Why Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ is REALLY important

It’s, indeed, strange that a work that does not depict anything pretty, pleasant, beautiful or even understandable continues to be one of the most popular and can compete in popularity with Botticelli’s beautiful ‘Venus’. How can this be explained? Its simultaneous simplicity and mystery are striking: white and black, a simple geometric shape and only a slight deviation from strict geometricism makes this thing a little unconventional.

But, the fact that it is mysterious was not immediately noticed by viewers. At first, many thought that this was some kind of nonsense, that such a thing could be drawn by a child, an amateur who had never held a brush in his hands. However, over the years, it became clear that this work has a number of important qualities. Its secret is that it stands on the border between painting and non-painting. Traditional art and what we call contemporary art, that is, what has other parameters. Traditional art is the art of the image, when the depicted is associated with some recognizable life phenomena. The image of a city, a person, a dream, a flower, the world. 

Malevich, turning to non-objective art, began to say that he was engaged in imageless art. And indeed, there is no image here. The ‘Black Square’ reminds us of a sign, as his closest associate El Lissitzky once wrote. But, this sign differs from the signs we are accustomed to – notes, letters, road signs. The latter cannot mean different things, they always mean the same thing.

But, the ‘Black Square’ is a sign that means nothing or anything. That is, it is impossible to decipher it unambiguously. And the main deciphering here belongs to Malevich himself. At first, he said that his painting is a primary form, from which all other forms are born: a circle, a chessboard, a cross. He himself made such paintings and displayed them in 1915 at the ‘0.10’ exhibition, calling it ‘Suprematism’.

A few years later, he began to interpret the ‘Black Square’ differently. He began to say that it embodied the principle of economy in all areas – color, form. And his students associated this principle with the Soviet rationalization of human labor and his entire life. They made the ‘Black Square’ the emblem of their group and wore such patches on their sleeves.

A few years later, Malevich rethought his work again and said that whoever looks at it sees a secret – what ancient people saw in the image of God. That, in this blackness, this closed form, there is some mystical meaning. When, shortly before Malevich's death, he was asked again about the ‘Black Square’, he answered that he saw eternity and infinity in it. You see what a range of meanings it ended up having. And, if you remember who and how they interpreted it, the list of meanings gets even longer.

That is, it is not a work that itself clearly tells us something, but, rather, an interactive one, which requires us to turn on our imagination and give our own interpretation. It is a conceptual work, so it has greatly influenced all the art of the 20th century and still does. Conceptualism and minimalism are associated with it. That is, in form it is a painting: oil paint on canvas, a picture that can be hung on the wall. But, in its meaning, it goes way beyond traditional painting and imagery and sets us up for a completely new way of thinking.