visually and esoterically. Something does not have to be seminal in order to have value. I propose that instead of rating paintings like “Black Square” with hyperbolic marketing adjectives, we instead simply use our words to describe what it objectively is, and what it means to us as individuals. If it somehow could teach us to restrain our urge towards hype, and to talk about art in more straightforward, everyday terms, that actually would be seminal.
Legacy of a simple Black Square
The humility of his passing has long been eclipsed by the influence that his work has extended over the art world. There have been major exhibitions in recent years, including one at the Tate Modern in 2015 to celebrate the centenary of the Black Square. His revolutionary work continues to influence artists today.
Later Life in short
In his early work he followed Impressionism as well as Symbolism and Fauvism, and, after a trip to Paris in 1912, he was influenced by Picasso and Cubism. As a member of the Jack of Diamonds group, he led the Russian Cubist movement.
In 1913 Malevich created abstract geometrical patterns in a manner he called Suprematism, a term which expressed the notion that colour, line, and shape should reign supreme over subject matter or narrative in art. From 1919 to 1921 he taught painting in Moscow and Leningrad, where he lived the rest of his life. On a 1927 visit to the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, he met Wassily Kandinsky and published a book on his theory under the title Die gegenstandslose Welt (“The Nonobjective World”). Later, when Soviet politicians decided against modern art, Malevich and his art were doomed. He died in poverty and oblivion.
Malevich was the first to exhibit paintings composed of abstract geometrical elements. He constantly strove to produce pure cerebral compositions, repudiating all sensuality and representation in art. His well-known White on White (1918) carries his Suprematist theories to their logical conclusion.
Actual footage of the " The Last Exhibition of Futurist Painting 0.10" exhibit of 1915
Initially, “The Black Square” was not intended to have any symbolic meaning: its purpose was to solve artistic problems.
However, as is often the case with masterpieces, the painting spurred a multitude of interpretations and even provoked skeptical remarks, such as "So, this is also art? Even I could paint a square!" In reality, “The Black Square” is a very complex painting; painting it required very solid knowledge of colors, composition, and artistic proportions.
To begin with, “The Black Square" is not a square. None of its sides are parallel to the frame. Besides, it is made of mixed colors, none of which is black. If you look closer, you will see that the paint has cracked over time, creating an intricate network of line which some assert represents a running buffalo.
He even accentuated this by making sure that at the exhibition, the picture was hanging to the right of the entrance, the place reserved to Christian icons in accordance with the Russian tradition.
Examples of Orthodox Religious/Spiritual Corners of Greek & Russian homes
If “Black Square” was not really a first, why was is important? To discover the answer to that question, we need to look beyond its marketing campaign. A painting is not important just because the artist, or a critic, or a dealer, says it is. The importance of “Black Square” must be contained within the painting itself. For me, the painting is important because of the simplicity of the image. I see in it something that I recognize as elemental. It looks simultaneously symbolic and meaningless. It is representative of geometric thought, aesthetic thought, and architectural thought. It is a balanced image. It allows color and form to speak for themselves. To me, “Black Square” is equivalent to hearing a single perfect note played on a violin, or feeling a light breeze on my skin on an otherwise still day. It is an expression of something universal, which has more to do with experience than with aesthetics.
But was it seminal? I do not know if I would use that word. Nowadays, words like seminal are overused to the point where they have little meaning. Every artist is described by their gallerist as important. Every big exhibition is called monumental. Every new thing an artists does is called a discovery. To call “Black Square” painting seminal might be just like so much puffery. Malevich was just an artist—a very thoughtful one, nonetheless, who wrote a lot of interesting things for us to consider. “Black Square” may not be seminal, but it is a painting that I feel like I want to be close to. It is undeniably attractive, both visually and esoterically. Something does not have to be seminal in order to have value. I propose that instead of rating paintings like “Black Square” with hyperbolic marketing adjectives, we instead simply use our words to describe what it objectively is, and what it means to us as individuals. If it somehow could teach us to restrain our urge towards hype, and to talk about art in more straightforward, everyday terms, that actually would be seminal.
Legacy of a simple Black Square
The humility of his passing has long been eclipsed by the influence that his work has extended over the art world. There have been major exhibitions in recent years, including one at the Tate Modern in 2015 to celebrate the centenary of the Black Square. His revolutionary work continues to influence artists today.
Final thoughts...
If you made it to the end of this blog, congrats having learn something new about Modern Art, learning about the artist himself and his Symbolism behind all this that made this inspiration come to life.
Want more information about anything or cover again some art?
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Thank you for being an awesome audience to my long talks about Art History mini classes
