Knowra Black Square Black Square Black Square is a 1915 painting by Kazimir Malevich showing a black quadrilateral against a white ground. It became the defining image of Suprematism and a landmark of geometric abstraction.
Suprematism : An art movement founded by Kazimir Malevich that sought supremacy of pure feeling through basic geometric forms. The painting became the movement’s emblem and clearest statement.
Kazimir Malevich : A Russian avant-garde artist who founded Suprematism and painted Black Square. He developed the painting as a new beginning for non-objective art.
Geometric abstraction : Abstract art organized around precise geometric shapes, lines, and spatial relationships. The square and ground reduce the composition to basic geometric relations.
Black Square (1915, State Tretyakov Gallery) : The first version of Malevich’s Black Square, painted in 1915 and held by the State Tretyakov Gallery. This canvas was shown at the 0,10 Exhibition and is the work’s canonical version.
Non-objective art : Art that does not depict recognizable objects or scenes from the visible world. Black Square pushed painting toward abstraction without representational subject matter.
0,10 Exhibition : A 1915 Petrograd exhibition that introduced Suprematism and displayed Malevich’s Black Square. Its first public presentation made the painting a manifesto within the Russian avant-garde.
Color field painting : Abstract painting that emphasizes large areas of color and their perceptual effects. Its expansive fields differ from Black Square’s bounded shape and stark figure-ground division.
Black Square (1929) : A later version of Black Square painted by Malevich in 1929. Malevich made this version for a retrospective, revisiting the composition fourteen years later.
Icon : A sacred image used in religious devotion, especially in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Malevich presented the painting in a corner traditionally reserved for Russian icons.
Russian avant-garde : A broad movement of experimental Russian art and design active in the early twentieth century. The painting arose amid its experiments with abstraction, architecture, and new social roles for art.
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