ILONA
We are going to tell you why abstract art is so expensive on the example of the black square of the great
Kazimir Malevich. Malevich wasn't the first to paint the canvas black. /////////////
“The great darkness” by Robert Fludd, which he wrote 300 years before Malevich. it depicts biblical
chaos.
Here we have – “the blacks night fight in the basement” 1882,
«Battle of the negroes in a cave in the middle of the night» 1893
And even “Holy history of Russia
so what is Malevich's originality? - in the absence of a plot. in "great darkness" there is a religious over-
tone, and the rest are just jokes. Malech wasn't a prankster. his canvas is called what it is - a black
square /////////////
he did not create it because he did not know how to draw, as many still think. Especially for you here are
his other paintings /////////////- in the style of impressionism, portraits.
as an artist, he had a good technique and he deliberately refused it and it is actually a great sacrifice for
the artist. this is the first thing that makes the picture so expensive. /////////////coin
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VERANIKA
2 . The second factor – the time of the writing of the black square.
In the 20th century, the revolution was everywhere. ///////////// In physics, Einstein came, in psychol-
ogy - Sigmund Freud, in philosophy - Friedrich Nietzsche. They completely destroyed the old ideals and
built new ones. In art, too, a revolution was brewing.
In 1913, the first all-Russian Congress of the Futurists was held. At which only 3 people met
///////////// Сomposer Mikhail Matyushin, Kazimir Malevich and poet Alexei Kruchenov.
Their goal was to destroy the unfit art and create in its place a new one. And then Suprematism was
born - art which by all means seeks to escape from nature.
After 2 years, the first exhibition of Suprematism was held, which was called "0-10" /////////////
On the night before the opening, Malevich did not sleep, he personally hung 39 paintings and did not
want anyone to see them. He wanted to crush the audience and he succeeded. when they entered the
hall they saw this /////////////
no portraits or landscapes, only rectangles circles and other geometry. And in the corner, near the ceil-
ing, where the icon is usually hung ///////////// - a black square. /////////////
Now the place of the sacred image was occupied by the absolute pointlessness, black emptiness, void.
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ILONA
It was like a punch to the face of the state, because the country and government loved artists such as
Vasnetsov.
///////////// He has “three heroes”, and “Ivan Tsarevich”, and “prophetic Oleg”. In general, everything
is originally russian. Malevich has completely different plots.
/////////////Before the fall of the autocracy in Russia and the revolution of 1917, remained a little
more than a year. What’s next? what people have to expect in future. After all the time of change is
coming, Nobody could say that. Uncertainty, blackness.
From the corner in the exhibition of Malevich, the future itself looked at people.
Malevich was an actionist. His black square was a performance, a kind of prediction. What could be fur-
ther than a black square? – nothing. this is a fat point, just nothing to destroy further.
This was the innovation of the artist - the time of writing and the events in the world that he reflected in
his paintings. this is another + to the cost /////////////
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VERANIKA
The theme of the black square did not just leave Malevich. with this image he could not give up. It was
his peak of creativity and he returned to it every time in search of inspiration. He wrote as many as 3
black squares.
///////////// "for a long time I could neither eat nor sleep and did not understand what I had done,"
Malevich said.
Pure black color is almost cannot be found in nature. Black is the absence of light, so Malevich started
art from absence, zero, with a black sheet.
/////////////This is similar to the story of the Norwegian artist Edward Munch, he constantly created
copies of his painting "scream" because he valued it most. He wrote many versions of the picture –
Today, this is the most expensive painting of the Munch, one of the most expensive paintings in General.
the same thing with the black square - the choice of the artist himself makes the picture more expensive
///////////// coin
another factor - the fate of the artist
Malevich and the state had very tense relations.
///////////// The authorities wanted realistic images, and the artist's paintings did not correspond to
this
his was arrested twice on charges of anti-government activities, but released when the government of
the USSR received notes of protest demanding to release Malevich.
for the exhibition in 1932, Malevich, despite the fact that he was required to paint realistic paintings,
writes the last, 4 version of the black square ///////////// When exactly he wrote it, we'll probably
never know. On all the paintings he put not the date of writing the picture and the time when he came
up with the idea. the first black square is dated 1913, and they say it was written in 1915.
The idea for the author was much more important than its actual implementation ///////////// coin
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ILONA
AND the last black square took part in the legendary show of the master - his funeral /////////////
In Leningrad, at the head of the coffin was a black square. The artist's body was covered with a white
canvas with a black square on it. The black square was on the cover of the coffin from the side of the
head /////////////he was driven by a truck with a black square on it. and that's not all. Black square
was painted on the train carrying the body of Malevich in Moscow.
/////////////Over the grave of the artist a white wooden cube was placed with the image of a black
square.
According to the will, Malevich was buried not in the cemetery, but in the forest. Thus he returned to
the original idea of creation and creativity - to nature itself.
now you understand why black square is so expensive. it became a legend, and legends have no price.
Malevich created a new religion, urged people to abandon the old faith, look at the world differently
at the beginning of the 20th century the old world and old religion collapsed. ///////////// Propaganda
spoke of a bright future where everyone would be equal and happy. but what future did people see in
the 20th century? - /////////////famine, war, prophecies of a nuclear apocalypse. the endless black-
ness and the unknown of space. Malevich's black square in this context turned out to be a prophecy. He
became a symbol of a new religion in which there was no place for God.
" When you gaze long into the void, the void gazes also into you" - and it happened with a black square.
It's not people were looking at a picture, it's a picture was looking at them in the face of the entire 20th
century.
