The black square

Mediums: oil, linen canvas.
Dimensions: 79,6 x 79,5 сm.
Location: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Malevich painted four versions of The Black Square: in 1915, 1920 and in the 1930s. Referring to the painting’s historical significance, art critics often call this painting “the zero point of painting”. The idea to create this picture first appeared in 1913, when Malevich was working on sketches of scenery and costumes for “Victory over the Sun”, an opera by M. Matyushin. In these sketches, for the first time, the image of a “black square” appeared, which at the time was a plastic expression of active human creativity’s victory over the passive form of nature: a black square appeared instead of the solar circle.