Malevich: The Black Square

We walked out of the white. Follow me ... let's swim into the abyss.
(Malevich)

What is modernity, asked Baudelaire. He was answered by those four pillars of 20th century art: Picasso, who atomized form, Matisse, who emancipated color, Duchamp, who abolished the artwork in his ready-mades, and Malevich, who brandished his iconic Black Square like a crucifix.

Each might have adopted Picasso's 1923 dictum, in art we express what nature is not. Malevich said something similar in relation to his Black Square... arise, free yourselves from the tyranny of objects.

Malevich added a fourth dimension to the programs of his three great peers. The Black Square was not merely a symbol of liberty, it was also an icon, made not to be adored but to lead the spectator into the embrace of the divine. Nor can his œuvre be understood without reference to his mysticism.

(Gilles Néret, Kazimir Malevich and Suprematism)

(Suprematism and Constructivism)