How Kazimir Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ threatened Joseph Stalin
When Russian artist Kazimir Malevich was buried, mourners clutched flags with little black squares on them. The funeral car had its own black square, and one was set above his coffin to mark his grave. It became the artist’s most important motif, with his 1915 painting, Black Square, ushering in a new era of suprematism in art.
He coined the term himself to liberate the Russian avant-garde from the art world’s expectations. Already an established artist, he worked slowly – and secretly – to perfect his new approach, unveiling it at the Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting 0.10 in St Petersburg’s Dobchina Art Bureau.
When he unveiled his work, pieces were strewn around the room, but Black Square was very intentionally placed. It loomed high on the wall, dominating a corner of the room. It was a sacred spot, usually reserved for Russian Orthodox saints in traditional Russian homes. Its highly symbolic placement was Malevich showing viewers his work the profound significance of his vision.
“Under Suprematism,” he declared. “I understand the primacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the Suprematist, the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth.”
Malevich imbued what was simply a mass of blank paint with deep, almost spiritual meaning. When the first of its four versions was shown, the world was clouded by chaos. The First World War was ravaging Europe, and civil unrest beset Russia following the 1905 Russian Revolution, which, in 1917, gave way to the October Revolution and Bolshevik Uprising. In this period, art critics grew to expect cubist work, the kind that involves multiple perspectives and forms within it.
Malevich’s work refused to offer that. Even its position on the wall was dictated by him, in an echo of the unrelenting power political figures held during that time. He’d also created something intent on starting a new age in art, which unwittingly mimicked the social revolution of the era.
Mere months after his death, which saw funeral-goers celebrate the impact of Black Square, his work vanished from public view. Joseph Stalin’s state-sanctioned social realism, which championed positive projections of life in the Soviet Union through its art, meant Malevich’s work wouldn’t be shown again until the 1980s. He was accused by Stalin of producing “bourgeois” art, his works were confiscated, and he was banned from creating anymore.
Its suppression speaks to its revolutionary nature and the strength of his vision. A simple black square became an icon of independent thought and artistic freedom, just as he hoped.