Non-Objective Painting No. 80 (Black on Black)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (the USA).

Briefly about the painting:

Alexander Rodchenko created the series of paintings «Black on Black» as a polemic with Malewicz’s work “White on White”. The author solved seemingly similar problems: to express the essence of a geometric composition using monochrome. However, art historians consider Rodchenko’s work to be opposed to Malewicz’s work, since he actively used paint texture and the quality of strokes as the main property of his painting. If Malewicz’s white means the infinite space of the ideal, then Rodchenko black in various textures draws attention to the surface of the material with its physical properties. In addition, unlike the planar inclination of objects by Malewicz, Rodchenko’s arched forms offer dynamic movement.